Illini eye league win at Rutgers
Illinois returns from its bye week with probably its best chance for a Big Ten victory.
The Illini (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten) travel to Piscatway, N.J., this Saturday for a game at Rutgers, which is 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the conference. Of course, the Scarlet Knights are thinking the same thing — this is their best chance for a league victory.
“We understand the challenge ahead of us this week,” said Illinois coach Lovie Smith.
“It’s always tough when you go on the road. Two teams that feel like they have to have this game, that’s what we’re concentrating on as much as anything, and all of our thoughts are going in to Rutgers. This is as big of a game as we’ve had in a long time as we see it.
“Right now, the one thing that can help our program is to get a win against a Big Ten opponent this week. That’s the best thing we can do right now to help our program.”
The Illini are coming off a 62-24 home loss to Penn State. The Nittany Lions scored 35 points in the fourth quarter to pull away.
But Rutgers most definitely lacks that kind of firepower. True freshman quarterback Artur Sitkowski had struggled, losing his starting job in Week 4 but showing some improvement in last week’s loss to Indiana.
Rutgers is No. 103 in the country in rushing, 119th in passing and 125th in total offense.
The big question for Illinois is at quarterback. Senior AJ Bush has missed two full games because of a hamstring issue, so the bye week came at a good time. He was able to practice Tuesday, but his availability for Saturday was unknown.
True freshman M.J. Rivers has been the starter in the past two games. Offensive coordinator Rod Smith made it clear that Bush is his starter, if healthy.
“He had a great camp and did some good things,” Smith said in the Champaign News-Gazette. “He’s our guy, but M.J. has showed me if something does happen to our guy he can be the guy as well. He’s played well enough. We’ve got a good situation going forward.”