PLAYERS TO WATCH
–RB Reggie Corbin leads a strong Illinois run game under first-year coordinator Rod Smith, who had been a long-time assistant for Rich Rodriguez. Corbin is coming off a game in which he ran for a career-high 155 yards on 18 carries, including a touchdown run of 69 yards, at Maryland. Corbin has five runs of 50-plus yards this season and ranks second nationally with 8.03 yards per carry.
–WR Dominic Stampley, a sophomore, led Illinois to its most productive passing game of the season last Saturday against Maryland, as he made four catches for a career-high 153 yards, including touchdowns of 84 and 61 yards. It had been more than two years since an Illinois player had more than 150 receiving yards, that being Malik Turner (164 at Northwestern on Nov. 26, 2016).
–PK Chase McLaughlin made all four of his field goal attempts last season — from 32, 34, 39 and 26 yards — and is 15 of 20 for the season, including four makes from at least 50 yards.
–QB AJ Bush got the bulk of the work last week against Maryland, although true freshman M.J. Rivers, who has more of a reputation as a passer, also saw time. Bush was 11 of 19 for 216 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. Rivers was 3 of 13 for 45 yards.
SERIES HISTORY: Minnesota leads Illinois 38-29-3 and won 24-17 last season in Minneapolis.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “There’s so much football left to go, and we’ve gone through, an awful lot, but eventually you get over the hump. We want to be one of those teams that went through some things, but came out of it even stronger and ended up finishing it up the right way.” — Illinois coach Lovie Smith