With Wisconsin next, Illinois is rejuvenated and confident after an impressive win at Maryland
MADISON – Illinois coach Bret Bielema appeared exhausted but invigorated.
The Illini entered their game last week 0-3 in the Big Ten, with the losses coming by an average of 18.3 points, and 2-4 overall.
Bielema’s team was struggling on offense and defense and it appeared the Illini had suffered a precipitous drop-off from 2022, when they finished 5-4 in the league and 8-5 overall.
Yet late Saturday afternoon, there was Bielema talking proudly in the wake of the Illini’s surprising 27-24 victory at Maryland.
“You know I think the biggest thing, they’ve been through a lot right?” Bielema said when asked about the resolve of his players. “They’ve stuck together. They’ve practiced extremely hard. The will this week.…
“I told them throughout the course of the week, everybody is trying to tell you why you can’t. I want to tell you why you can.”
Illinois won at Maryland with a solid overall performance
The Illini put together their best overall performance of the season against a Maryland team that had won five of six games, with the lone loss at Ohio State.
Freshman tailback Kaden Feagin made his first college start and rushed 19 times for 84 yards and a touchdown and quarterback Luke Altmyer overcame five sacks to pass for 206 yards and two touchdowns.
Former Wisconsin defensive back Aaron Henry is in his first season as the Illini’s defensive coordinator and his unit, which lost its entire secondary after last season, has struggled for much of the season.
The defense was solid against Maryland, however.
Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa passed for 266 yards and two touchdowns but was sacked three times and Maryland was limited to 93 rushing yards.
The 24 points was Maryland’s second-lowest mark of the season. The low mark was 17 in the loss to Ohio State.
The Illini were beaten down and Bielema and his staff were under tremendous scrutiny heading into the Maryland game. The victory, one week after an ugly 20-7 home loss to Nebraska, no doubt bolstered the players’ confidence.
The Illini could be a dangerous team when they host UW (4-2, 2-1) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
“Each week is the same,” Bielema said after the victory. "I’ve been in this business for a long time. If you get your panties in a bunch over one week, it’s going to go bad all the time.
“I know our guys were going to work. I knew they were going to grind. I really challenge our coaches.
“These guys can play with anybody,” he said. “It’s just whether they want to do it. It doesn’t matter what we want as coaches. it’s what they want as players. I told them routinely, ‘This is in your hands.’ Somebody’s got to step forward and some of those guys did that (Saturday).”
Can the Illini build off that performance and hand UW its second consecutive loss?
Bret Bielema has faced Wisconsin twice while at Illinois
UW handed Illinois a 24-0 defeat in 2021 in Champaign in Bielema's first season. The Illini came to Madison last season and whipped UW, 34-10. That result led to the firing of Paul Chryst one day later.
Bielema was asked if facing the Badgers still stirs any strong emotions.
"It was nine years of my life," said Bielema, who was UW's defensive coordinator in 2004 and 2005 and head coach from 2006 through 2012. "Got married in Madison. ... But it literally vanished as soon as I left there."
More: Tanner Mordecai is out indefinitely and Braedyn Locke is in at quarterback for Wisconsin
More: Where are the Badgers better now than under Paul Chryst leads our Wisconsin football Q&A
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Badgers face confident Illinois football team Saturday
