The Illinois Fighting Illini are in their first New Year’s Day bowl in a decade and a half. It is indeed time for celebration, based on that fact alone. However, this Illini football team isn’t just happy to be here, against Mike Leach and Mississippi State.
They obviously want to win the Reliaquest Bowl (formerly known as the Outback Bowl), and if they do, it will be because they were the superior in this strength vs strength matchup.
Yes, it’s Mike Leach, which means they will throw the ball early and often, and again throw it some more. Miss St. is going up against the nation’s best and most efficient pass defense.
Consider this our “Early Game preview” or “First Look at the Reliaquest Bowl.” We’ll have our straight forward game preview as it gets much closer to gameday.
Reliaquest Bowl Illinois vs #22 Mississippi St. FYIs
Kickoff: Jan. 2, noon ET, ESPN2
Spread: MSU -1.5 -110 Money Line, O/U 45.5 Illini -105 ML
Illini Bowl Game History: go here
Key Stat: Illinois is first in the FBS in 12.3 ppg allowed
The Skinny on Mississippi State
You are your record, period, and this is a matchup of two 8-4 teams, but let’s look at MSU’s losses. Three of their four losses were to LSU, Georgia and Alabama.
That’s the SEC West champion, the SEC East Champion (and reigning national champion, #1 in the CFP rankings) and the premier blue blood of college football, who is also ranked #5 in the College Football Playoff.
It is reminiscent of the last time Illinois played in a Florida bowl game, the 1999 Micron PC.com Bowl.
Illinois and Virginia both came in 7-4, with UVA suffering two of their four losses to Florida State and Virginia Tech, the two teams that played in the national title game that season.
This will be the 3rd meeting all time between Miss St. and Illinois, and the first since 1980. Mississippi State throws the ball 68% of the time in the Mike Leach Air Raid offense. It is exactly like it sounds, as Bulldogs QB Will Rogers leads the nation in pass attempts at 47.2 per game.
Rogers led the SEC in passing yards with 3,713. He has 34 touchdown passes and just 6 interceptions.
Also, the Illini will be facing Mike Leach, a guy who is often called a pirate because he is uhmm “colorful” and uhhhh “controversial,” let’s just go with those adjectives, in the only stadium in the entire world that has a pirate ship in it.
Interesting.
The Skinny on the Illini
The Illini led the nation in defensive passing efficiency at 89.8 (Penn State was second at 104.0) and interceptions at 22. Their 49.5 % pass completion allowed rate was also 1st in FBS.
Cornerback Devon Witherspoon is their leader, as he’s a Thorpe and Bednarik Award finalist. He’s also a projected late first round, early second round draft pick, so it is possible he skips this bowl game.
The Illini are also third in the FBS in yardage allowed per game. Illinois and Alabama are the only two teams in the nation that had two players make the Bednarik Award finalist list.
Speaking of award finalists, Chase Brown is on the very short list for the Doak Walker Award (nation’s best RB). He has the second-most rushing yards in the country, 1,643, but wasn’t named a Heisman finalist.
He got robbed! He got robbed big time! While Illinois runs the ball 58% of the time, with the opponents keyed in on stopping Brown, he still produced.
He led the nation in rushing almost the entire season. Everyone else is saying it, but it is true- this should be a very fun contrast of styles.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.