There have certainly been more LOL! Land of Lincoln Trophy games, over the years, than this one. The Northwestern Wildcats will visit the Illinois Fighting Illini as substantial underdogs, despite heading into the game with a slightly better record. NU has already clinched bowl qualification while the Illini need to win this game in order to go bowling.
It’s somewhat reminiscent of the 2014 LOL Hat game when both teams came in at 5-6 (so it was a college football version of a First Four/Play-In game), and Tim Beckman bested Pat Fitzgerald.
Northwestern Wildcats at Illinois Fighting Illini FYIs
Saturday, November 25, 2:30 p.m. CT
Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois
Bowl Projections: Northwestern Wildcats Illinois Fighting Illini
TV: Big Ten Network (Cory Provus, Jake Butt)
Radio: WGN 720 AM (Dave Eanet, Ted Albrecht)
Odds: Illini -4.5, -115 Money Line, Total 47.5
ESPN Matchup Predictor: 59.1% Illinois
My WGN News Now Segment Previewing Both Teams:
Northwestern Wildcats (6-5, 4-4) Preview
If NU wins at Illinois, the Cats –picked to go 2-10 or 3-9 by most preseason pundits– will finish second in the Big Ten West, and 5th in the Big Ten. And they did it led by David Braun, a man who never held a job at the power five level entering this season.
Braun and Northwestern have kind of been the anti-thesis to Deion Sanders and Colorado, and we covered why that is here.
Northwestern has been really bad on the road this season, so it is easy to see why they are underdogs here. Even despite the fact that they look a more complete, cohesive team right now than Illinois. Braun’s Cats seem to be better adept at adjusting to the Big Ten West, and its Big Ten Westiness than Illinois has been.
It’s the last year of the division, which is arguably the worst in power five history. But kudos to the Cats for taking advantage of it this fall.
Illinois Fighting Illini (5-6, 3-5) Preview
Illinois is sixth in the Big Ten in scoring offense and third in both total offense and passing offense. Say what? A unit led by Barry Lunney, the man that an overwhelming majority of the fan base wanted out in mid-season? Yes, really.
Sure you have a 500+ yard, 48 point game in there to skew it, but, like they say, stats don’t lie.
The offense has certainly had plenty of issues this season, and if they were just a little bit more clutch, they’d easily have six or seven wins right now. It’s really the Illini defense that has been the problem this season.
They only rank 12th, out of 14 overall, in the Big Ten in total defense. What a sad turn of events, after leading the entire nation in scoring defense last season. The good news is that Illinois are substantial favorites here, and overall, have much better talent than the visitors.
Plus Bielema takes care of business against Northwestern; just like he does against Minnesota.
He always has, and always wi…..we’ll see, just not so sure about that. It’s hard to trust this Illinois team, given how no-show the secondary has been this season (and they’ve gotten worse as the year has gone on).
Prediction: Northwestern Wildcats 21, Illinois Fighting Illini 17
This Illini team just does not play complimentary football for four quarters. You can’t rely on them to play well and play hard for four quarters.
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 the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for the International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the website on Twitter.