Illini fall short

Mike Kafka threw for 305 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score and Sherrick McManis made a last-minute interception to preserve Northwestern’s 21-16 win Saturday over Illinois.

Zeke Markshausen had six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown to help Northwestern (7-4, 4-3 Big Ten) all but assure itself of going to a second straight bowl game.

Jacob Charest made his first start, but was benched at halftime in favor of Eddie McGee before returning to lead the Illini (3-7, 2-6) to two fourth-quarter touchdowns.

Charest completed 14 of 27 passes for 146 yards and a touchdown and two interceptions, including the one that ended Illinois’ bid for bowl eligibility following a 1-6 start.

Northwestern hasn’t been to consecutive bowls since going to the Rose and Citrus following the 1995 and 1996 seasons.(Recap courtesty Associated Press)

Below is a recap of Illini head coach Ron Zook’s post game comments

I don’t want to get you in trouble, that last play. I thought Fayson made the catch and the Northwestern defensive back comes up with the ball and game over. What happened?

Ron Zook: I thought he did make the catch but you know what? Like I just told the football team, forget pointing fingers because we had a chance to win the football game and we didn’t do it. That’s what we have done all year. Blame somebody, blame somebody, blame somebody, hell blame me, I am the guy, blame me, blame me. Blaming people ain’t going to do us any good. He (Fayson) had the ball, he should have hung on to it. I thought he was down and when he rolled over, the guy took it out of his hands. Maybe replay didn’t see it that way.

Opportunities you didn’t take advantage of 1st half came back to haunt you in the 2nd half.

Ron Zook: Yeah, we kind of squandered some opportunities. We did things you can’t do when you get into a game like this. They did a nice job, we didn’t.

Charest starts slow, you put in McGee, go back to Charest 4th quarter and he has two pretty good drives. Talk about quarterback play today.

Ron Zook: Jacob (Charest) was a little off obviously and that’s why we made the change at halftime. Put him back out there and Eddie went out there and ran for a couple of first downs. But Jacob is going to be a fine quarterback, I don’t think there is any question about that. But once again, you get the opportunities we had there in the first half, have to make the most out of them.

Is Juice (Williams) back to 80 percent or better?

Ron Zook: Yeah, probably. Probably could have played today. Talking to the doctors before the game….he practiced Wednesday, some yesterday but they felt like he could go but would be taking the chance we don’t have him the next week. Obviously they felt it would be better if we didn’t play him.

Health of the team? Benn got nicked but came back in.

Ron Zook: Yeah and I think Clay Nurse’s shoulder slipped out again but other than that, we are fine. Overall I don’t think….someone rolled up on Jack (Ramsey) first half.

Team battled back, down 21-3 but the team came back and the offense got going 4th quarter.

Ron Zook: They did. I felt like once we scored, we were going to win the game, I really did. Just wasn’t meant to be.

And what’s the message to your team now? Finish with two non conference games, what do you tell them over the next two weeks?

Ron Zook: We will find out what kind of people we are. I feel bad for the seniors, a lot of them, this will be their last football games. Two games left in their life. Have memories for the rest of their lives and hopefully they will approach it that way. Young guys? Starting out right now for next year. We are going to get on a win streak here and do that, continue to improve.