Yahoo! Canada Sports

Illinois Team Report (Yahoo! Sports)

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:40:35 PST

With a ninth-place Big Ten finish already in the bag—and a bowl berth out of the question—Illinois continues the longest regular season in school history with Friday's game at No. 5 Cincinnati before finishing with the Dec. 5 home game against Fresno State.

After taking Thursday through Saturday off during their bye week, the Illini began to tackle the Bearcats on Sunday. Coach Ron Zook claimed his team is treating these last two weeks like bowl practices—which suggests they'll get their reserves lots of work in preparation for the 2010 season—but Zook didn't mean bowl practices in the traditional sense. He plans to get his veterans their usual work and keep them in their usual roles.

What does that mean?

Zook on Tuesday (Rivals.com)

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:08:00 PST

Illini head coach Ron Zook met on Tuesday to talk about his team's bye week, Rejus Benn, Juice Williams,...

Kafka leads Wildcats over Illinois 21-16 (AP)

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:52:56 PST

Mike Kafka spent the third quarter carving up the Illinois' defense and building a 21-3 lead for Northwestern. When the Wildcats needed a stop to thwart an Illini comeback, Sherrick McManis pulled one out. Kafka threw for 305 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score, McManis' interception with 32 seconds left was upheld by replay review, and Northwestern defeated the Illini 21-16 on...

Illini fall short (Rivals.com)

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:51:00 PST

Mike Kafka threw for 305 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score and Sherrick McManis made a last-minute...