Fan Blog

It was a great day to be at Memorial Stadium...

Posted by: Kim Johnson

Sunday, September 7, 2008 2:19 PM

I am probably going to lose all credibility, but I have a life outside of bleeding orange and blue. It pained me terribly to miss going to the game Saturday. Now, I did watch it on TV, and I had it on the radio in 3 different rooms, but with 2 kids in soccer, the schedule didn't cooperate Saturday morning. Soccer won out, and our family stayed home. We considered going late, but since I have been told that arriving late to the game is disturbing to some fans, I decided not to make the drive into town.

I saw nearly the whole game, except for some of the sloppy first quarter. Coach Zook mentioned after the game that he felt like the team didn't play with enough emotion. Perhaps that was some of the reason for the play in the first quarter.

The second quarter brought several great plays, both on offense and defense, but unfortunately, it brought the injury to Miami Thomas. That's exactly what we didn't need to have happen. The defense had a great stop at 4^th and 1. On offense, Juice had an awesome fake right before he scored a touchdown. We also saw some impressive footwork by Benn on the punt return to get the Illini to the 49 yard line. Lastly, Juice had a nice fake to Dufrene near the end of the quarter when he scored.

Don't know what to think of the Booth Challenge on Will Judson's catch near the end zone. It had to be looked at again. It was close, but the ball didn't look to be in.

The third quarter brought more good things than bad, like the second quarter. Juice displayed his running skills, and he used the option twice with Benn to showcase his talent, too. Passing worked a couple of times to Hoomanawanui. The bad part of the quarter was the other interception.

I was hoping to celebrate a good pummeling in the 4^th quarter until the Illini fumble. Eastern's Tavorus Bess had a great game, with several notable runs. The highlights for me in the 4^th quarter were the running of Pollard (wow, is he fast!) and his touchdown, along with the fumble recovery by Derek Walker (how would you like to try to tackle him?).

All in all, it was a solid win, but we were supposed to do that. It was the exact opposite of last week's game-400 yards rushing this time instead of all those passing yards. I hated to miss the Renaissance game and experiencing the new and improved Memorial Stadium. But, there's always next week, and hopefully another win. Until then-GO ILLINI!

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