Oct. 22, 2001

University of Illinois quarterback Kurt Kittner and placekickers Peter Christofilakos and John Gockman were awarded Big Ten Player of the Week honors following their performances in Illinois' 42-35 win over Wisconsin, Saturday.

Kittner was named the offensive player of the week after posting a career-high 401 yards passing against the Badgers. On the day, he completed 24 of 45 aerials with four touchdown strikes. He became Illinois' all-time passing touchdowns leader (57), surpassing Jack Trudeau's 55 TD passes from 1981-85. He is just the fifth QB in school history to pass for more than 400 yards in a game and it was only the ninth time that an Illini QB had reached that mark. He also moved into third place on Illinois' career passing yardage list (7,305). Kittner leads the Big Ten in passing with a 262.7 average and is second in the conference in total offense. This is Kittner's first Big Ten weekly honor this year and his fourth career accolade.

Illinois' kicking duo of Christofilakos and Gockman were named the special teams players of the week after combining for a school-record five field goals in the win over Wisconsin. Christofilakos connected on three field goals (33, 22 and 36 yards) and was a perfect three-for-three on PATs. Gockman nailed field goals from 48 and 43 yards. On the season Illinois' leads the Big Ten with 17 field goals made and an .810 percentage.

The Illini will be idle this weekend before returning to action on the road against Purdue on Nov. 3.