Sept. 8, 2007

Recap |  Final Stats |  Quotes |  Illinois-Western Illinois AP Gallery 

1. Illinois is now 80-33-5 all-time in home openers and has won its last 10 home openers.
2. Sophomore running back Daniel Dufrene scored his first career touchdown on a career-long 32-yard run in the second quarter. It was his second 30-yard run in two games.
3. Cornerback Dere Hicks recorded his first career interception and the first of the season for the Illini.
4. With 139 yards tonight, Rashard Mendenhall reached the 1,000-career yard mark, the 33rd in Illinois history. He now has 1,030 yards in his career, which ranks 32nd on the all-time list. Mendenhall also logged the most carries in his career tonight as he rushed 23 times. He also recorded his third career 100-yard game.
5. Isiah "Juice" Williams scored his first rushing touchdown of the year at the 9:37 mark of the third quarter. He now has three for his career.
6. With tonight's 21-0 victory, Illinois recorded its first shutout in seven years, since blanking Iowa 31-0 on Oct. 14, 2000.
7. The Illinois offense rushed for 277 yards, its first 200-yard game of the year. However, the Illini posted seven 200-yard games last season.
8. The Illinois defense did not allow a first down in 11-of-15 Western Illinois drives. For the game, Western Illinois managed only four first downs, including just one in the second half.
9. Western Illinois ended the game with just 152 total yards. It marked the fewest yards allowed by the UI defense in the Ron Zook era. The previous low was 184 yards by Penn State last season (10/21/06).
10. Western also managed just 71 yards passing, also a low by the Illini pass defense under Zook. The previous low was 108 yards passing by Ohio State last season (11/4/06). It marked the first time an Illini opponent threw for less than 100 yards in three years, since Wisconsin had 99 yards passing on Oct. 2, 2004.
11. With a game-high 11 tackles, senior linebacker J Leman posted his sixth straight double-digit tackle performance and the 12th in his last 13 games. After leading the Big Ten in tackles last season, Leman picked up where he left off after tallying the nation's best numbers last week with 20 stops vs. Missouri.
12. Three more true-freshmen saw their first action of the season to bring the total number to eight: DT Josh Brent, DB Marcus "Miami" Thomas and RB Troy Pollard.
13. Tonight's attendance was 48,301.