By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
Box Score
Had the so-called "experts" and odds makers been entrusted to determine whether or not the 1999 Illinois-Michigan game should have actually been played, traveling Illini fans en route to Ann Arbor might have received a discouraging email that read something like this …
Illini fans: Your team has lost its last three in a row, including last week's game by thirty points. You're a 24½-point underdog to the No. 9 team in the nation. Michigan's players include Tom Brady, Anthony Thomas and Dhani Jones. Save yourself some gas money. Turn your car around and head back to Champaign-Urbana.
Illini head coach Ron Turner, though, was eager to take on the challenge.
"You get to go into one of the best stadiums in the country and play a school with as much football tradition as anybody in the country," said Illinois's third-year coach to reporters at his Monday press conference. "It's an outstanding program, an outstanding coach, an outstanding coaching staff, and some of the elite athletes in America. If you can't get excited about going in there and playing a team that is ranked in the Top 10, there's something wrong with you. I'm very excited about it and I'm sure our players are, too."
"We go into games with the intention of winning," Turner continued to tell reporters that week. "The one thing we need to regain now is our fight, our competitive spirit, and the ability to come out and play hard for 60 minutes, every play, not matter what happens, no matter what the scoreboard says."
Michigan had two other motivating factors going into that October 23rd contest. Two weeks earlier, the Wolverines had lost a 34-31 heartbreaker at rival Michigan State and, with a bye week in between, had 13 days to prepare for Illinois.
"I think this team has great pride," Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr said. "There is a sting that comes with losing and a certain amount of misery associated with losing. Along those lines, I think there is a resolve to play better with a great intensity and focus. I believe we will bounce back and play with a great intensity."
Carr appeared to be a prophet in the first half as Michigan led by 13 points at the intermission. Though Illinois got on the board first when Kurt Kittner's six-yard pass to Jameel Cook connected for a touchdown, the Wolverines countered with three consecutive tallies on two TD passes by Brady and Anthony Thomas's 25-yard TD. That opened up Michigan's lead to 20-7.
When Thomas rushed for his second touchdown with 6:01 left in the third quarter, Illinois's 20-point deficit seemed insurmountable to everyone except the Illini players and coaches. After all, in Michigan's 1,084-game history, only two other schools (Penn in 1912 and UCLA in 1982) had rallied to beat the Maize and Blue after falling 20 behind.
"Nobody—and I do mean nobody—believed that this could happen except for our guys," Turner said after the game.
Illinois's stunning turnaround began when quarterback Kurt Kittner transformed a 4th-and-3 situation into a 31-yard touchdown toss to wide receiver Walter Young. Then, UI's sophomore signal caller led his club on a 7-minute, 20-play drive that climaxed with a three-yard TD pass to tight end Brian Hodges. That made the score Michigan 27, Illinois 21.
The Illini defense stepped up on Michigan's next possession, forcing the Wolverines to punt. Following two Rocky Harvey rushes, Kittner called on No. 23 a third time on third-down-and-four. Illinois's offensive line provided their QB just enough time to toss a safety valve pass over the middle to his five-foot-nine halfback. Harvey split a pair of Michigan defenders and dashed the remaining 45 yards, accentuating his run by launching himself into the right corner of the end zone. Now, Illinois was on top, 28-27, and only 2:49 was left.
Defensive coordinator Tim Kish's Illini troops bent but didn't break as Brady marched the Wolverines down to the Illinois 28. Michigan's momentum was crushed when U-M center Steve Frazier got distracted by UI's oncoming blitzers and snapped the ball over his quarterback's head for a 25-yard loss. That set up a fourth-and-30 challenge for Brady, necessitating a lengthy pass. Illinois's Trayvon Waller stepped in front of intended receiver to intercept Brady's pass with just 1:13 left.
Illinois now needed just one first down to run out the clock and clinch the improbable comeback. But Harvey wanted more, racing up the middle for a 54-yard touchdown to raise UI's lead to 35-27.
Harvey's touchdown could have backfired on the Illini as 59 seconds remained. Trailing by eight points, Michigan still had a chance to tie the game with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. Methodically, Brady marched the Wolverines down the field, completing four of his first five passes and advancing Michigan to the Illinois 16.
But on 3rd-and-10, UI's Tony Francis snatched Brady's second interception throw of the game. Francis fumbled the ball in the end zone, but Muhammad Abdullah fell on it, causing a safety and reducing Illinois's lead to 35-29 with nine seconds left. Neil Rackers kicked to Michigan on the ensuing play and U-M returned the ball six yards to its own 41-yard line. Fortunately for the Illini, Brady's last-gasp heave fell incomplete and victory belonged to the Orange and Blue.
"It's about believing. And really, every guy on this team believed we could do it."
Said Brady afterwards, "We usually don't lose games like these."
Fourth-year Illini defensive end Fred Wakefield, who had first-half blocks of an extra point and a field goal, was ecstatic.
"Coming into the Big House and stealing one from them," exclaimed an almost unbelieving Wakefield. "We came in and took it away from them. That's something not a whole lot of teams do."
Linebacker Danny Clark credited his head coach in the postgame locker room, citing a spirited address the evening before.
"Coach was a great motivator Friday night," he said, recalling how Turner had told the team about his former Stanford team's upset of No. 1 Notre Dame. "It's about believing. And really, every guy on this team believed we could do it."
"It's eerie how similar things were between that game and this one," a smiling Turner told reporters, admitting that he might have exaggerated the facts a bit to inspire his team. "I didn't intentionally lie. It was all correct, to the best of my knowledge."
