By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
A redshirt freshman who wears jersey number one got his first start on Saturday, scored his first career touchdown, led his team to season victory number one, and, in the process, placed his name in the number one position on the University of Illinois's all-time single-game rushing list for a quarterback.
No doubt about it, Saturday's 23-20 victory at Rutgers was one memorable day for quarterback Isaiah Williams.
Thirty-one times the redshirt freshman from St. Louis's Trinity Catholic High School used his feet to rush for 192 yards, including individual gainers of 26, 25, 22 and 19 yards. That broke A.J. Bush's previous high rushing mark by an Illini QB (187 yards at Nebraska in 2018).
Williams' most decisive drive of the afternoon came on the heels of Nate Hobbs' crucial interception with just more than a minute left in the game and the contest tied at 20-20. Taking over at the Illinois 46-yard line, Williams completed a pair of 16-yard passes to teammate Casey Washington, and set the stage for James McCourt's game-winning 47-yard field goal with just three seconds left.
Coach Lovie Smith wasn't at all surprised by Williams' 192-yard rushing and 104-yard passing performance.
"We've talked about how good Isaiah Williams looked in training camp," Smith said. "He had as good of a camp as anyone around. For me, today was about moving the football, whether it be run or pass. In an ideal world for a first-time quarterback, you don't want to be in a lot of tough passing situations. When you have a guy who can move the chains with his legs, that's just tough on a defense. Coach (Rod) Smith and the offensive staff did a good job of getting Isaiah ready. He needed to make some plays and he did that all day. Even in the passing game, when we really needed to throw it, I thought he was able to do it. It's tough duty for a defense when you have a quarterback who can run like that. Isaiah, for his first start, set a record today and we've had a few good ones who could run the football."
And, did we mention that Williams, who'd been quarantined for more than two weeks due to COVID tracing protocol, learned only one day in advance that he'd be getting his big break?
"When I came back Wednesday I was taking a lot of reps with the twos," Williams said, "but I was also getting in there a little bit with the ones. By the Thursday practice, I wasn't sure, but I had a feeling (that he would start) because I was getting more one reps. I knew, for sure, on Friday. Coach Lovie told me. He called me up and said 'You're going to get your shot. You had a great camp, now it's time to show the world.' And that's what I did today."
Williams was quick to hand out credit to his teammates, including his offensive line and sophomore running back Chase Brown, who rushed for a career-best 131 yards on just 17 carries.
"Chase is a dawg," Williams said. "He makes my job way easier. We got a lot of explosive plays from him. He came up big. He's a dawg. I know he's got my back. It's a connection that we have."
Williams also acknowledged his Illini defensive teammates that picked off three Rutgers passes.
"Honestly, the defense basically won us the game," he said. "Those three turnovers were big. They were in crucial moments. They make the offense's job easier when they do that. When they get a turnover, we've got to get a first down."
Hobbs returned Williams' compliment.
"We were cheering him on the whole time," Hobbs said. "There were a lot of third and longs, third and mediums, when we were preparing to go back on the field. On third down, he went out there and got that third-down conversion a lot of times. He helped the defense out a lot. He put the team on his back and just went to work. I saw an attitude out of our quarterback that I really want. He showed that, no matter what, he's going to keep battling. And I love that."
Noting that senior starter Brandon Peters was due to come off the COVID list next week when the Illini travel to Nebraska, a reporter asked Lovie if the team now had a "quarterback situation". A sly smile broke out on the veteran head coach's face.
"It's a little early (to talk about that)," Lovie said. "We've got a week to start putting some things in place. What Isaiah did today is give us a lot of options. The goal of every coaching staff is to put the guys and the team in the best place to be successful. We'll do that this week."
