CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois dropped their third game of the season to Minnesota, 41-14 on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. The Gophers racked up 541 yards of offense in the win over the Illini.

GETTING THE OFFENSE ROLLING

Illinois running back Mike Epstein had a career-long 63-yard run halfway through the second quarter, the Illini's longest play of the season. The six play, 83-yard drive was topped off by a one-yard touchdown run by Epstein, who finished the day with 11 carries for 108 yards. The senior tailback surpassed 100 yards rushing for the fourth time in his career and was five yards short of his career high.

Illinois recorded 181 total rush yards in the game, led by running backs Mike Epstein and Chase Brown.

JUST ANOTHER DAY FOR HANSEN

Another game, another forced fumble for Jake Hansen, who has two forced fumbles in three games this season for the Illini. Hansen is now tied for third-most forced fumbles in Illinois history with ten, only trailing Simeon Rice (13) and Whitney Mercilus (11).

The senior linebacker had six total tackles, including three solo tackles and one tackle for loss in addition to the forced fumble.

TEAM NOTES

• Illinois is 30-40-3 all-time against Minnesota.

• Illinois started an all-Illinois offensive line of LT Vederian Lowe (Rockford, Ill.), C Kendrick Green (Peoria, Ill.) , RG Verdis Brown (Chicago, Ill.), RT Alex Palczewski (Mount Prospect, Ill.) and LG  Alex Pihlstrom (Glen Ellyn, Ill.).

• Illinois started six transfers -  WR Brian Hightower, LB Milo Eifler, WR Josh Imatorbhebhe, TE Daniel Imatorbhebhe, DL Roderick Perry II, DB Derrick Smith 

• Seven of Illinois' 22 starters against Minnesota have 20+ starts: OT Alex Palczewski (39th), OT Vederian Lowe (35th), OL Kendrick Green (28th), LB     Jake Hansen (25rd), DB Sydney Brown (23rd), DB Tony Adams (22nd).

• Illinois captains: LB Jake Hansen, P Blake Hayes, CB Nate Hobbs - other captains QB Brandon Peters and C Doug Kramer were out.

• Sophomore QB Coran Taylor and freshman DL Jer'Zhan Newton made their first career starts.

• Jer'Zhan Newton became the first Illinois true freshman defensive lineman to start a game since Bobby Roundtree, Isaiah Gay, and Jamal Woods in   2017. He is the 18th true freshman to start a game on the defensive line in Illinois history. Some of the notables include Bobby Roundtree (2017),     Corey Liuget (2008), Fred Wakefield (1997), and Mark Butkus (1980).

• Senior P Blake Hayes moved into third all-time in career punting average with 10,004 yards. He trails Steve Fitts (10,671) and Justin DuVernois (10,571).

• Senior LB Jake Hansen had his 10th career forced fumble, his ninth in the last 12 games. He now trails only Simeon Rice and Whitney Mercilus for the most forced fumbles in Illinois history. 

• Junior RB Mike Epstein rushed for 108 years on 11 carries, including a career-long 63-yard sprint, and scored one touchdown. It was his fourth-career 100-yard rushing game. 

• Sophomore Devon Witherspoon recorded his first career interception in the fourth quarter. 

• Junior OL Alex Pihlstrom, who was awarded a schoralship after practice on Thursday 11/5/20 made his second career start at OL.

• Senior RT Alex Palczewski started for the 39th straight game.

• Senior LT Vederian Lowe started for the 29th straight game.

• Junior OL Kendrick Green started for the 30th straight game and his third career start at center.

• Illinois senior quarterback Brandon Peters and redshirt freshman tight end Griffin Moore were both sidelined for 21 days following positive test results    Thursday 10/29/20 for the COVID-19 virus. Per Big Ten Conference protocol, following recovery both players will be eligible to return for the Nov. 21   game at Nebraska.

QUOTES

Head Coach Lovie Smith

Opening Statement
"Extremely disappointed with the way we played today, we knew what type of football game it would be today, a physical one. We didn't meet their physicality. Offensive side: Epstein went over for 100 yards, one big one. I thought they dominated us on both sides, offensive and defensive. Couldn't do anything offensively. Not much happened, terrible performance, when you play like that, you can't wait to get to the next game. Last week we lost but we didn't lose like this. We are better than this."

On the first run of the second half...your first and goal ended up being, third and 48, talk about that…
"That's how the day went. It seems like when we got a little momentum going, we got some type of penalty.

On Minnesota RB Ibrahim…
"Their offensive line did a great job and they had holes. Good running back. Bad tackling today on our end. If anything could go wrong on our end, it did go wrong."

On struggling right out of the gate…
"Haven't performed the way we needed too. A little shorthanded."

What do you do as a coach to turn around the disappointment?
"There is just a lot of football to play. Long football season. Disappointed in what has happened so far, not the only football team that is disappointed. We can still play better with what we have right now."

LB Jake Hansen

What are the emotions after a big loss like tonight?
 "It's pretty demoralizing tonight. We'll get back in the office and get better."

What is it like to play from behind like tonight? 
"It's really difficult obviously. When you put yourself in a hole, like 21-0 like we were, it's definitely a challenge to climb out of the hole."

With a lot of returning players this season, is there frustration with a loss like tonight?
"We don't have a lot of time to be frustrated right now. That's a soft mentality."

What do you think can make the team more "hyped up" for games? 
"It's about during the week. We need to be a little more sound and locked in, but that's a different story."

RB Mike Epstein

On his 100-yard rushing game…
"I had a feeling I was close but I didn't know. It does feel good, but not much feels good after this game. Individual things are good but we are all here trying to win and today was a bad performance on our part so we need to do better."

On injuries impacting the game…
"We're confident in our personnel on the field and a lot will happen with injuries/ covid-19, so we need to be fundamentally sound on the field. We all need to do some soul searching and need to do better."

On getting back on track…
"All we can do is win one game. One week at a time. We will look at the film tomorrow, and all we need to do is get one win to turn it around."

On slow starts…
"It's not easy when you're off to a slow start, it takes more effort. When you're behind the chains you need to overcome. We need to start fast, get into better situations and open up the playbook score first.

On being able to come back from 0-3...
"I know this group will be able to persevere. We had times like this last year and overcame it, and we just need to take it one week at a time and one game at a time."

QB Coran Taylor

What was behind the slow start for the offense?
"Just us, we started slow. We knew we needed to start fast and didn't get the job done."

How do you feel about this big opportunity?
"I have to step up my game every day - at practice, in film, in training. I need to step it up. I feel like I can do better; there's always room to get better."

How much different was this week than last week?
"I didn't have butterflies. I watched extra film, got extra throws, extra reps, and important stuff like taking care of my body."

How tough is it to catch up after falling behind?
"It's always tough like that. You never want to get too far behind to where a game is out of reach, but you never stop fighting to the end."

Was Minnesota doing anything you weren't expecting?
"I don't think they did anything differently. They showed the same coverages as we saw. We just need to execute as an offense."

What can you do to keep the confidence up?
"Take it one game at a time, one day at a time, and one play at a time."

Was it hard to get into a flow or string together drives?
"It's hard to establish a drive with penalties. You want to be above the chains. It's tough battling penalties, we need to clean it up."