By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
Illinois will host the 20-year reunion for the Fighting Illini's 2001 Big Ten championship team during the opening weekend of college football on Aug. 28. The title team will be honored at the season opener against Nebraska, including former head coach Ron Turner, and members of the team will sign autographs in Grange Grove pregame. Turner will also serve as the honorary captain for the game.
In terms of historical respect, the University of Illinois' championship team of 2001 perhaps unfairly gets overlooked when examining the school's greatest football teams.
While it didn't rank among the Top Ten teams in the final polls nor boast of a single first-team All-American among the starting 22, a deeper dive into the statistics reveals that Coach Ron Turner's '01 Fighting Illini is very likely the school's most talented squad of at least the last 30 years.
Heading the list of accomplishment is that it's one of only five Illini teams in the modern era that's won an outright Big Ten championship. It shares that honor with Illinois squads of 1946, 1951, 1963 and 1983.
Said Head Coach Ron Turner about his iconic team, "They had a lot of confidence and belief in one another."
The '01 Illini began the season with consecutive victories against California, Northern Illinois and Louisville, but got derailed in game four at Michigan.
"That game in Ann Arbor was a big disappointment, especially after a pretty historic win in '99," said former defensive lineman Brandon Moore. "We expected so much more. But that loss didn't diminish our confidence because we had great leadership. We seniors knew that we had to get it together. It was just that the maturity of our team was of a level that was able to bounce back, especially after going through the trying year before (a 5-6 record in 2000)."
From Oct. 6 through Nov. 3 came a battle against Minnesota at Memorial Stadium, a trip to Indiana, another home game versus Wisconsin, and a confrontation at highly regarded Purdue.
"We'd always had a tough time with those middle-tier Big Ten teams," Moore said, "so we went into those games knowing that this stretch was going to define our season. If we want to be who we say we are, we've got to be able to beat these guys."
The Illini swept through unscathed, improving their record to 7-1 and setting up a tough match-up in Champaign against Penn State. The Orange and Blue trailed the Nittany Lions at halftime, 21-7, but rallied for two touchdowns and two field goals to take a 27-21 lead. When PSU's Larry Johnson returned a kickoff 97 yards for a go-ahead touchdown with 3:29 remaining, the Illini didn't panic … especially Schumacher.
"I knew that with the ball in (quarterback Kurt) Kittner's hands, we were going to score," he said. "With the talent we had on offense—that line and those receivers and running backs—I was confident that somebody was going to make a winning play."
After Illinois got the ball back at its own 20, Kittner zipped a 30-yard bullet to Brandon Lloyd, then a 13-yarder to Aaron Moorehead. When Rocky Harvey scored a 13-yard touchdown with just 1:19 to go, it marked the third straight game that Illinois had rallied late to win.
The victory against Penn State set the stage for a battle at The Horseshoe between No. 12 Illinois and No. 25 Ohio State.
"I just remember being confident and not overly concerned," Kittner said. "Ohio State always has some good players, right? But we had a lot of good players, too."
Kittner completed 18-of-28 passes for 274 yards and two touchdowns against the Buckeyes, allowing the Illini to leave Columbus with a 34-22 victory.
"We just came out and played hard and played better," he said.
Now, only a Thanksgiving Day game at Memorial Stadium against Northwestern stood in the way between Illinois and at least a share of the Big Ten title.
Moore says the embarrassing memory of Illinois' season-ending 61-23 defeat at Evanston in 2000 provided the Illini with extra incentive that week.
"I had had to deal the entire off-season about that loss with my dad," Moore said. "We got our butts handed to us up there the year before. It was tough to manage the short week—the Thanksgiving Day holiday, playing for the championship—there were a lot of distractions. As a young man in college, I just remember trying to focus and not let our big opportunity slip away."
Illinois did ultimately prevail, 34-28, thanks to a 387-yard, four-touchdown performance by Kittner, including a pair of TD passes to Brandon Lloyd.
"We were used to seeing some other team grab the championship trophy, so to actually be able to be a part of it was special," Moore said. "Every year, we'd gone into the season talking about winning a championship, so on that day there was a sense of relief that we'd finally achieved success. It was a great piece of satisfaction to be able to come from 0 and 11 to win the title. It's definitely one of the more memorable images that I have."
The victory clinched a tie of the Big Ten title for the Illini but hopes in Champaign-Urbana were that 13-point underdog Ohio State could upset host Michigan the following Saturday and provide Illinois with an outright championship. At Jerry Schumacher's home in Chicago, there was an especially intense TV-viewing party … hosted by his dad—Jerry Sr.—a former Michigan football standout.
"We had WGN (TV) at the house because it was the first time that my dad was rooting for Ohio State to beat Michigan," Schumacher said. "I remember him telling the reporter 'I'll do anything for my son, but this is the bottom of the line that I'll go for him.'"
With the Buckeyes' 26-20 victory, Illinois stood alone on top of the Big Ten standings.
For Kittner, winning the 2001 Big Ten title will forever be one of his life's major achievements.
"I go back to that 0 and 11 season and the goals that we had as freshmen," he said. "That first year for me (1998) was so hard. But all the work that we had put into it is captured into winning the title in my last game at home as a senior. It was a pretty cool experience and not many people can say that. I was really proud of the work that we all put in to get to the place where we all wanted to be. A lot of people say they want to be Big Ten champions, but we actually went out and did it."
Because the Bowl Championship Series had pre-designated the Rose Bowl as the site of the national championship game, instead of traveling to Pasadena, Illinois was sent to New Orleans to play LSU. Twenty years later, it's still a sore point for Schumacher.
"My dad has a Rose Bowl ring from playing in it for Bo Schembechler," he said, "so I would have loved to have that. As a kid growing up in a Big Ten family, we would have Rose Bowl parties every New Year's Day. I grew up hoping to play in one, too, then the year I get the chance to play in one is the year that the Rose Bowl turns out to be the national championship game. Personally, for me, I felt cheated.
Schumacher says he'll remember his teammates not for their wins and losses but for their character.
"We were a close-knit group of guys from every different walk of life who just got along," he said. "I'd love for my son (Jerry III) to play football, just based on the lifelong friends that I made throughout my career."
