CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois extended its winning streak to four games on Saturday night, taking down Iowa, 9-6, at Memorial Stadium, the program's first win over the Hawkeyes since 2008.
Illini kicker Fabrizio Pinton went 3/3 on his field-goal attempts, with his 36-yard field goal with 2:49 left the difference-maker. With the win, Illinois heads into Homecoming week with a 5-1 record and sits tied atop the Big Ten West standings with a 2-1 conference mark.
Illinois outgained Iowa by nearly 90 yards -- 121 to 32 -- in the fourth quarter, holding the Hawkeyes to zero third-down conversions and forcing one turnover in the final frame to seal the win.
Chase Brown extended his 100-yard rushing streak to seven games, recording 146 yards on 31 carries. The Illini offense notched 316 total yards of offense -- 200 on the ground and 116 through the air -- in the win, while Seth Coleman recorded two of the Illini's five sacks on the night. Illinois is the lone FBS program yet to allow a touchdown at home this season.
"Since January, we kept putting things in front of them to see how they overcome it and define them," said head coach Bret Bielema. "This was about our chance to be at home, play a Big Ten West opponent, and see what we can do. I am extremely proud. This is the first time we've beat them since 2008, but it's the first time we beat Iowa and Wisconsin since 1989. We are clearing a lot of good hurdles and going forward.
"You don't know when the moments of setbacks, obstacles, or whatever you want to call them will come. You have to trust and have faith that your response is going to be the right way, and we had a lot of guys deliver today."
The Illini got on the board on their first drive of the game, which included two fourth-down conversions. Six Brown runs continued to move Illinois down the field, while a 22-yard Brian Hightower catch put the Illini into Hawkeye territory. After getting inside the Iowa 10, Illinois took a 3-0 lead on a 27-yard Pinton field goal, the first of his career.
Iowa tied it at 3-3 before Illinois retook two drives later. After Tommy DeVito went down with an injury at the end of the first quarter, Artur Sitkowski took over under center. The Illini took advantage of a short field, with Brown taking a 15-yard carry into Iowa territory and Sitkowski connecting with Hightower on another fourth-down conversion, Illinois' third of the half. Pinton converted his second field goal of the half, this time from a career-long 37 yards, to push the Illini lead to 6-3.
The teams headed into the break knotted at 6-6. Brown headed into the break with 57 rushing yards on 13 carries, while the Illinois offense recorded 137 total yards in the opening 30 minutes. Iowa managed -10 yards on the ground in the first half.
Illinois recorded two sacks in the third quarter, both recorded by Seth Coleman, though the score remained locked at 6-6.
The Illini took the lead on a 36-yard Pinton field goal, his third of the game. Illinois moved down the field via several Brown runs, pushing him to 132 rushing yards.
A late interception from Matthew Bailey and five total sacks from the defense proved pivotal to clinch the victory.
DeVito and Sitkowski combined to go 19-30 for 116 yards, while Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras registered 170 yards and an interception while competing 50% of his 36 attempts.
The Illini return to Memorial Stadium next weekend for Homecoming and will take on Minnesota at 11 a.m. CT.
Highlights
Press Conference
Quotes
Bret Bielema
Opening statement:
"Many things to appreciate tonight, but I will say this to the fans and the Champaign-Urbana community. I know in our Department of Athletics, Josh (Whitman) and his crew did a lot of things to try and make this game the best environment we've had since I've been here. I think that was accomplished. Coming over for our walk-through at 11:30 and fans are already out there tailgating and our kids were commenting about it. Hopefully it's an indication of what we can do more. It's not just us on a football field; it's the people in the Department of Athletics, as fans and the University of Illinois as a whole. It was a really cool and awesome moment.
"Artur Sitkowski, Fabrizio (Pinton) came in there because I think we had four starters go down today, and they continue to come in and do what we ask them to do. I give a lot of credit to our coaches to have those guys ready. On Wednesday I always challenge our guys to do something they've never done and to make this the best Wednesday of the year. I said this Wednesday, 'Hey why don't we make a concerted effort to make our twos as good as we possibly can today because somebody is going to get called on.' Unfortunately that ended up coming true, but our guys did champion the moment. Art came up and said, 'Been there, done this, Coach.' I said, 'Absolutely,' and good things get rewarded, I couldn't be happier for our players."
On overcoming adversity:
"Since January we kept putting things in front of them to see how they overcome it and define them. This was about our chance to be at home, play a Big Ten West opponent, and see what we can do. I am extremely proud. This is the first time we've beat them since 2008, but it's the first time we beat Iowa and Wisconsin (in the sasm season) since 1989. We are clearing a lot of good hurdles and going forward. You don't know when the moments of setbacks, obstacles or whatever you want to call them will come. You have to trust and have faith that your response is going to be the right way, and we had a lot of guys deliver today."
On Matthew Bailey:
"I remember watching his file the first time, and I absolutely loved him. He came in and ran for us right in the middle of track season where he ran four track meets in a 10-day window. We got the old magic watch on him and we didn't love his time, but I love his demeanor, personality, and parents. His mom is an incredible woman and raised a great kid. I had a feeling after the first couple weeks of camp that he's going to be one of these kids that good fortune happens to. He's a joy to be around. The good lord tapped him on the head twice, and he gets a lot of great breaks."
On his defense:
"Our defense coming into today, we're the only team in the country who hasn't given up a touchdown at home. That statistic is amazing when you think about it. We give a lot of credit to our defensive coaches, players and the responses that they have. Johnny (Newton) and Keith (Randolph) continue to be impressive. Calvin (Avery) did some things, Gabe Jacas continued to flourish, (Dylan) Rosiek came in when (Isaac) Darkangelo went down. We don't really have a marquee player; we have a bunch of good players that played really well.
"When our guys can adapt how they win to the opponent we are playing, now you got something."
Chase Brown
On the offense:
"We were patient, we knew the competition we were playing against today and took it one play at a time. The o-line did a great job of getting to the second level opening some good running lanes. I made the most of each opportunity, and I am grateful for another good game and a win."
On the game adversity/response to it:
"We did everything to lose the game, but we also did everything to win the game. This is something I sit back and I'd rather learn from a win than a loss. We will watch the film and there is a lot to get better at. Defense played their butts off like they always do. Offensively we started to get a rhythm running the ball at the end. I am glad we were able to pull out a win."
On his play as a whole:
"I'm really confident in the guys up front; they're doing their job at an exceptional level. They give me time to create and find the run lanes. Especially against a good Iowa defense, we knew they were going to overflow a little bit, but being patient was a key today and we were able to do it."
Artur Sitkowski
On the fumble review:
"The review felt like forever. I was happy we got through it and got the win. I felt my elbow hit the ground, so I felt good. You hope and pray and fingers crossed that it goes through review."
On coming in unexpectedly after DeVito went down with an injury:
"This is something that happened a couple of times in my career. First at Rutgers and now here I have come in off the bench. It's something that I have gotten used to being in that role.
"It's time to go, do your job and be ready to play."
Tarique Barnes
On the pass rush:
"I think those are things that we studied throughout the week and quarterback habits. I have to give a lot of credit to coach, and play-calling, and putting us in those positions to do those type of things. I think he knows us well, and we match up with the things he called. I think his confidence in us, and our confidence in each other, and just being confident in what he calls and believing that whatever it is that he puts out there for us to do, we were going to do it."
On not allowing a touchdown at home:
"To say that nobody has scored on us at home, we are going to pride ourselves in protecting this house. For nobody to score on us at home, and regardless of how the game goes, I think nobody scoring in our house is a big testament to us defending where we perform every day and where we want to protect.
"I don't think it's something that we've so much as discussed, but I think it's more so something that we want to continue to stand on because we still got games left in the season. I think until we finish it, I believe that there's still nobody else that comes here. We're gonna say that they're not going to score until they earn it."
Fabrizio Pinton:
On pre-game nerves:
"Early on, before my first field goal, I was kind of kicking it a little too much. (Caleb) just came up and reminded me I just need to relax, and go sit down, save the legs, and I listened. I felt good."
On his relationship with Caleb Griffin:
"I kind of see Caleb as a big brother. He takes me under his wing. He gives me a lot of advice. He's been giving me advice since I got here, so I view him as a big brother. I didn't take it any other way. I took it as a learning opportunity because I love to learn from Caleb."
Seth Coleman
On the defensive linemen:
"I love it. It makes it easier for everyone else when they were doing their jobs and when they're doing it at a high level. For me, them being so good, it just allows us to actually have a one-on-one. They might be double-teamed. It allows me to get a one-on-one tackle or guard or somebody else."
On the key to personal improvement:
"It's really just preparation every week. Just watched my film, just working on my hands. We got amazing GAs that help us every day with just working on our hands."
On the next-man-up mentality:
"We're really confident in the next man up. If one goes down, the next man up will do the same thing that person did. There's no dropoff from the 1s, to the 2s, to the 3s, to the 4s."
On not allowing a home touchdown this season:
"I just think it's a pride thing. That's just something we pride ourselves on, not letting any touchdowns go."
Alex Palczewski
On Art Sitkowski stepping in:
"Art did a great job stepping up, and the biggest thing is just giving him time to be able to execute his job."
On the team's next steps:
"The next step is just getting better all-around. The biggest thing is just not letting complacency happen. Just knowing it's not even close to over. We're going to enjoy it and we have to learn from this film, but it's on to Minnesota. They're an extremely good team, and we're extremely excited to play them next week."
Jer'Zhan Newton:
On his evaluation of the team under defensive coordinator Ryan Walters:
"I always knew we had the athletes. Coach Walt came with the schemes, and we're really just executing his defense. It feels really good. Honestly, we have bigger dreams than just winning these games. I feel we could go to college football playoffs. Honestly, that's where we want to be, so we've just got to keep pushing every week."
On keeping opposing offenses out of the end zone:
"We take pride in that. That's probably our biggest accomplishment. The fans play a huge role. We had a big crowd out there today, so they kept giving us momentum and just hyped us up, honestly. As the game went on, we could feel Iowa slowly shutting down. We kept stopping the run, so once we stopped the run, we knew what we had to do in the pass game."
On their lockdown defense inside the 5-yard line:
"We knew they couldn't run the ball on us, but just locking in honestly. It was a close game. We knew it was going to come on field goals. They had a good defense. We have a good defense, so just not letting them score honestly."
On the defensive line:
"Everybody wants a sack. It's like a competition out there. We talk about it before the games, how many sacks we're gonna get and who's gonna get the sack. Honestly, I'm happy for whoever gets a sack, but we all want that sack."
Team Notes
- Illinois improves to 5-1 on the season. It is the first time since 2011 that the Illini won at least five of their opening six games (6-0).
- Illinois snapped an eight-game losing streak against Iowa, the Hawkeyes' longest winning streak in the all-time series.
- Illinois beat Iowa for the first time since 2008.
- Illinois beat Iowa and Wisconsin in the same season for the first time since 1989.
- Illinois is on a four-game winning streak, its longest winning streak since 2019.
- Next week, Illinois will look for its first five-game winning streak since starting the 2011 season 6-0.
- Illinois has won three-straight games against Big Ten West opponents for the first time since the Big Ten switched to East/West divisions in 2014.
- Illinois has tied its win total from last season (5).
- Illinois is on a five-game home winning streak for the first time since 2014-15.
- Bret Bielema improved to 10-8 in his Illinois career. It is the best start for an Illinois head coach since John Mackovic started 11-6-1 in the 1988-89 seasons.
- Bielema is the first Illinois head coach to have wins over Iowa and Wisconsin in his first two seasons since Lou Tepper in 1992-93.
- Illinois is the only team in the country to not allow a touchdown at home this season.
- The Illini have only allowed three touchdowns in six games this season.
- Illinois has at least one interception in all six games this season and has an interception in nine-straight games dating back to last season.
- The Illini defense held the Hawkeyes to 52 yards rushing, the fifth-straight game the defense has held an opponent to under 100 yards on the ground.
- The defense has allowed 221 yards on 142 carries over the last five games (1.6 yards/rush).
- Through six games, the Illinois defense has allowed just seven fourth-quarter points, all against Indiana.
- The 2022 Illinois schedule has re-matches against seven opponents that the Illini faced in Bielema's first season. Through the first three such games – Virginia, Wisconsin, and Iowa - the Illini are 3-0 and have flipped the score of those results dramatically in their favor, with a 49-point turnaround against UVA, a 48-point turnaround vs. UW, and a 13-point turnaround vs. Iowa, for a total of 110 points.
- Illinois had a season-high attendance of 44,910.
Illinois Notes
- Today's captains: WR Isaiah Williams, LB Tarique Barnes, DB Sydney Brown, OL Alex Palczewski.
- OL Alex Palczewski started for the 58th time in his career extending his Illinois record for career starts. Palczewski is one away from tying the Big Ten record of 59 set by Minnesota offensive lineman Connor Olson from 2016-21.
- RB Chase Brown rushed for 146 yards in today's game, adding to his national leading total of 879.
- Brown has now rushed for 100 yards in seven-straight games, extending his program record.
- Brown is also the first Illini back to open a season with six-straight 100-yard games.
- Brown had his 12th career 100-yard game, tied for the second-most in program history.
- QB Artur Sitkowski completed 13 of his 19 passes for 74 yards and one interception.
- His 34-yard completion to WR Brian Hightower was the longest play allowed by the Iowa defense this season.
- QB Tommy DeVito completed six of his 11 passes for 42 yards before leaving the game due to injury.
- WR Brian Hightower caught five passes for 68 yards.
- OLB Seth Coleman recorded a career-high +2.0 sacks in tonight's game.
- Coleman has eight quarterback hurries in his last two games at Memorial Stadium, recording four in each contest.
- LB Kennena Odeluga recorded his first-career sack in the fourth quarter.
- DL Jer'Zhan Newton had 2.5 tackles for a loss tonight, a season high.
- DB Sydney Brown had two pass breakups tonight, a season high.
- DB Matthew Bailey recorded his second interception of the season in the fourth quarter.
- K Fabrizio Pinton scored the first points of his career with his opening-drive field goal.
- He went 3-for-3 in field goal attempts in the game.
