Illinois head coach Bret Bielema spoke with the media in advance of the No. 21 Illini's Week 11 home game vs. Purdue.

Opening Statement

"I'm excited to get into another game week, I feel like when you end a Saturday the way that we did, a chance to jump into your prep is always a good thing. Yesterday was a day to relive a little bit of Michigan State for the first half of our team meeting and then we transitioned into our preparation for Purdue. From an injury standpoint, there aren't any updates from where we left the game on Saturday. Expect all those guys who ended the game to be back with us. Obviously some guys are in concussion protocol and we're still waiting to see where they end up. There's a lot of things to play for this week, Purdue is obviously a Big Ten West opponent, and is a team that has everything. You guys are aware of the Big Ten race to get to Indianapolis and all the ins-and-outs of that. What we've done all year is try to focus on what's going on at the moment. We've had success doing that seven times and failure twice. Hopefully we'll be more in line with those seven opportunities when we come away with a victory. I think it's a group of guys who will learn from their mistakes and take advantage of the opportunities in front of them and will hopefully move forward in a positive light. There's a lot of individual awards and things with All-America nominations, post season awards and all that stuff just continues to roll through our office which is a good indication of our guys and what they've done to be rewarded. I think, and not just from a coaching standpoint, but from our players the less emphasis on that and more emphasis on Purdue the better everyone is."

On Purdue's offense

"Jeff (Brohm) and his brother (Brian Bohm) both have very talented offensive minds. They are guys that, this year, have had different ways of winning games. It's kind of a transition throughout the season to where we are headed into this last game. It's obviously a little about the elements but more about who they play. It was really interesting to watch the Iowa game unfold, when you play a Big Ten West opponent because we have last year's film to go through which has a lot of carryover divisional play, which can affect your game plan overall."

On the future of the program

"No one wanted to be 7-2 this week, but I didn't come here to win five games. I've made that very clear before it happened. We want to chase a Big Ten championship and, fortunately, as disappointing as Saturday was and because of what we've done, those things are still in front of us. To have three games left, mathematically, if we were to have success against Purdue, and win one of those other two and the chance of beating Purdue (for the division title) are 100%. I don't think you can argue with three games left and anybody is going to feel bad about that scenario."