CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois forced three late turnovers, but it was not enough in the Illini's 20-7 loss to Nebraska in a Big Ten West clash at Memorial Stadium on Friday night.
Pat Bryant recorded his fourth touchdown of the season on a 46-yard strike in the second quarter, a play that tied the mark for the Illini's longest passing score of the year.
Isaiah Williams registered a team-high eight catches for 57 yards, one of nine different receivers to grab a pass in the loss. Williams' performance moved him into sole possession of second place on the program's all-time receptions list.
The Illini defense forced three takeaways, all of which came on three consecutive drives in the fourth quarter. Kenenna Odeluga tallied the first fumble recovery of his college career, a play which came in the red zone, before Xavier Scott notched his second interception of the season 85 seconds later. James Kreutz recovered his first fumble of his career, with Odeluga forcing it.
Nicario Harper made a team-high 17 tackles, a new career-best total for the Illini defensive back.
Illinois travels to Maryland on Oct. 14 to take on the Terrapins away from home for the first time since 2018. Kickoff is slated for 2:30 p.m. CT on NBC.
PRESS CONFERENCE
GAMEÂ NOTES
- Junior WR Isaiah Williams recorded eight catches for 57 yards.
- Williams moved up to second on Illinois' all-time career receptions list with 170 receptions, behind only College Football Hall of Famer David Williams' 262 career receptions.
- Williams now has 1,752 career receiving yards, 52 yards behind No. 9 Malik Turner (1,804 from 2014-17) in program history.
- Williams how has 170 career receptions, second-most all-time in program history.
- He has at least one catch in 31 consecutive games since switching from QB to WR and has recorded at least three receptions in 20 consecutive games and 5+ catches in seven straight contests.
- Junior WR Pat Bryant caught four passes for 76 yards.
- His second-quarter touchdown catch was his fourth of the campaign, adding onto his career-best mark in a single season.
- Senior DB Nicario Harper made 17 total tackles, including 7 solo, in tonight's game to lead the Illini.
- Set a new career-high mark.
- Sophomore DB Xavier Scott recorded his second interception of the season in the fourth quarter.
- Sophomore OL Hunter Whitenack, junior LB Ryan Meed and redshirt freshman LB James Kreutz all made their first-career starts .
- The Illinois defense forced a season-high three turnovers.
- Over a five-drive stretch in the second half, Nebraska's average drive start was the 35-yard line, but the Illinois defense held the Cornhuskers to just three points over those five drives. Three of the five drives started inside of the 30-yard line.
QUOTES
Opening statement:
"Obviously, a very tough game, but I would like to start off with going off my message that went out last night about Dick Butkus. He was one of the best that's ever played a game at Illinois or in the NFL, one of the best players ever to play the game. On top of that, one of the true pleasures of my job was the opportunity to meet him last year and shake his hand and visit with someone who I respected growing up and then to be able to have that relationship over the last year. Condolences to his family. Our guys had a moment of silence today. We came over and gathered around the statue and gave him a moment of silence.Â
"The game itself was extremely infuriating and frustrating. We have to change the equation and the answer because we can't afford those moments. Our defense did a nice job in the second half shutting them out, but the bottom line is we have to convert points. We can't win any games without scoring points. So, really attack that, as we have been, and get different answers to get different results.Â
"Injury wise, a lot of guys banged up coming into this game. Unfortunately, I think we had some other guys banged up, but I don't know anything about their injuries right now.Â
"There are a lot of guys doing good things, a lot of guys who gave effort this week during practice. The desire, attitude and energy going into the game was really at a high level. I thought our guys prepared for the moment, but we didn't get the right result and that's just frustrating for everybody -- the players, ourselves, our fans, our families and the university administration. To be a 2-4 football team is a very painful thing. I wish I could give a better answer, but we'll make the adjustments, make the corrections and make some big changes and hope the result gets better."
On the defense making a few big stops:
"Our defense has continued to make some strides. With not having Tarique (Barnes) in there, it really fell on the heels of Dylan (Rosiek) and Kenenna (Odeluga). We still have to do a better job, especially some third downs early on and the third downs where we give up scoring opportunities."Â
On energy and momentum:
"There is an energy. We had some success right before the second half. Football is about momentum. When you have that energy, you have that opportunity to score, and that opportunity presents itself, you have to take advantage of that. It starts with myself. It starts with everybody on the team. I have to hold myself accountable. I am just going to keep working hard and be the best leader I can."
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On supporting his teammates:
"I will do my best to shine my light of experience, if that helps anybody. It is not just football; it is life. We have all been through worse in life. Losing sucks, but we do not work this hard to lose. This energy is not the greatest, but we are going to keep going. We will bust our tails and show up to work every day."
On response to second half:
"Our job is to put out the fire no matter what happens. At the end of the day, we try to not let them in the end zone."
On the momentum swing they needed:
"We can only control what we can control. We can only do so much on the defensive side of the ball."
On recent defensive improvements:Â
"The defense took steps forward, but there are still a lot of little details that we have to improve on. We gave up 20 points, so we have to do a better job.
"We may have taken some steps forward, but I think in the big picture we have to keep chugging, get better at the minor details, and keep going."
On the message moving forward:
"You don't shrug off the pissed-off feeling. The pissed-off feeling fuels the work.
"Everyone's irritated. Everyone's pissed off, but we have to keep going. The season's not over. We have to keep building and keep doing what we're doing, but we have to be doing it better."
On what he can learn from this game:
"It's tough on your mental, but as a leader you have to put that aside and your personal issues aside, try to stay on track to try to lead the young guys who are 18, 19 years old. I'm putting my frustration aside to help those guys stay focused."
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On what changed on the first drive:
"We came out the gate swinging, and then when you have some early-down success, it's going to result in your own success. I think adding those couple series after that, we struggled on first down, and it put us in a tough situation on third down. When we got stopped on the 1-yard line, it set the tone for the whole game for sure."
