Illinois Wins Whiteout for the Hat, 20-13

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois defeated Northwestern, 20-13, on Saturday evening, capturing the Land of Lincoln trophy in its final game of the regular season. Nearly half a foot of snow fell at Gies Memorial Stadium, the most for any home game in Illinois history. 

The Illini defense came up with four takeaways on the night, highlighted by a pair of second half interceptions from Miles Scott, the first game of his career with two or more, and the first interception of the season for Torrie Cox Jr.

Gabe Jacas also added a pair of sacks in the second half, the 26th and 27th of his career, finishing the regular season as the Big Ten sacks leader with 11.0.

Rushing touchdowns from Ca'Lil Valentine and Kaden Feagin earned the Illini a 14-10 advantage into the half. Valentine paced the ground attack with 74 total yards, while Luke Altmyer contributed 136 passing yards.

In the second half, David Olano drilled a pair of field goals to maintain Illinois' lead, including a 47-yarder, his longest this year.

Illinois now turns its focus to the postseason after qualifying for a bowl game in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2010-11. Illinois' bowl destination will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 7. For ticket information on the Fighting Illini's bowl game, click here.

HIGHLIGHTS

PRESS CONFERENCES

POSTGAME NOTES

Player Notes

• Luke Altmyer threw for 136 yards on 10-for-16 passing in his final appearance at Gies Memorial Stadium.
  • Altmyer has led Illinois to a 22-12 record as the team's starting quarterback, the third-most wins in Illinois history, behind only Kurt Kittner (24) and Jack Trudeau (23).
• Ca'Lil Valentine rushed 14 times for 74 yards and a touchdown.
  • Recorded his fourth rushing touchdown of the season – the fifth of his career – and his first since Oct. 4 at Purdue.
• Kaden Feagin finished with five carries and a rushing touchdown.
  • Posted his seventh rushing score of the season and the 12th of his career with 30 seconds remaining in the first half.
• Tanner Arkin tallied two catches for 33 yards.
  • Hauled in the longest reception of his collegiate career, on a double pass from WR Hank Beatty, to set up the Illini's first touchdown of the game.
• Hank Beatty made three catches for 21 yards while completing one pass on a trick play in the first half.
  • Completed a career-long 28-yard pass in the second quarter.
• Torrie Cox Jr. corralled an interception while making six total tackles.
  • Recorded his first interception of the season, his fourth as an Illini, and the eighth of his collegiate career late in the second quarter, to set up the Illini's second touchdown of the game just before halftime.
• Gabe Jacas logged four total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks.
  • Registered his fourth game this season with multiple sacks.
    • Jacas is now this season's Big Ten's sacks leader.
• David Olano all four of his kicks, including two field goals and two PATs.
  • Drilled a season-long 47-yard field goal to give the Illini a 17-10 lead midway through the third quarter.
• Miles Scott totaled four tackles while making two interceptions.
  • First game of his career with multiple interceptions.
    • Made the sixth and seventh picks of his career and his second and third interceptions of the season.
    • Is the first Illini with multiple interceptions in a game since Xavier Scott had two against #19 Kansas on Sept. 7, 2024.
    • Is the first Illini with multiple interceptions in a Big Ten game since Sydney Brown and Devon Witherspoon both had two at Northwestern on Nov. 26, 2022.

Team Notes

• Saturday night's contest marked the most snow at a home game in Gies Memorial Stadium history.
• The Illini defense forced multiple turnovers for the fourth time this season.
• Illinois tied the program record for wins during a two-year period with its 18th victory between the 2024 and 2025 seasons. It is the fourth time Illinois has won 18 games over a two-year period, joining 1989-90, 1902-03, and 1901-02. 
• Illinois has 8+ wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1989-90. The Illini have never won 9+ games in back-to-back seasons.
• Illinois has 8+ wins three times in a four-year span for the first time since winning 8+ games four straight years from 1901-04.
• Bret Bielema is the first head coach in Illinois history to win 8+ games three times in a four-year span. The last time Illinois achieved the feat from 1901-04, the program's 1904 season was coached by a group of four alumni.
• Illinois won 23 Big Ten games in Bret Bielema's first five seasons at Illinois. It is Illinois' most Big Ten wins in a five-year period since also winning 23 Big Ten games from 1990-94.
• Illinois has 31 wins over the last four seasons, tied for its most wins over a four-year period since winning 32 games from 1902-05.
• Illinois has 36 wins over the last five seasons, tied for its most wins over a five-year period since winning 37 games from 1981-85.
• The Illini made three interceptions against the Wildcats, their most since making three interceptions against Northwestern at Wrigley Field on Nov. 30, 2024.

QUOTES

Head Coach Bret Bielema

Opening Statement

Well, just want to say thank you, obviously Josh runs the whole athletic department, but all the people that made the game happen today and we started working yesterday. I saw your tweet when I was kind of waiting to see what the stadium looked like, so I sent that on to all my coaches, because it didn't look too good about four hours out, but I knew there's a lot of things in place. Usually I'm getting in trouble for being on the field, but somebody tapped me and I looked, and I just about got clipped by a tractor going by with a snow plow. So it was kind of a unique game day experience. Super excited. Brett informed me earlier in the week, obviously, we were 11-2 the last two years here, to go to 12-2 to win 12 games here in Gies Memorial, the most it's ever been in two back to back seasons is pretty, pretty awesome. I know when we came here, we lost six in a row to Northwestern. So, just the amount of growth that we've had in that area. You know, there's so many people to thank, but mainly just our seniors, those 30 guys now, hopefully not all of them are leaving me. I know that a couple guys jumped in just in case, but super excited to get this W for our guys, guys like Miles Scott, Luke Altmyer and so many other seniors, Gabe Jacas became the Big Ten sacks leader today, right? So to have that happen, just absolutely awesome, we got to wait a week to find out where we're going. But to have back to back bowl games, ??something that hasn't been done very often around here, we're just super excited for that. And bottom line, to get the Land of Lincoln trophy, two trophy games every year and now for two years back to back, and have all of those in our possession, between the Northwestern and Purdue games, is very, very special. So super excited. Wednesday is a big day. We got Signing Day coming in. I think this will be one of the best classes I've ever been able to assemble. Super excited about this group and what they can bring. So we'll celebrate tonight. I gave the guys tomorrow and Monday off. You would have thought I gave them all a car for Christmas. So they work very, very hard. They should enjoy today and tomorrow, and then we'll get back to work on Tuesday and see where we go for a holiday, for a bowl game at the end of the week. 

On the senior class

Well, you know, they've changed the perception. John Asamoah was our guest captain this week, and I met John. Martin O'Donnell was the guy that actually recommended him to us. Martin and John had played together here. You know, I never tell the guest captains what to talk about. John came in, and the first thing he said to our guys, he actually said, Hey, I'm here to applaud you, right? Like I'm living in Saint Louis now, a former player when he was in the league, you know, there weren't a lot of great things happening here. And you know, now he's down in St Louis, and people know him and who he is and where he played, people come up to him, and he was telling our guys how much pride he has in what they built here. And I think that's really something cool for our guys to hear. I think they lose sight when they're here. And, you know, we had a couple setbacks this year that were tough to swallow, but to know where we've gone and the journey we've been on the last five years building this thing, it's crazy. I just think a lot about those two years that we didn't get the bowl, we were one game away each one of those years, you know, but I just think it's great to send signs of what's going to come and these seniors are a huge part of it.

On the defense

Yeah, you know, a lot of good defensive players. I give credit to Aaron [Henry] and the defensive staff, you know, had a really, I thought good game plan. So I told our guys last night, there's nobody in the country that has put more into a game plan than our coaches. You know, we plan for regular weather, adverse weather with snow, adverse weather with rain and freezing, sleeting conditions, 355 mile an hour wind gusts. So I thought we had kind of a plan all day long. We were just a little bit ahead of wherever, wherever we needed to be. I thought that part of the defensive game was really, really good. I was mad at myself. I let the time run down on that third down that was a third and four, it jumped to a third and nine. That can't happen, and that's definitely something that we can learn from. But our guys' resiliency was really, really awesome.

On finishing with eight wins

Yeah, I had somebody point out to me, they sent me an article. They asked me at media days in Vegas about finding a successful season. And you guys know how I am, I wouldn't give you a number, right? But I did say, hopefully we're playing our best football at the end of the year, right? And I thought today was really good. This was a tough day to build in, right? You know, kind of evens out everything. I think this has been the year of the response, you know, after the Indiana game, to respond against USC, then to lose the game at Washington and have the two back to back wins against Rutgers and Maryland. And then obviously the unfortunate part on the Wisconsin side. But I think totality wise, I always have to look at what's in front of us. I want to win them all, right? But I have to look at what's in front of us. This signing class, coupled with an eight-win season and we get a chance to get a ninth. I think there might be three or four guys in this signing class who are day one starters. And that gives us testament to who we can compete with, right? Even with three Big Ten championships at Wisconsin, I never could get in on the guys we're getting in on. We're getting them to come here and visit and then also land them. And that's a really, really big deal.

Miles Scott

On being part of the trailblazing group to turn around Illinois football

Man, it feels great. Truthfully, that's what I wanted to do when I first came here, being a guy from the state of Illinois. I feel like a lot of guys always leave, like big time guys they usually leave the state of Illinois to go elsewhere. I wasn't a big-time guy, but I wanted to change the program. I wanted to make this the program people want to come to. It feels awesome truthfully.

On what he will tell people about his senior day

Exactly what my stat line was, two picks and I should have had three or four. I took advantage of the ones I could have though, so I just thank God for that. On the second pick I felt I had a beat on where the quarterback was when they kept lining up trips to the wide part of the field. Once I see the tight end go out, I'm breaking on it to go make a tackle, but then the ball just popped up, and I was able to get my hands under it. It was kind of like a similar play to Rutgers last year when they said I didn't catch it, but I know I did.

Gabe Jacas

On what his four years at Illinois meant

I wanted to establish a legacy here and I felt like I did that in my time here. I had the opportunity to leave last year but I wanted to do something bigger than myself and coming back for my senior year was part of it. Finishing the season with double digit sacs was always a goal and I finally accomplished that. It's all a blessing from God. I kept having my faith in Him and trusted in Him and took care of the rest. I know guys after me are going to do the same thing.

On how the defense has bounced back and stuck together

We know how to handle adversity. There's games we don't play well and the next game we usually bounce back and I think that's part of our DNA. Credit to our guys and the coaches we just know how to deal with adversity well. I'm glad we were able to finish the game out, it was a hard fought game with the defense. We created a lot of turnovers to get the ball back in the hands of our offense and play complimentary football together.

Josh Kreutz

On the playing conditions

That was awesome. That first half was something I don't think I'm ever going to forget. We embraced it for sure. When you embrace the game like that, you usually come out with the win. You could just tell that the guys embraced it: the defense, the offense, everyone fighting together and playing complementary football.

On the seniors leaving a winning legacy of sustained success

Especially as I get older, I've thought a lot about sustained success for the University of Illinois. Obviously, we've gotten back-to-back eight-win seasons and can build on that. I won't be here, but there will be guys here – my brother will be here; other guys will be here – who can hopefully continue that success. Hopefully, they've learned a lot from the seniors, just as much as we've learned from them. Hopefully, they can keep those traditions, work ethic, and everything else going forward.

Dylan Rosiek

On the defense's second-half performance

It was electric. We got put in some situations that we were able to execute and get off the field. They start in the red zone and hold them to a field goal. It's just little things like that that stack on top of each other. We were able to make plays when we needed to make plays.

On his reflection of the defense during his time at Illinois

Throughout my time here, we've had some highs and had some lows. To be able to continue to battle with this group of guys, continue to push the envelope, and bring Illinois to a place it hasn't been in a long time, it's been a tremendous time with these teammates.

Luke Altmyer

On playing his last game in Gies Memorial Stadium

I came here just trying to figure things out, did not know a whole lot from every single standpoint. In the portal, I prayed about being around people who supported and valued me, and I landed in the perfect spot, starting with Coach B on down. It's been such a journey, highs and lows, but I would not trade any of it for the world. This place transformed me completely, and I will carry it with me for a long time. I never thought in a million years I would end up in central Illinois, in the Midwest, but it has become a home for me. I love it here, my teammates, my coaches and my community. It's been a blast. 

On if he wants to continue playing football 

I do not know what thirty minutes looks like from now. I love to play. I love to compete. Football is what I live and breathe, it's what I prepare for. Any opportunity I get to start a football game, or to play, it's special. I love these guys so much, and I do not take this for granted. I will talk with people to figure out what is next, but what I can tell you is that I love to play. I do not put too much stock into that, whatever people think of me, and I hope they just see a tough guy out there. I hope people understand my story of overcoming  being overlooked and rising from the ashes of adversity. The tattoo on my wrist I got last year translates from Hebrew to "toughness", and I that is what I carry with me every single day. I want to be the guy who does the right thing and tries to be his best every single day. I am okay with being the guy who leads a life of love, or even a quite life. I do not care about what people think about my play, but more about what they think of me as a person.