Bowl Eligible!

With a win over the Ball State Cardinals,
The Fighting Illini Footballers became bowl eligible! The 28-17 win gave the Illini a 6-3 record heading into Saturday's contest with the Gophers of Minnesota. The Illini SHOULD win because let's just say the Gophers have not had much of a bite to them this year, but hopefully they don't let this game turn into Iowa.
The Illini NEED to finish 2-1, beating Minnesota and Northwestern. I don't think we stand a chance @ Ohio St., but you never know. That would for sure get the Illini into a nice bowl game instead of some bowl game that's name is as long as a sentence. The Defense held a pretty good offense in check only giving up 10 points. Again they won the war, but lost some of the battles. They do what they have to to get the win. J Leman led the way with 11 tackles giving him 100 tackles through 9 games. He is just all over the place-and hopefully he'll be playing on Sunday's next year.

Rashard was a beast running the ball for 189 yards on 28 carries for an average of 6.8 yards per carry and 2 TD's. Juice had a serviceable game passing 7-15 for 145 yards, but did have 2 Int's-one of which Rashard probably should have caught. Juice also ran for 99 yards and 2 TD's. Arrelious Benn had 4 catches for 97 yards-they need to get him the ball more.

Notes: The Fighter Pilots that flew over the stadium before the game were awesome.

One another side note: Congratulations to Mr. Corsi and the Gibault Men's Soccer team-Back to Back to Back Class A Champions! Gibault Soccer is pretty much becoming a dynasty.

Illini Basketball vs. Quincy tonight...

Curtis Martin and a trip to Chicago

Last Friday (19th), I got the opportunity to take Curtis Martin, the President and Founder of FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) back to the airport after his visit to U of I. Matt, Jordan Schneider and I, were given the task of getting Curtis to Chicago for his flight ont ime and mission was a success. It was really cool to be able to spend 3 hrs with Curtis because of how extremely busy his schedule is. At the same time you see why he founded FOCUS because of his burning desire for Jesus and wanting to change the world or shall we say "Set the World on Fire." Curtis was on Campus to give a talk about "What is truth" concerning moral relativism and how messed up Truth has become over the years in the world. Jesus said " Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6)." On the trip, I had two essential questions for Curtis: Is it worth it-being a FOCUS Missionary and If you could tell a student one thing about becoming a Missionary what would it be? His answer to the first one was based on my first question that if the call to be a missionary was in your heart then, yes it was worth it. Besides the priesthood, there are not many other ways to excel or grow in virtue and righteousness as a missionary. So there are some things for me to ponder as I try to figure out what I am going to do with life after college-FOCUS Missionary or HS Teacher/Coach??

On the way back we stopped at Our Lady of the Angels Church. It's cool to visit other churches and see how they are built and to see the wonder of HIS-story played out through history, particularly the story of salvation and the great saints of the church. The church itself had many beautiful paintings and sculptures that you just look at and see God's glory in them. Then we stopped at Ed Debevic's which was interesting in itself because the waiters are supposed to be rude and obnoxious towards the customers. Our guy was more obnoxious and could have done a better job. I enjoyed the trip because it was a way to get to know Jordan and Matt a lot better and spend some quality fellowship time with them. I think it also helped me with my life question and it was cool to meet Curtis Martin and see his vision of FOCUS.


This depiction of St. Michael the Archangel makes
me want to be a warrior (Exodus 15:3),
Curtis mentioned as being a (also touched on in Wild at Heart) warrior as a missionary. Biblical Masculinity and Holy Manliness at it's best!!

Bo Ryan cranks dat Soulja Boy

Alright Coach Weber, it's your turn...this could be one of the funniest things I have ever seen...

If I could be like Mike...

The Greatest Basketball Player of all time was at Ubben today-yes the Great Michael Jordan, and I was lucky enough to be about 15 feet away. I was too scared or the opportunity never presented itself to shake his hand or challenge him to one-on-one, which I would have had a good chance because he was in jeans and dress shoes. So, in a couple weeks the Interview between MJ and Matt Lauer will be on the Today Show and Jason may appear in the background. I had to restrain myself the first time I saw him, but was able to control myself the rest of the time.




And Frankie Williams was there at practice today-just pretty cool to see Illini Greats comeback and help the program!

Illini Midnight Madness-Think Orange and Wear Pink

Friday night officially kicked off the college basketball season! This year's Midnight Madness was a lot of hoopla, with not a lot of hoopin', but was fun and exciting none the less. The dance teams were crazy, because no way would I ever be able to do anything remotely close to what they did. I thought the best was the dude break dancing who spun on his head like 10 times.




Props to my boys, J-Steff, Matt and Mitch the FOCUS Missionaries and the rest of the Johnnies for taking on Ball4Real- former And-1 tour players. They stuck with em, but missed some shots and gave up a few too many dunks; poor Mitch got posterized!








Trent Meachem's team won the 3-point contest with Trent only missing 3 shots total out of a possible 12-ridiculous. That's what he is here foris to shoot the ball and we are going to need a lot of that this year for the Illini to be successful. Mike Davis aka. Brian Randle's Little Brother, took the Dunk Contest with his high-flying act! The boy is long, lean, and athletic-let's hope he puts some muscle on that frame and make a career out of dunking on people and scoring 15 points a game. Highlight of the dunk contest was Jeff Jordan putting on a retro Bulls MJ jersey and throwing one down-I think Jeff got his athleticism from his mom...






As for the scrimmage itself; it was more of play around time, see who could get some sweet dunks in and make the crowd go "ooooh" and "aaahhh," which they did, so mission accomplished. Now all the Illini need to do is put the hard work in practice, get down to the nitty gritty details and fundamentals, put it all together to be a hard nosed scrappy Illini team that can make some noise in this year's college basketball season!



Random Thoughts:
If Brian Randle stays healthy he has a good chance to have a great year, much like Warren did last year.

I thought the idea of wearing pink was cool, but I am glad its just for one night. It was weird not having the Hall painted Orange.

Illini Basketball is looking up these days with the recent recruits giving verbals (well with recent history a verbal doesn't mean much, but I think in these cases it's a good verbal).

Preseason Predictions:
MVP: Brian Randle
Most Improved: Chester Frazier
Hustle: Chester Frazier
Sweet 16!!

Cub Fans: Please Stop Believing

You just feel sorry for Cub's fans.

Caddyshack - Chevy Chase shares his wisdom

So yesterday I decided to go golfing since I hadn't in over a year and it would be my last free Sunday in a long time, I said what the heck. Only $14 (what a deal) after 3 pm, I could get 18 in before dark (could have played more, but because of the slow and lack of quality golfers in front of me, I wasn't) and enjoy the beautiful day and some peace and tranquility of the golf course. Other than the waiting at about every shot on the front 9, I managed to go out with a 40 starting the first three holes with pars. After the 11th hole the people in front of me left and I was able to get ahead of the people behind me and hit two or three balls at times or putt 2 or 3 to sharpen my game. Battling the setting sun I came back to the clubhouse with a 40 to finish with an 80, give or take a few shots. I was glad and surprised by the way I played because of how long it had been, but I did go to the driving range a couple weeks ago to see if I still had it. I was very pleased with my ball striking with my irons, I could have putted better, but wasn't bad-did have a 3 putt though. My driver was toying with me, the first hole was my best drive, a ripper right down the middle and the last hole was much the same with a little tailing action. I am still getting used to the new driver after I snapped the head off of my old one. All in all it was a relaxing time and a good way to enjoy a beautiful Sunday!

I wish I could have played more this summer and if the teaching career doesn't go so well, maybe, just maybe I could sharpen my golf skills...probably not, but with that "Thank You very little"

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

That's another win for the Fighting Illini as this time they take down #5 Wisconsin Badgers 31-26. I liked how J Leman said it best in an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this morning "I had my big-boy pads because Coach Zook challenged me,'' linebacker J Leman said. "I think we got them out of their game plan.'' The Illini took a 17-0 lead and never looked back, although the stinkin Badgers would make it close several times, the defense made the plays when needed and the offense did their thing.




Rashard ran for 160 yards and 2 Td's, while Juice ran for over 90 and passed for 121 yards and one TD ( a little shovel pass forward to Rashard). Arrelius Benn again showed signs of brilliance making spectacular catches and breaking tackles before getting hurt late in the 4th quarter (5 catches for 51 yards). Juice went down late in the 4th after Rejus, and Eddie McGee came in and sealed the deal by handing the ball off to Rashard or keeping it himself sealing the win with a 5-yard TD Run with 5:28 seconds left in the game. The defense held the Badgers to a late touchdown and on the ensuing kickoff was able to handle the onside kick and run out the clock.

My game ball would go to Rashard because not only did he have 160 yards rushing on 19 carries, but also 33 yards receiving on 4 catches and three total touchdowns. He was able to break numerous tackles. The best run was in the second half, if I remember correctly, he ran left was basically stopped behind the line of scrimmage broke the tackle and cut back right for a gain of like 15 yards or so. It was just simply ridiculous.

Other notes on the game: This is the first time the Illini have been 3-0 in the Big 10 since 1990 and first victory over a top #5 team since 1989. In Ron Zook's first 2 seasons, the Illini only won 4 games TOTAl, now they have 5 wins this season! The defense has some fine tuning to do. They win the war, but lose some huge battles. Late in the game they were starting to get to the QB Donavan and made two big interceptions; one by Mitchell and the other by Vontae Davis who outjumped the taller Wisconsin defender. They have seem susceptible to the big play downfield, especially on 3rd and long. They have shut the run down, allowing Wisconsin RB P.J. Hill to just 83 yards on 21 carries, and Hill has been one of the Big 10's top backs this year, def behind Rashard. On offense Juice made some great plays with his feet, and was quietly effective with the passing, completing 12 of 19 passes (63%). When Rejus went down, it hurt because the other receivers need to work on getting open and actually catching the ball, Hudson dropped a pass that probably should have been caught. Fullback Russ Weil made a SPECTACULAR grab for 31 yards, wrestling the ball away from the Wisconsin defender and setting up a touchdown-he has been great for the Illini without receiving a whole lot of attention. Jason Reda stayed perfect with a 50 yard field goal and making all his PAT kicks.

If the Illini keep playing like they have, are capable of, and make the right adjustments there is no reason they should go to Columbus and think of a Big 10 championship (while focusing on the rest of the games which they should win and are very winnable). The Ohio St. and Michigan games are the biggest tests left for the Illini, granted that they don't look past the other teams.