CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois closed its three-game homestand with a Homecoming win over Central Michigan, 30-9, at Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Four consecutive scoring drives between the second and third quarters helped the Fighting Illini move to 3-0 on the season, their best start since 2011.Â
Pat Bryant recorded the third 100-yard game of his career, finishing with 102 yards on seven catches. He also tallied two receiving scores, his second multi-touchdown game of the season and the third of his career.
Luke Altmyer went 19-for-29 with 242 yards and two passing touchdowns, both of which featured Pat Bryant on the receiving end.
Josh McCray and Ca'Lil Valentine surpassed the 50-yard mark on the ground, with McCray totaling eight carries and a team-best 54 rushing yards. Valentine averaged 10.6 yards per carry on his five rushes and career-most 53 yards.Â
Xavier Scott registered his team-leading third interception late in the third quarter, his second straight game with a pick.
After the Illini defense forced a three-and-out on the Chippewas' opening possession, the Orange and Blue offense quickly found its groove. Working its way down the field and converting two third downs, Illinois found itself facing a fourth-and-4 at the CMU 30-yard line. A completion to Franklin, his third of the drive, moved the chains before Kaden Feagin took a 14-yard carry into the red zone.Â
Altmyer found a wide-open Pat Bryant on the next play for an 11-yard touchdown to open the scoring and complete a 12-play, 59-yard drive.
Central Michigan cut into the deficit with a field goal on its next possession before both teams punted on their next possessions. With CMU driving into Illinois territory, the Illini forced a turnover on downs, putting the offense back in business near midfield.
A 16-yard Valentine rush highlighted the ensuing trip down the field, and the Illini extended their lead to 10-3 with a 49-yard field goal from David Olano with under two minutes to go before the break.
The Chippewas responded with a field goal of their own late in the second quarter, but the Illini bounced right back and made history in the process.
Taking over with 36 seconds on the clock, Illinois moved into CMU territory with a 31-yard strike to Pat Bryant. Kicker Ethan Moczulski's first field-goal attempt at the collegiate level sailed through the uprights as time expired from 59 yards out, a mark that set a new program record.
Illinois double-dipped with a scoring drive right out of the break. A 17-yard pass to Franklin opened the drive before Collin Dixon's 33-yard catch-and-run moved the Illini into the Chippewa half of the field. On the fourth play of the possession, Altmyer found Pat Bryant for a 20-yard score, putting the home side in front, 20-6, via a touchdown less than two minutes into the second half.
An Illinois sack on third-and-long ended the Chippewas' next possession, and the Illini used another long scoring drive to add to their advantage. 10 plays and 62 yards later, Olano converted his second field goal of the afternoon, this time from 34 yards out.
CMU kicked its third field goal of the day on its next drive, but Illinois answered right back once again. The Illini began their possession in Central Michigan territory, and a career-long 22-yard Valentine carry moved the home side into the red zone. After the hosts got inside the 5-yard line, Feagin found the end zone on a 2-yard carry, giving the Illini a 30-9 edge.
Illinois (3-0) travels to take on No. 23 Nebraska next week for the Illini's first road game of the season. Kickoff is scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. CT on FOX.
HIGHLIGHTS
PRESS CONFERENCE
POSTGAME NOTES
Team Notes
- Bret Bielema improved to 21-19 in his Illinois career with today's win.
- First head coach in program history to start .500 or better through his first 40 games since Lou Tepper started 21-18-1 in 1995.
- Bret Bielema has recorded his second 3-0 regular-season non-conference slate.
- First coach in program history with multiple undefeated regular seasons against nonconference opponents since Ron Turner (1999, 2000, 2001).
- Bret Bielema has a 9-4 record against nonconference opponents (including bowl games) through his first 13 such contests.
- Bielema's 9-4 record in nonconference games is the best by an Illini head coach through 13 games since Robert Zuppke started 10-3 against non-Big Ten opponents from 1913-18.
- Illinois has started 3-0 for the first time since 2011.
- Bret Bielema is the first Illini coach to have a 3-0 start within his first four seasons since Ron Turner did so in 1999, his third year at the helm.
- Illinois is 3-0 with a top-20 win for the first time in 50 years (1974) and the second time in program history.
- The Illini defense recorded at least one interception for the third-straight game.
- Have picked off a pass in four consecutive games dating back to last season.
Player Notes
- Luke Altmyer completed 19 of his 29 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns.
- Has two games this season with at least two touchdown passes.
- His 242 yards is a new season high.
- WR Pat Bryant caught seven passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns.
- Recorded the 12th touchdown reception of his career on Illinois' opening drive and later caught his 13th-career touchdown on the Illini's first drive of the third quarter, moving him all alone into seventh in program history.
- Second multi-touchdown game of the season and the third such game of his career.
- Recorded his third 100-yard receiving game of his career.
- Has at least one reception in 15-straight games.
- RB Josh McCray rushed eight times for a team-leading 54 yards.
- Had a 28-yard rush on his first carry of the game in the first quarter, his longest since also running for 28 yards on Oct. 23, 2021, at Penn State.
- RB Ca'Lil Valentine carried the ball five times for 53 yards.
- RB Kaden Feagin rushed for his third touchdown of the season in the fourth quarter.
- Has ran for a score in each game this season
- K Ethan Moczulski made a 59-yard field goal to end the first half, setting a new program record.
- Was the first attempted field goal of his collegiate career.
- Tied for the second-longest field goal at Memorial Stadium.
- 61 yards – Ralf Mojsiejenko, Michigan State, Sept. 11, 1982.
- 59 yards – Tom Skladany, Ohio State, Nov. 8, 1975.
- Tied for the longest made field goal in the FBS this season. It is also the longest made field goal in a game played in the United States in 2024.
- Nick Fitzgerald, Florida State, Aug. 24, vs. Georgia Tech (in Ireland).
- Tied for the eighth-longest field goal in Big Ten history.
- It is two yards longer than any kick made by an NFL player this season.
- LB Seth Coleman recorded five tackles, three solo, with one tackle for a loss, one pass breakup and two quarterback hurries.
- LB Gabe Jacas posted six tackles, five solo, with 1.0 sacks and two tackles for a loss.
- DL Dennis Briggs Jr. recorded his first sack as an Illini in the third quarter.
QUOTES
Opening statement:
"It wasn't pretty, I could feel this one coming a little bit since last Sunday. We put the Kansas game behind us and flipped the page to Central Michigan. Unfortunately, I think we made this a little more difficult than it needed to be. I think these teachable moments are a lot better on the end of victory than defeat, so I know we can make some things happen. I give a lot of credit to them. I thought our players persevered, especially in the second half and when they did it was fun to watch."
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"We've got to take care of some pre-snap issues, especially on offense. We got some new personel groupings in there and put some guys in different positions. Brandon Henderson is a guy we'd like to get out on the field, so we threw him in a tight end number which was awesome to get him out there. I thought Luke Altmyer did some good things with improv, made some deep ball throws. It's good to get Josh McCray involved, the way these first two games played out we haven't been able to see him much. In my experience as a head coach when you have running backs with different skill sets it changes your offense. To pop Kaden Feagin in there, McCray and Ca'lil Valentine; Ca'lil's got that little sidestep shuffle that's really impressive to watch."
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"I thought our defense was resilient, a special shout out to Aaron Henry. He was in my office late Wednesday night and lost his sister in the middle of the weekend and to have him persevere. Our defensive staff took over and did a lot of things for him while he was away for a little bit."
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"We're three games into the season and to have the few points we do speaks volumes about the stuff our players and staff have done. We have a tremendous task this week. Nebraska plays UNI this week, so we'll dial into that, we'll turn the page very quickly tomorrow. Today is Sunday already because we're on a short week so tomorrow will be Monday and so on. I know the outside world thinks we're 3-0 but we're going to try to go 1-0 every week and focus on the task at hand to get that done."
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On Zakhari Franklin, Pat Bryant and challenging the offensive line:
"Pat has grown so much from a year ago. When you can have two players of high caliber on opposite sides of the field, that's a very difficult thing to take care of defensively. Then if you have a good run game or a dynamic quarterback, which i think we do, it makes it hard to double both perimeter guys. I think it's going to be hard for teams to set up and defend us when those two guys have a lot of wins on the outside. I'm excited for them, both continue to catch the ball well the way Luke's throwing it. We must get cleaner on the offensive line; we just have to challenge that group. Overall, they must take a step forward. To get where we want to be they must play a lot better."
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On Ethan Moczulski:
"It's been a work in progress with him, I think he was the best college kicker coming out of high school when he signed with Texas A&M. When his name came up, we brought him in on his official visit with his dad. His experience at A&M wasn't a very positive one when he talked about it. He wanted to know what he can do to maximize his leg strength. We did what we had to do to get him here thankfully and the first practice I thought 'woah this guy is different'. In camp I want to say the first three or four practices he was perfect, never missed and hit one from 60 plus. Then he had a little bit of a soft tissue injury pop up so that's why we backed off him a little bit. He's been hitting the ball so well and to see him and David Olano both have success today was great. Hopefully, it's a one-two punch that will pay dividends for us down the road."
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On Terah Edwards:
"I tend to watch things through a different lens. Tuesday practice I made a cut up of everybody's individual time. Terah had 182 plays before practice got into our third period where he worked on a specific drill. One of them was getting pressure through the A gap and then breakdown on the quarterback because he's been able to apply pressure, but not able to get him down. He's a very dynamic player when you can get pressure on their center like that. We thought Central Michigan's center was their best player up front so we really wanted to get after him and Terah applied it all day."
On his connection with Luke growing:
"It's a stronger connection for sure. It's mainly due to all the work we put in. Over the summer we trained really hard, so once we got to the field it was easy."
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On what he's learned about the team through three weeks:
"We are a hard fighting team. Last week we played hard and this week we wanted to see how we can respond playing against a different team. We did have some hiccups this game, but we bounced back in the second half."
On his school record field goal:
"It's pretty awesome, especially since it is my first college field goal. It felt smooth and I knew right off my foot that it was going in, which was a great feeling."
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On coming to Illinois:
"At Texas A&M, I wasn't the guy that did much in games, so coming to Illinois was awesome. The coaching staff is great, and I fell in love with that. Getting my feet wet with playing time and field goals is nice."
On where the teams edge comes from:
"It comes from everyone. We had a talk in the beginning of the game about the edge and from then on, we have been trying hard every game.
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On the difference between last year and this year:
"I try not to look back on last year and I try to learn from all my mistakes. We are a new team now. We look at films all the time and try to progress."
On how he felt in the game today:
"I felt good. Our game plan was to be fast and physical this whole week, and to play how we did it was a good moment for us in the defensive line. Throughout the game, we just wanted to set the tone, and that's what we did from the beginning, and it was a great feeling.
On playing two positions:
"It's a lot of preparation and watching out for everyone. I love both and I'm just enjoying it. I think I'm able to see things a lot faster and cleaner."
On the key to establishing the run game:
"Our run game is still coming along and improving every week. Today, we showcased what everyone can do, and it was great."
On the season so far:
"Being 3-0 is great, but we have to stay humble and improve weekly."
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