Touchdown Times: November 7, 2013

Touchdown Times A publication of THE DAILY ILLINI Thursday, November 7, 2013

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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Offense

Nate Sudfeld Tre Roberson

Ryan Phillis 25 DE Bobby Richardson 95 DT Ralphael Green 93 DT Nick Mangieri 56 DE David Cooper 42 LB T.J. Simmons 2 LB Forisse “Flo” Hardin 4 LB Tim Bennett 24 CB Mark Murphy 37 S Greg Heban 9 S Michael Hunter 17 CB

Indiana C-A-INT

139-231-7 47-80-2

Yards 1,915 724

Yards

Rushing

Carries 116 56 43

743 386 161

Receiving

Catches

Yards

Tevin Coleman Stephen Houston Tre Roberson

44 31 26

Cody Latimer Kofi Hughes Shane Wynn

Defense

Offense

Defense

Nate Sudfeld 5 QB Tevin Coleman 6 RB Ted Bolser 83 TE Shane Wynn 1 WR Cody Latimer 3 WR Kofi Hughes 13 WR Jason Spriggs 78 LT Bernard Taylor 73 LG Collin Rahrig 64 C Jacob Bailey 70 RG Ralston Evans 62 RT

Passing

THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com

2

Tackles

David Cooper Greg Heban Tim Bennett Mark Murphy T.J. Simmons

60 60 59 58 57

695 505 458

Sacks 0.5 0 0 0 1

TD

Long

16 9

77 68

Avg

TD

6.4 6.9 3.7

TD

10 1 5

Long

5 6 7

77 67 68

TFL

INT

2.5 0.5 3 0.5 3.5

0 2 1 0 0

Passing

Sat., Oct. 26 vs. No. 18 Michigan State L, 42-3

Sat., Sept. 7 vs. Cincinnati W 45-17

Sat., Nov. 2 @ Penn State L, 24-17 (OT)

Illinois

C-A-INT

Yards 1,970

TD

Long

Rushing

Carries

Yards

Avg 5.2 4.2

TD

395 302

Receiving

Catches

Yards

TD

Long

Defense

Tackles

Sacks

TFL

INT

Josh Ferguson Donovonn Young

Josh Ferguson Spencer Harris Martize Barr

Jonathan Brown Mason Monheim Earnest Thomas III Zane Petty Eaton Spence

Sat., Sept. 14 vs. Washington (Soldier Field) L 34-24

Sat., Sept. 28 vs. Miami (Ohio) W 50-14

Sat., Nov. 9 @Indiana 2:30 p.m. | Big Ten Network

Sat., Nov. 16 vs. No. 4 Ohio State TBD

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Tim Kynard 59 DE Austin Teitsma 44 NT Teko Powell 93 DT Houston Bates 55 LEO Jonathan Brown 45 WLB Mason Monheim 43 MLB Mike Svetina 34 STAR V’Angelo Bentley 2 CB Earnest Thomas 9 SS Zane Petty 21 FS Eaton Spence 27 CB

161-248-7

Nathan Scheelhaase

Schedule Sat., Aug. 31 vs. Southern Illinois W 42-34

Defense

Nathan Scheelhaase 2 QB Josh Ferguson 6 RB Steve Hull 9 WR Miles Osei 8 WR Spencer Harris 80 WR Jon Davis 3 TE Simon Cvijanovic 68 LT Michael Heitz 74 LG Alex Hill 52 C Ted Karras 69 RG Corey Lewis 70 RT

76 72

31 28 23

81 69 67 42 40

434 239 221

3 1 0 0 0

13

4 1 1

8.5 4.5 2 0 0

72

3 3

53 29 30

0 0 0 0 0

Games in bold are at home

Sat., Oct. 5 @ Nebraska L 39-19

Sat., Nov. 23 @ Purdue TBD

Sat., Oct. 19 vs. No. 21 Wisconsin L, 56-32

Sat., Nov. 30 vs. Northwestern TBD

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Thursday, November 7, 2013

3

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois’ Spencer Harris makes a catch against Penn State at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., on Nov. 2. Harris said of the 24-17 overtime loss, “I’d rather get beat by 50 than lose like that.”

Illinois returns to Indiana in hopes of ending streak

BY STEPHEN BOURBON STAFF WRITER

With four games left on the schedule, the Illinois football team knows there is no room for error if they want to reach a bowl game.

At 3-5 and needing three wins to become bowl-eligible, Saturday’s game against Indiana begins the final stretch to determine the Illini’s postseason fate.

“I do believe this is a very important game.

It’s a must-win for us,” senior wide receiver Spencer Harris said. “We’ve got to get that confidence back that we can win games. And we can win them, we’re so close.”

The Illini, enduring an 18-game losing streak in conference games, were the closest to a Big Ten win last week at Penn State.

Illinois held a lead within the final minute, but eventually lost 24-17 in overtime.

“I’d rather get beat by 50 than lose like

that. That sucks,” Harris said.

The last team the Illini beat in conference was Indiana, at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind. The Hoosiers are a very different team than the one the Illini beat on Oct. 8, 2011. Two years ago, Indiana was just 1-11 on the season and finished the year without beating an FBS team.

In 2013, however, Indiana is in a similar position as Illinois — needing wins in three of its final four contests to become eligible for a bowl game. The Hoosiers have shown the ability this season to beat quality teams — the Hoosiers took down the Nittany Lions 44-24 on Oct. 5 — but haven’t strung together back-to-back victories all season.

One of the challenges that Indiana presents is a potent offense that ranks second in total offense in the conference and leads the conference with an average of 333.5 passing

yards per game.

“Coach Wilson has done a great job with that offense,” head coach Tim Beckman said.

“He’s done a good job recruiting his talent, and they’re in his third year now. They’re scoring a lot of points, as they did last year.”

After facing the conference’s top passer in Penn State’s Christian Hackenburg a week ago, the Illini now face a two-headed attack at quarterback in Nate Sudfeld and Tre Roberson. Sudfeld is a pure pocket passer, ranking fourth in the conference in passing yards with 1,915 while Roberson is more of a dual threat player. The sophomore has 724 passing yards and despite only churning out 161 yards rushing, Roberson has five rushing touchdowns.

The Illini are hoping to get cornerback V’Angelo Bentley back this week after he missed the past two games with a sprained

ankle. Bentley was questionable last week and dressed for the game but did not see action. True freshmen Darius Mosely and Jaylen Dunlap played in his absence.

One key to this Saturday’s game will be a fast start for Illinois. The Illini have fallen behind in the first half each of the past four games and gone on to lose all of those games.

While Beckman was proud of the resilience of his team, he said that they cannot afford to fall behind in the future.

“They knew they had the opportunity to get back into the football game (against Penn State), and they did,” Beckman said. “We all know that the game comes down to a few plays. Well, we didn’t make those plays that we needed to make in that football game.”

Stephen can be reached at sbourbo2@ dailyillini.com and @steve_bourbon.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

2,000 DAYS TO LEAVE A LEGACY

4

THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com

THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com

Time is winding down for Illinois’ longtime quarterback

BY SEAN HAMMOND SENIOR WRITER

N

athan Scheelhaase sits alone at a table eating a lunch of beef brisket with a side of potato wedges and a brownie for desert. Nobody disturbs him. It’s not time yet.

Television reporters and newspaper writers hound Illini offensive coordinator Bill Cubit and defensive coordinator Tim Banks.

They ask the same questions they ask every week: How’s this week’s opponent look? What do you guys have to do better?

The quarterback eats his food with his back to the commotion.

As he fi nishes his meal, somebody fi nally disturbs him. He has a phone call. It’s probably a reporter from Bloomington, Ind., where the Illini will play the Hoosiers on Saturday.

Scheelhaase stands and answers the reporter’s questions. His meal is gone except for the unfi nished brownie.

When he’s done on the phone — and it’s a lengthy talk — he’s moved to another table, closer to the hounds. He brings his half-eaten brownie and sets it on the table.

Now it’s time.

Cameras turn toward him and audio recorders are shoved before his face.

“What have you seen from Indiana’s defense?”

“Does last week’s loss still sting?”

Scheelhaase answers every question like a professional. At this point, he is a professional. This has been his routine nearly every Monday during his fall semesters for four years. Come in, eat lunch, field questions from the media, go about his day.

He has fielded the same basic questions for four years, with a different team name inserted each week. He doesn’t always smile for the cameras, but he answers every question.

On this Monday, the circle of reporters dwindles until there is only a handful — not surrounding him, but sitting at the table with him. These reporters have watched him for four years. They know there’s only so many ways to repackage answers to the same questions. They don’t ask him about Indiana.

“Have you thought about life after football?”

“Yeah,” Scheelhaase says without hesitation. “Oh yeah.”

1,940 DAYS

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI

Thursday, November 7, 2013

5

It’s been 1,940 days since Scheelhaase committed to play football at Illinois. And for the vast majority of that time he has been the face of the program — the poster child, as teammate and close friend Miles Osei put it — a fifth-year senior and a four-year starter.

But as the college football season enters its fi nal month of regular-season play, the end of Scheelhaase’s career is in sight. And he cherishes every moment.

He watched another close friend, senior receiver Ryan Lankford, dislocate his shoul-

der on a reverse play against Michigan State two weeks ago — season over, college career over.

That’s how quickly it can end. For Scheelhaase, it was a reality check.

He has been the Illinois quarterback seemingly forever. But in the grand scheme of things, four years is not a long time.

Ron Zook, his former head coach at Illinois, remembers the day he met Scheelhaase like it was yesterday. It was at an Illini football camp when Scheelhaase was still in high school.

He watched the athletic-looking young man reach 36 or 38 inches — he can’t quite remember — on his vertical jump. It was a heck of a jump, as Zook remembers it.

“Do it again,” he told Scheelhaase.

And Scheelhaase did it again. He was an athlete, no question about it, and he was a class act. Nobody at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Mo., had anything bad to say about him. He committed to Illinois on July 16, 2008.

Scheelhaase redshirted that fi rst year while Juice Williams played his fi nal season at Illinois. When Williams left, Scheelhaase knew he could start as a redshirt freshman, and potentially the next three years.

That’s exactly what’s happened. It doesn’t surprise Zook at all.

“I never doubted Nate one time,” Zook said.

124 DAYS The 22-year-old quarterback married the love of his life on July 6. Morgan Scheelhaase (née Miller) met the young man that would become her husband in high school at Rockhurst. They dated for a short while.

Then they went their separate ways — Nathan to Illinois and Morgan to Texas Christian. But they weren’t apart for long. Despite the distance, they got back together.

Backup quarterback and groomsman Reilly O’Toole never doubted they would get married.

One time during spring practice after Nathan’s sophomore season, he and O’Toole were sitting in the locker room and Nathan asked, “When do you see me proposing?”

“I don’t know,” O’Toole said. “Probably after the season.”

“Oh no,” Nathan said. “Way before then. I’m thinking in the summer sometime.”

That caught O’Toole off guard. This was real. This was going to happen.

Nathan ended up waiting until February, after the season. He surprised Morgan in Fort Worth, Texas, with the help of her friends and family. She said yes, and they married five months later.

The wedding was in Kansas City, hosted by the Millers. Osei was the best man.

O’Toole, Lankford and receiver Steve Hull were groomsmen, along with a friend from back home in Kansas City.

They stayed in the Kansas City area near a golf course and, on a day before the wedding, the group went to the driving range to hit some golf balls. They weren’t any good — except for Hull — and O’Toole remembers how funny it was to watch such good athletes be so awful at something.

They were college kids goofi ng around at

THE SCHEELHAASE ERA JULY 16, 2008 Scheelhaase commits to Illinois.

SEPT. 4, 2010 Scheelhaase makes first start.

DEC. 29, 2010 Illinois beats Baylor in the Texas Bowl.

OCT. 8, 2011 Illinois won its last Big Ten game.

The Illini have lost 18 straight conference games since.

NOV. 27, 2011 Heach coach Ron Zook fired.

DEC. 9, 2011 Tim Beckman hired as head coach.

DEC. 31, 2011 Illinois beats UCLA in Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. a driving range. Days later Nathan tied the knot.

Morgan now lives with Nathan in Champaign. O’Toole can’t get used to Nathan wearing a ring. Morgan can’t get used to being called Mrs. Scheelhaase.

23 DAYS Scheelhaase’s days are numbered. Senior Day at Memorial Stadium is a little more than three weeks away. He has four, potentially five games left.

After that, it’s out into the real world.

“I’ve done some things to prepare for that and see where me and Morgan will go,” he says, sitting at the table with the reporters.

Everything is “we” now. “Me and Morgan.”

He says to his teammates all the time, “I’m going home to my wife.” They can’t quite get used to it.

One reporter notices Scheelhaase’s hair is getting a little long.

“My wife told me I need to hit up the barber,” Scheelhaase says. “I said something to her about No Shave November. It didn’t really sound like it was going to be a go for me.”

Scheelhaase wants to give life in Chicago a shot. He admits that he needs to go to the alumni center and see if he can make some connections.

“Nothing’s free up there,” he says. “I’ll probably have to have a job.”

Scheelhaase can see himself in the corporate world. He says he wants to work in some type of team atmosphere — something he’s proved to be good at. He will fi nish his master’s degree in Sports, Recreation and Tourism in the spring. He doesn’t want to think about his fi nal project yet.

Because really, that’s why athletes play sports, for the same reason fans watch them — to escape from the real world.

SEPT. 1, 2012 Scheelhaase injures ankle, misses only two starts of his career to date.

FEB. 8, 2013 Scheelhaase proposes to Morgan Miller.

JULY 6, 2013 Scheelhaase and Miller marry.

AUG. 31, 2013 Scheelhaase begins his senior season at Illinois and throws for a career-high 416 yards against Southern Illinois.

NOV. 30, 2013 Senior day at Memorial Stadium; it could be Scheelhaase’s last game in an Illini uniform.

ONE DAY The Big Ten Networks’ “The Journey” chronicles Big Ten football players and recently featured Scheelhaase. For part of the episode it showed Nathan and Morgan at home cooking dinner. The episode aired last week. Morgan was nervous about it.

“She let me watch it with her,” he says. He hadn’t thought she would. “That’s something we’ll look back on and show our kids some day. That will be a lot of fun.”

It’s easy to see that he really looks forward to it.

Scheelhaase turns 23 on Friday. He will celebrate with a bus ride to Bloomington.

Morgan might take him to Flat Top Grill, one of his favorite spots, before the trip.

A loss at Indiana will ensure a difficult path to a bowl game. At 3-6, Illinois would need to win all of its remaining games, with undefeated Ohio State coming to town next week.

No matter what happens, it will be over soon. Scheelhaase just doesn’t want it to end too quickly.

“For us seniors, you get to that certain stage and you know regardless of how long it will be, it will be over pretty soon,” Scheelhaase says. “It’s a scary thing at times, it’s exciting at times, but ultimately we’re all going to miss it a whole lot.”

The table goes silent.

The reporters have asked all of their questions. They thank Scheelhaase and get up to leave.

And once again he is alone. He picks up the unfi nished brownie and eats the last bites.

Then he gets up from the table goes about his Monday like any other.

Sean can be reached at sphammo2@ dailyillini.com and @sean_hammond.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com

6

Matchups to watch Illinois faces strong offense, poor defense in Indiana

BY TORRENCE SORRELL ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Tim Banks vs. Seth Littrell

DAILY ILLINI FILE PHOTO

Offensive coordinator Bill Cubit has done his part in improving the offense, but this is a game in which the defense has to come up big. Defensive coordinator Tim Banks has a young defense; one that has missed several tackles in various games and has picked up costly penalties for not being properly positioned. Illinois faces an Indiana team that offensive coordinator Seth Littrell coached to second in the conference in total offense, just behind Ohio State, and put up 47 points against Michigan earlier this year. Banks must get his troops ready for battle if they still want to stay in contention for a bowl game as conference play draws to a close.

Defensive coordinator Tim Banks has had trouble with his young defense this season and faces an Indiana offense that is second in the Big Ten.

PHOTO COURTESY OF INDIANA DAILY STUDENT

Indiana coach Kevin Wilson shares strategies with offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. Littrell has made Indiana’s offense one of the best in the Big Ten.

Josh Ferguson vs. Tevin Coleman

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Running back Josh Ferguson has become Illinois’ go-to playmaker on offense, leading the team in rushing and receiving yards on the season.

Once again, Josh Ferguson delivered for the Illini from a rushing and a receiving standpoint against Penn State this past weekend.

One highlighted play featured a leap over a defender to the end zone. He has clearly become a spark plug in Bill Cubit’s offense and is the main option on the field to get quick yardage. Another sophomore wearing No. 6 is Indiana’s running back. Tevin Coleman led the team last year as a freshman with 566 yards. He remains to be solid for the Hoosiers this year in ranking fourth in the Big Ten in rushing just under familiar names to the Illini like Wisconsin’s dynamic duo of James White and Melvin Gordon and Nebraska’s Ameer Abdullah.

BEN MIKESELL INDIANA DAILY STUDENT

Sophomore running back Tevin Coleman is one of the top rushers in the conference after leading the Hoosiers his freshman year.

Nathan Scheelhaase vs.

Indiana’s defense Senior quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase had another fine performance, throwing more than 300 yards for the fourth time this year, against Penn State. Despite a big individual performance, the loss was one of the most disappointing ones this year as his desperation pass was intercepted in overtime to end the game.

The last time the Illini won a conference game was in 2011 against the Hoosiers.

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI

Quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase had one of his most productive games of the year against Penn State but threw a crucial interception in overtime to lose the game.

CLAYTON MOORE INDIANA DAILY STUDENT

Indiana’s defense has one of the worst defenses in the nation, ranking 117th in yards allowed and 116th in scoring defense.

THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com

Thursday, November 7, 2013

7

OURPICKS Eliot Sill Sports editor

(34-11)

Sean Hammond Stephen Bourbon Senior writer Staff writer

(32-13)

Torrence Sorrell Assistant sports editor

Erik Prado On-air reporter

Michael Wonsover Videographer

(32-13)

(34-11)

(27-17)

(33-12)

37-34

35-27

38-35

45-42

Illinois at Indiana 34-31

42-38

No. 2 Oregon at No. 6 Stanford 58-31

35-24

43-28

30-28

42-17

49-24

No. 12 Oklahoma at No. 5 Baylor 31-17

30-24

44-34

49-35

35-24

51-41

24-21

17-9

20-6

21-17

17-10

14-3

No. 10 LSU at No. 1 Alabama

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Nebraska at Michigan 31-16

24-21

28-24

28-29

Standings

20-17

35-32

Saturday, Nov. 9 Penn State @ Minnesota 11 a.m. | ESPN2

LEGENDS

CONF

OVR

LEADERS

CONF

OVR

MICHIGAN STATE

5-0

8-1

OHIO STATE

5-0

9-0

NEBRASKA

3-1

6-2

WISCONSIN

4-1

6-2

MINNESOTA

3-2

7-2

PENN STATE

2-2

5-3

2:30 p.m. | Big Ten Network

MICHIGAN

2-2

6-2

INDIANA

1-3

3-5

Nebraska @ Michigan

IOWA

2-3

5-4

ILLINOIS

0-4

3-5

NORTHWESTERN

0-5

4-5

PURDUE

0-4

1-7

Iowa @ Purdue 11 a.m. | Big Ten Network

Illinois @ Indiana

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2:30 p.m. | ABC

Brigham Young @ No. 24 Wisconsin 2:30 p.m. | ESPN

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Thursday, November 7, 2013

THE DAILY ILLINI | www.DailyIllini.com

8

Best-case scenario still in play for Scheelhaase, Illinois ELIOT SILL Sports editor

He

stood there in the same spot from where he released the fateful pass. He looked at the crowd, watched the replay, saw the hooplah, beheld the glory that wasn’t his — that he gave away.

Nathan Scheelhaase must have had a hundred thoughts pulsating through his head after his game-losing interception against Penn State.

That wasn’t my fault.

Why couldn’t it have fallen incomplete?

This is a stupid way to structure an overtime.

This hurts.

This is the last time I’ll stand on this fi eld.

I just lost again, against this team for the last time.

It’s really cold out here, I can’t wait to go inside.

No one knows what he was really thinking besides Scheelhaase himself. By the time an obviously emotional Scheelhaase spoke to the media afterward, he had collected his thoughts more and swallowed the loss. By the time he took to Twitter, it was any other game, “very emotional

game!” As if with an air of excitement.

Maybe it is exciting in the end. But at the time, it was devastating.

A win at Penn State would have meant a lot, but that chance has come and gone.

Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue, Northwestern. Those are the fi nal four lines in the script of Nathan Scheelhaase’s Illinois football career. It’s a farewell tour, as it is for many Illini athletes. But only the great ones get true farewell tours. If not always in the win column or on the stat sheet, you could always just tell Scheelhaase was a great dude. Never the stem of controversy, never one to complain about being in a crappy system or unsuccessful program, never anything less than a leader.

One thought he might have had on that field after that interception: “I’m running out of chances.”

But the opportunity is still there to seize. The glory is still at stake. The bestcase scenario is still in play.

As impossible as it is for Illinois to win a conference game, as unlikely it is that things go right for once, as insurmountable as the obstacles before the Illini may seem, it all starts with a win at Indiana.

A bowl game, a chance to go out a winner.

It’s in the pot for the first time this week. A loss and you have three essentially meaningless games. A win and you have hope.

Ohio State is probably going to beat Illinois. But after that game are two winnable games against a hapless Purdue team and a Northwestern squad that’s

been in a tailspin since conference play began. Illinois could be facing two opponents who are winless in the Big Ten in its fi nal two games. If Illinois has a win at Indiana under its belt, there’s a bowl game in reach. If Illinois loses to Indiana, Ohio State will be its last stand for bowl eligibility — and we all have a pretty good feeling how that would turn out.

So as basketball season begins, providing more incentive for Illini fans to move on from the football team, Scheelhaase is still standing, staring at his future and contemplating his past.

Not everyone can be John Elway. Not everyone can end their career on top of the world. But anyone can go out on top of something.

For Scheelhaase, it’s a last chance. But he’s just one variable in the equation.

The defense faces a powerful Indiana offense, that has put up lots of points against lots of teams. Jonathan Brown’s unit has spent the whole season being young and ill-prepared. Tim Kynard’s defensive line has been putrid. Tim Banks is likely getting to the end of his

rope, and fi nishing the season with four more losses wouldn’t help.

Tim Beckman has already ensured himself a better season than last year, but still hasn’t beaten a Big Ten opponent in his career here.

Bill Cubit was the darling of the program four games into the year, but he’s been questioned more and more in every loss since.

Steve Hull and Miles Osei are going out this season, too. Ryan Lankford’s already gone.

It’s coming down to it. And Illinois, as much as it has lost already, still has a lot to lose. Saturday’s game decides the rest of the season. After everything Scheelhaase and others have put into the program since being recruited, does this senior class have a shot at redemption?

Staring into the distance contemplating isn’t going to help anyone fi nd the answers.

The answers lie on the football field.

This is why they play the games.

It’s coming down to it. And Illinois, as much as it has lost already, still has a lot to lose.

Saturday’s game decides the rest of the season.

Eliot is a senior in Media. He can be reached at sill2@dailyillini.com.

Follow him on Twitter @EliotTweet.

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