Although Juice Williams was able to pass for over 450 yards and rush for 41, Minnesota was able to keep Illinois out of the end zone for three quarters and build a 14-6 lead. Actually, Minnesota took a 20-6 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Then Illinois came storming back with two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. Sandwiched in between those two touchdowns, Minnesota sacked Juice Williams at the Illini nine yard line resulting in a fumble that was returned by Simoni Lawrence for a touchdown. That was the game winner that gave Minnesota a 27-20 lead and a 6-1 record. Yup, I just said that. Minnesota, a team that went 1-11 last year is one loss out of the Big 10 lead. With Penn State not on the schedule, and four out of their last five games against teams with worse records, Minnesota could actually be in position to via for a Big 10 title. No, seriously! With home games remaining against Northwestern, Michigan, and Iowa and road games against Purdue and Wisconsin it is entirely possible that Minnesota could run the table. Crazier things have happened.
Every Thursday,
A lot of things went wrong for the Fighting Illini on Saturday night in St. Louis. First off, they couldn't stop the Missouri offense to save their lives, giving up 549 total yards, and allowing 52 points. If the Tigers didn't score on a drive, it wasn't because the Illini defense stopped them, but because Mizzou stopped itself and failed to execute (with the exception of
1. James Laurinaitis, LB, THE Ohio State University: I hope Laurinaitis is ready for the backlash, because after we all decide we're sick of being sick of hearing about T** T***w, Laurinaitis is probably next on our scorn list. Pity. In a league that always has a sampler platter of great linebackers, Laurinaitis is a standout among the standouts, and there isn't much left for him to accomplish. He already has a Nagurski Award and a Butkus Award to go along with more conference-based awards than just about any defensive player ever. So, yeah, he's pretty good, even if we're all going to be sick of hearing Brent Musberger talk about him by, say, late September. Or at least we would be, if not for all the time Musberger is sure to spend talking about ...

I already said earlier this week that Illinois running back
You would think that in a college football season that currently has Kansas ranked #2 in the BCS for a possible matchup with LSU, voters would start thinking outside the box. I mean, South Florida was ranked #2 earlier this season.
It's not exactly the most covered quarterback controversy in the country, in fact most didn't even realize there was one, but the Illini had a question to answer this week. After
They aren't the dregs but nor are they real threats to win the league. They could lose to Iowa State or a MAC team and I will watch their crappy December bowl games pulling for them to win just so everyone can finally shut up about how much the Big Ten suxxxx; I will usually be disappointed about the outcomes of these games. Ladies and gentlemen: the mediocre of the Big Ten. A veritable cornucopia of the average. A smörgåsbord of the typical. A vast array of another noun used to denote something sort of good and sort of bad. 
