Do you ever feel like God is laughing at you? Well maybe not God per se, but some sort of supernatural force that wants to make sure you learn every sort of disappointment thoroughly. I have seen the Illini lose in a lot of ways, both blowouts and heart breakers, and let me tell you, this was by a wide margin the least likely thing that has ever happened. .

But I digress. For many, many reasons, it has taken me quite some time to write about this game. The last game of any real meaning happened back before Thanksgiving, and without even the selling point of making the entire city of Cincinnati cry there was very little interest left for this last game.

It was senior day though, and the last opportunity for all of us to see #7 go out there and try and recapture the glory one last time. I think a full retrospective on the career of Juice Williams deserves its own dedicated post, so I wont go into the melancholy feelings even I had about realizing it was his last game as an Illini. For now I'll just stick to the game at hand.

I remember hearing in the pressbox that up until the final 8 minutes, this had to be the most boring yet high scoring game there was. And for the most part, it was true. What we saw yesterday were two teams with pretty damn good running backs run almost completely unchecked up and down the field. Ryan Mathews with his 32 carries for 172 yards and Mikel LeShoure with his much more efficient 11 carries for 184 yards. Yes, that is a 16 yard per carry average. I will now, if you will indulge me, try and communicate to you my frustrations with the coaching staff concerning Mikel LeShoure and his playing time.

Mikel LeShoure is, at this very moment, and will be next year the best running back option on this team. It has been proven just about every week since Purdue. That said, Mikel LeShoure had over 200 yards of all purpose yardage, but was given the ball 4 fewer times than his teammate Jason Ford. Ford of course had a decent game with 65 yards, but he had no where near the game that LeShoure did. If ford has any advantage on LeShoure it is in the red zone, where Jason Ford can use his strength to get short yardage. But in the open field, on the read option and on the speed option, or just plain old fashion down hill running Leshoure has proven himself the superior back. The numbers don't lie.

All of this evidence being in place, no one yet has been able to explain to me why, on the last Illini possession, with only a few minutes left on the clock and all that was needed to finish the game off was a first down or two, Jason Ford, and not Mikel Leshoure lined up as the running back.

It was LeShoure after all that had caught the pass for the go ahead touchdown just before. When asked why Mikel was not out there, he simply explained that "we like all of our backs." I  interpret that to mean that in the normal rotation of backs, it was Ford's turn. Ford got 3 yards on a run, Juice got 2 yards on a run, and Benn got 3 yards on a catch, not enough for the first down. I am not saying that Leshoure would have been meant a first down, but with his 16 yard per carry average, it could not have hurt.

But the Illini didn't get the first down. And they ended up giving up another touchdown. And then Fresno elected to go for 2. and then this happened.

I was standing on the field with the rest of the media, waiting for the post game interviews etc. I was standing just behind the cameramen, directly parallel with the end zone. I saw the whole thing happen in front of me. I saw the QB chased out of the pocket, I saw him seemingly wrapped up for a sack, I saw his desperate flail of a pass to the end zone, I saw Tavon Wilson and the Fresno receiver grasp at the ball, I saw it bounce into the arms of David Cunningham. I saw the officials signal for a successful conversion, and I don't think I'll be able to figure out all of the things that had to go wrong for the Illini for that to happen. Six feet away from me the Fresno State AD was going absolutely insane yelling at the officials that the conversion had to stand. And it of course did.

This was one of the weirdest plays around, and while it sucked for my team, I suppose I am glad to have seen it in person. Along with being at the 2007 Ohio State game, I guess this the most significant football moment I have seen in person. As an Illini fan, you don't get to see many in the first place, so I guess I should be appreciative.

So closed the 2009 season of Illini football, fitting with the rest of the season, it was not good, but it was exciting.

Stay tuned for a full season in review later this week.