Illini are victorious, bowl eligible, and Chicago's Big Ten Team

The reservations I have had about last week's loss to Minnesota aside, I am very, very happy with this team today. It seems to me that I wasn't the only one a bit peeved by the theatrics and self aggrandizing nature of Northwestern leading up to this week's game.

All season, the Northwestern marketing department has been filling the airwaves of Chicago with advertisements stating that the Wildcats were "Chicago's Big Ten Team." No offense to Northwestern, but anyone who knows Chicago knows that #1 it isn't a great town for college sports, and #2 the fan bases of Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Notre Dame and yes, Illinois all far outnumber the fans and alumni of Northwestern. But, whatever, its marketing, they wanted to get some excitement for their program and that is fine.

The payoff of that big marketing campaign, of course, was the big game at Wrigley Field, where Northwestern would defeat in state rival Illinois in a baseball field, a decision which was totally not at all a pale response to Notre Dame playing Army in new Yankee Stadium. The painting of the Wrigley sign purple, making Sheffield "Wildcat Way", Gameday coming to town. It was all built up for a huge win for Northwestern. Never mind that tickets were sold before anyone actually knew if the field would fit, and that the Big Ten commissioner had to step in and set up special rules for the game so no got themselves killed. When the scoreboard at Wrigley apparently already read 21-0 Northwestern at walkthrough the message of this being Northwestern's coming out party for the city was made very clear to the Illini players.

When all was said and done though, in spite of Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald's paranoia about signal stealing, (see exhibit A)

the Illini absolutely crushed Northwestern at their own party. 500 plus rushing yards, 330 of which came from one man in Mikel Leshoure. Were it not for a pick six thrown by Eddie McGee this game could have been a certified blow out much earlier on. The Chicago players on the team, Martez Wilson in particular, took a great deal of pride and joy in the dismantling of the Wildcats.

I imagine that the Illini players, like quite a few Illini fans were tired of the theatrics surrounding this game and simply wanted an opportunity to beat up on an instate rival who we have struggled against of late, and to finally at last get bowl eligible.

Theatrics by the way seem to be the staple of Pat Fitzgerald's coaching style, relying on motivation and excitement as the primary means to prepare his team, apparently. It is too bad that stuff like the flag, stuff like this or ending every press conference with "GO CATS!" is how his motivation manifests itself, because he is really a good coach, but the theatrics are tiring.

For the Illini there is only one thing that needs to be pointed out statistically from this game. 32 carries for Mikel Leshoure. 330 yards was the result, and that cannot be ignored. There is no excuse at all for not getting him 25 touches plus in the final two games he will play as an Illini. He will almost surely be jumping to the NFL after this season, so, like yesterday we need to use him while we still have him. I know that he didn't do it all himself, and huge, huge, HUGE props have to go out to the offensive line for just blowing the Wildcats off of the line and opening up absurd running lanes for Leshoure, Ford and Scheelhaase to rack up all those yards.

Enjoy this win, because we are finally bowl eligible. It doesn't fix everything that has gone wrong in the last two weeks, but it sure makes everything seem a bit more palatable.