College Football

The Good Fight
With the Rose Bowl within their reach, the upstart Illini put themselves in a must-win situation

After finishing 3-8 in 1998, Illinois improved to 8-4, became the first team since 1951 to beat Michigan and Ohio State on the road in the same season and embarrassed Virginia 63-21 in the Micronpc.com Bowl. Now comes the hard part: contending for the Big Ten championship.

Senior defensive end Fred Wakefield, who grew up in Tuscola, Ill., just 25 miles from campus, understands how expectations have changed for the Fighting Illini. "If we end up 8-4, no one will be happy," Wakefield says. "It was nice last year, going to a bowl when no one [on the team] had ever been before. But you don't hear too much talk about mat anymore. That bowl wasn't a finish to anything—it's where everything [this season] starts."

Recent history suggests that teams that achieve instant success, as Illinois did, have a difficult time sustaining it, even into the next season (chart, opposite). The Illini still won't be a favorite to go to the Rose Bowl, in which they haven't played since 1984. While this team came from 20 points behind to win at Michigan, it also blew a 21-point lead and lost at Indiana.

Nevertheless, Illinois has come a long way under coach Ron Turner, the younger brother of Washington Redskins coach Norv Turner. Hired in December 1996 after four seasons as the Chicago Bears' offensive coordinator, Ron Turner brought a pro look to an offense that had calcified under his predecessor, Lou Tepper. The Illini, behind sophomore quarterback Kurt Kittner, scored a school-record 388 points last season—120 more than they scored in Turner's first two years combined. Turner's patience, while his players adapted to his system, paid off.

Take Kittner, who started five games as a freshman in 1998 and during the last three produced a total of one field goal before Turner yanked him. "I saw some tape from my freshman year the other day," Kittner says. "I asked Coach, 'How in the heck did you let me on the field looking like that?' "

Turner says he saw his team making progress even in his first year, when Illinois went 0-11. "When we were 0-9 and preparing to play at [No. 4] Ohio State," he says, "they came in to work still trying to get better." Turner exudes confidence, and his players respond to it. For Kittner, who threw 24 touchdowns and only five interceptions last season, the goal is to improve on his 54.5 completion percentage. He thinks he needs quicker feet "Footwork sets up timing," he says. "I need to get the ball off quicker. That lets guys get more yards after the catch. I was getting the right reads, but I was a hair too late."

With Kittner behind a line that has five blockers who started all 12 games last season, the offense won't be a problem. It will be the defense that determines if Illinois can make a run at the Big Ten title. Though it was opportunistic (a plus-13 turnover margin, ranked second in the nation), the defense allowed 236.8 rushing yards per game in its four losses. "We've got to go out, look like we're going to blitz and still get in the gap," says Wakefield, who likes the idea that the Illini won't sneak up on anyone this season. A Top 25 preseason ranking, he says, would "put a big target on us. That's how we want it."

Virginia Tech's Backfield
The Jury's Out On Kendrick

When the Hokies report for spring practice on Saturday, they won't have the two tailbacks who combined for 1,764 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns last season. Starter Shyrone Stith, who would have been a senior, declared for the NFL draft. Andr� Kendrick, the junior backup who could have started for a lot of other teams last year, isn't in school. He was placed on academic suspension after the fall semester because his grade point average fell below 2.0. Kendrick will attend summer school in an attempt to regain his academic eligibility. "We plan on him being here in the fall," assistant athletic director for football operations John Ballein says. Even with Kendrick, who, at 5'7", 183 pounds, isn't big enough to carry the load alone, the Hokies will need help from sophomore Lee Suggs, who rushed for 136 yards last season, and junior Wayne Ward, who will return to tailback after a year at fullback.