Illinois Head Coach Lovie Smith press conference following victory over Nebraska | November 21, 2020
Illinois Head Coach Lovie Smith holds a press conference following the victory of Nebraska on Saturday, November 21, 2020.
STORY:
Brandon Peters threw for one touchdown and ran for another in his first game in nearly a month, Illinois had two rushers go over 100 yards, and the Illini beat turnover-plagued Nebraska 41-23 for their second straight win. The Cornhuskers won at Illinois last year despite committing four turnovers. They couldn’t survive five, though, as the Illini won in Lincoln for the first time since 1924. Luke McCaffrey, making his second start at quarterback, committed the first of his four turnovers on the first play from scrimmage. Wan’Dale Robinson coughed up the ball as the Huskers tried to come back in the second half. Illinois led 28-10 after two quarters, their most first-half points against a conference opponent in 10 years.
TRANSCRIPT:
Opening Statement
“First off, just of course you can imagine what our locker room is like whenever it’s been that long. We haven’t won in Lincoln since 1924 when Red Grange played, whenever something like that happens it’s a big deal. Our guys played well today, we deserved a win, we practiced that way all last week. Special teams had a big say in it, defense did take the football away but when you can run the football like that and when you can throw it the way Brandon and our receivers caught it today, you know normally that’s what the score will say in the end. So a big win for us to get two in a row which of course sets up an even bigger game this week. The guys played hard.”
On not getting down after starting the season 0-3
“I think if you looked a little bit closer at that 0-3 record, we were out a quarterback, without our quarterback a couple of games, we just didn’t play well against Wisconsin, but on the other side, we knew once we got our guys back and continued to work hard, we would eventually have a true indicator of what we felt like we could be with this football team. Just keep pushing as much as anything.”
On what Brandon Peters did right
“What he did right, he ran our offense. Our offensive staff, of course, led by Coach [Rod] Smith, did a great job with a good game plan. Then it’s about execution. Last year we had Nebraska down 14 in the second half and couldn’t hold onto it. This was a game the guys have been waiting a long time for. Offensively they got to score points, as simple as that. When you have a line blocking the way our guys did, you can score some points.”
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