Nine Overtimes Later, Illinois Beats Penn State

After nine overtime periods — the longest game in college football history — Brandon Peters connected with Casey Washington in the end zone to lift theFighting Illini to an upset win at No. 7 Penn State, 20-18, on the Nittany Lions' Homecoming weekend. The historic win also marks the 100th of head coach Bret Bielema's career.

Illinois' run game fueled the offense through regulation as Chase Brown and Josh McCray rushed for 223 and 142 yards, respectively. 

Overtime VictoryWith the game tied, 10-10, at the end of the fourth quarter, Illinois and Penn State needed overtime to decide the outcome on Saturday. In the first two overtime periods, each team got the ball on the opposing 25-yard line with one set of downs, but both offenses were held to field goals.

From the third overtime period on, under the NCAA's overtime rules adopted prior to the 2021 season, the teams made alternating two-point conversion attempts, giving each offense one play to score from the 3-yard line. Both defenses dominated the field as the score remained tied at 16-16 at the end of the seventh overtime.

In the eighth overtime period, Peters, who entered for an injured Artur Sitkowski, connected with Isaiah Williams for the two points. But Penn State also converted on their ensuing possession to send the game to a ninth OT period tied at 18-18.

The next period would be the final as Khalan Tolson batted down a pass attempt from Sean Clifford to thwart the PSU chance before Peters connected with Washington to secure the Illini victory.

Ground n' Pound

In regulation, the Illini relied heavily on their run game which featured the duo of Chase Brown and Josh McCray. Coming into the game, the Nittany Lions were allowing just 110.3 rushing yards per game; however, the Illini put up 357 yards on the ground Saturday.

Brown, who had 223 of those yards, joins Howard Griffith and Rashard Mendenhall as the only players in program history to have multiple 200-yard rushing games in a season. Brown previously rushed for 257 yards against Charlotte on Oct. 2. Brown also scored the Illini's only touchdown of the game, a 1-yard run in the second quarter.

McCray's 142 yards moves him into a tie for third among the fastest Illini to record multiple 100-yard rushing games. The true freshman also posted a career-high 167 at Purdue on Sept. 25.

Defense Keeps Improving

Illinois was able to hold Penn State to 18 points, 10 in regulation, despite the Nittany Lions averaging more than 28 points per game entering Saturday's contest. After giving up 10 points in the first half, the Illini shut their opponent out in the final two quarters of regulation.

The defensive line held Penn State to just 62 rushing yards and recorded four quarterback sacks. Owen Carney Jr. started things off, recording his 15th career sack on Penn State's opening drive. Khalan Tolson, who broke up the Lions' final pass of overtime, recorded his first sack of the season.

Defensive backs Kerby Joseph and Devon Witherspoon also got in on the action with their first-career sacks. Joseph's sack came in the first overtime period and forced Penn State to kick a field goal.

HIGHLIGHTS

TEAM NOTES

The Fighting Illini improve to 3-5 (2-3 B1G) following Saturday's win over No 7 Penn State (5-2, 2-2 B1G).

The win marked the 100th career victory for head coach Bret Bielema.Saturday's win over No. 7 Penn State is also the 19th victory in program history over an opponent ranked in the top 10. 

The victory over No. 7 Penn State is the first for the Illini over a ranked opponent since Oct. 19. 2019 vs. No. 6 Wisconsin (24-23) and the program's first road win over a ranked opponent since Nov. 10, 2007 at No. 1 Ohio State (28-21).

The series between the Illini and Nittany Lions now stands at 6-20 overall, and 2-10 in University Park. Illinois' last win at Beaver Stadium came in 2010 (33-13).  

The Fighting Illini outgained the Nittany Lions 395-227 including a 357-62 edge in rushing yards and an advantage in time of possession of 36:25 to 23:35.

The Illini's 357 rushing yards on Saturday marked the most rushing yards surrendered by the Penn State defense this season, nearly doubling the 182 yards recorded by Auburn (9/18/21).  

Illinois' 357 rushing yards were the most against Penn State since Ohio State ran for 408 yards against the Nittany Lions 10/26/2013.

Illinois' 357 rushing yards were the most ever by an opponent at Beaver Stadium in a Big Ten game.

Illinois' 300-yard rushing effort is the second of the season for the offense after posting 336 yards in the team's home win vs. Charlotte (10/2/21).

Illinois' time of possession of 36:25 on Saturday is the most this season, eclipsing the mark of 34:55 set in the season-opening win vs. Nebraska (8/28/21).

Illinois' defense allowed a season-low 227 total yards including 165 passing yards and 62 rushing yards on Saturday. The last time the Illini defense allowed fewer than 250 net yards to an opponent came in 2019 vs. Akron (8/31). Illinois held Penn State to 3.6 yards per play and 14 total first downs, both season-lows for the Illini defense.     

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Illinois running back duo of Chase Brown (33 carries, 223 yards) and Josh McCray (24 carries, 142 yards) are the first teammates to rush for 100+ yards against Penn State since Rodney Smith (104) & Shannon Brooks (100) for Minnesota in 2016. They are also the first Illini teammates to rush for 100 yards in the same game since Mike Epstein (113) and Brown (110) at Nebraska in 2020.

Brown and McCray are just the third and fourth rushers to record more than 100 yards against Penn State this season joining Wisconsin's Chez Mellusi (31 carries, 121 yards) and Auburn's Tank Bigsby (23 carries, 102 yards).

Brown eclipsed the 100-yard mark in the first half (134) on Saturday and finished with 223 yards on 33 carries with 1 TD. By halftime Brown's 134 yards were already the most given up in a game by Penn State this season.

Brown's 223 rushing yards were the most ever by an opponent at Beaver Stadium and the fourth-most ever against Penn State

Brown is the first rusher to eclipse the 200-yard mark against the Penn State defense since Benjarvus Green-Ellis recorded 203 yards in 2003 for Indiana.

Brown's 223-yard game marks his second game of the season with 200+ yards. He joins Howard Griffith (1990) and Rashard Mendenhall (2007) as the only players in program history with multiple 200-yard rushing games in a single season.

Brown's 223 yards push him past 1000-career yards as an Illini He is the 46th player in program history to eclipse 1,000 career yards and now sits at No. 37 on the list at exactly 1,200 yards in Orange and Blue. Brown also tallied 352 yards as a freshman at Western Michigan, giving him 1,552 for his collegiate career. 

Brown led the nation in yards after contact last week with 141, according to PFF. He has led the nation in yards after contact twice in the last four weeks and he is the only running back to lead the nation in yards after contact twice this season.

Josh McCray (142) became the fifth Illini in history to record 2+ 100-yard rushing games as a true freshman, joining Buddy Young (4 in 1944), Juice Williams (2 in 2006), Rocky Harvey (2 in 1998), and Damien Platt (2 in 1993).

McCray is tied for the third-fastest Illini to two 100-yard rushing games in program history. He has two 100-yard games in the Illini's first eight team games.

OLB Owen Carney recorded the 15th sack of his career on Penn State's opening offensive drive. Carney is now tied for ninth in Illini history. The sack also gives him 5.5 sacks on the season (all withing the last five games) a single-season career high surpassing his 5.0 sacks from last season.

LB Khalan Tolson recorded his first sack of the season ending the Penn State drive that began at the 2:52 mark of the second quarter. Tolson now has 2.5-career sacks as an Illini after posting 1.5 as a sophomore in 2020.

DBs Devon Witherspoon and Kerby Joseph each recorded the first sacks of their Illini careers on Saturday. Witherspoon's sack came on third down and ended the Penn State dive that began at the 11:49 mark of the fourth quarter. Joseph's came on third down in the first overtime period and resulted in PSU's settling for a field goal on their opening possession of the extra period.

OL duo of Vederian Lowe and Alex Palczewski each made their 48th career starts, tying the Illini career record held by QB Nathan Scheelhaase (2010-13), C Ryan McDonald (2005-08), and OL Tim Simpson (1988-91). Lowe has now started in 42 consecutive games.

QUOTES

Head coach Bret Bielema

Opening Statement...

"I thought about being on this field the day I took the job and I told those guys on Thursday morning when we met, this journey starting together on that field in a sense, like I watched him play, didn't know who they were. They were kind of nameless, faceless guys. I was trying to get their names down and what position they played, all that, and I thought about the growth that we've had. I've just seen them continue to get better every day an today summed it up.

When V Lowe went down and Pihlstrom came in, that was just awesome just to watch Phil do that. And then I think our other guys fed off it. And Art unfortunately goes down and to bring in BP off the bench. It wasn't as clean as I'm sure he wanted, but he ended up making it happen in the long run. And Chase Brown to get knocked down and to have all those guys pop up, defensively to just be resilient. That's what this group is. They just continue to fight, a lot of fun to be around and hopefully now they begin to taste that victory bite right and they'll want more."

On his 100th career victory...

I had no idea it was my 100th victory. Like I had no idea. I told the crew though, obviously a lot of victories came from other places and hopefully this is the start of 100 more here. I love this atmosphere I think our players have bought in 100 times over. I'm telling you last Wednesday's practice, not this week, during the bye week, that Wednesday practice was probably our best practice of the year. And that doesn't just happen, that comes from high character, faith, trust. It was just awesome to witness.

On the team's growth...

We're not where we need to be, but I'm definitely loving the attitude, the enthusiasm, the energy, they just fight for each other. And there's one thing that has really come out is just how much they fight for one another. And when one guy goes down the other guy steps in, believe me, they care for him and they love him. I saw those guys come over to V Lowe when he was laying there in pain and gave him pats and taps, but they also were patting Pihlstrom and saying let's go do this. So I give a lot of credit to our leadership, our captains, all the things that they've done before I got here and all the growth they've had since we've arrived.

On Brandon Peters coming in the game...

I think BP especially this week was probably a little bit difficult for him. We made a decision early in the week to go with Art and kind of rep him through it. But true credit to BP and his ability to kind of just rise above. The one good thing is he's played a lot of football, and he's been through a lot of heartbreak and hopefully today was the start of something that could give him a couple of wins here in the last couple couple of games here as an Illini.

Tennessee State 28, EIU 0

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois turned the ball over four times on Saturday afternoon as the Panthers lost their 2021 homecoming contest to Tennessee State, 28-0.

EIU fell to 1-7 overall, 1-2 in the OVC.   TSU won its third straight game to improve to 4-3 on the season, 2-1 in the OVC.

Both team were able to move the ball on their opening drives as TSU marched down to set up a 52-yard field goal attempt by Antonio Zita that missed wide right.  In the spring game in Nashville, Zita connected on three field goals against EIU with a 51-yarder, 62-yarder and game winning 35-yard kick as time expired.  In today’s contest at O’Brien Field, Zita would miss on three long field goal attempts.

EIU drove into TSU territory and pinned the Tigers at their own 10-yard line following a punt by Logen Neidhardt.  A 3-and-out by the defense gave the Panthers good field position at midfield.  The Tigers defense would stop the EIU drive with the first of three interceptions on the day.  Eddie Graham picked off a pass in the end zone to stop the Panthers march.  Graham added two pass break-ups as EIU was 15-of-35 passing on the day for 115 yards.

TSU’s second interception of the day would set up the first score of the contest.  James Green picked off a pass and raced back 47-yards being tackled at the two-yard line.  Geremy Hickbottom would rush in from 1-yard out two plays later for the first of his two rushing touchdowns. 

TSU drove down late in the second quarter looking to go up two scores before the half, but the Panthers defense held with a goal line stand on 4-and-1 from the one yard line.  Colin Bohanek and Cameron Leach were in on the goal line tackle.  Leach led the Panthers with nine tackles.  Bohanek had seven tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss.

A big special teams play set up the second TSU touchdown as Zach Dodson returned a punt to the EIU-18 yard line.  Hickbottom scrambled in on the first play following the punt with 4:12 left in the third quarter.

Hickbottom connected with Zaire Thornton for a 16-yard touchdown while Devon Starling rushed in from seven yards out for the final two TSU scores in the fourth quarter.

Jaelin Benefield led the EIU rushing attack in his first game of the season finishing with 56 yards on seven carries.  Isaiah Hill, who returned last week, caught three passes for 17 yards.