the Illinois offense struggled to muster much of anything until it mattered most trailing by four in the fourth quarter Luke Alm and the Ali mounted an eight-play 80 yard Drive capped off by a Oney Kaden Fagen touchdown run to secure the lead in what turned out to be the Ali's first ranked home win since 2019 we just stuck with it you know um you know coaches were putting us in good positions and it was up to us to make plays and um you know we knew our our backs were against the wall we were down and if we wanted to go do what we wanted to do you know the only the only thing to do is to to go make something happen and the receiver who made a lot happen was the old Miss transfer zakari Franklin Leading The Way with nine catches for 99 yards and he's excited for more big games in Champagne it was nice out there it was electric and um I look forward to playing with some more sellout crowds here I can't even tell you how excited I am the Illinois defense also shined in the upset win forcing four turnovers Xavier Scott led the charge with two interceptions one of which for a pick six and the game ceiling for fumble coaches putting us in the right position to make plays you know everybody doing their job uh you know just all 11 guys just doing what they supposed to do and you know that's the end result of everybody do what they supposed to do you know we come out with victories interceptions takeaways and the first win over a ranked Fox since at Minnesota in 20121 didn't come as a surprise to Brett belma I told our coaches our players when we win this game I said that several times today I just had a feeling that we were going to match up well I liked our demeanor I thought our game plan was really really good I liked uh the matchups uh you know this is a very good football team from a year ago but we've been preaching about having uh you know match you know rematch games this is the first of six and I just thought our coaches really locked into that and the win marks a complete turnaround for an Ali team that fell behind 21 nothing when they played at Kansas last year as the orange and blue look to start this season 3 and 0 as Central Michigan comes to Champagne next Saturday reporting for your line night Nation Tristan Thomas wcia 3 Sports