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The Illini have their first win in over a year, and are looking to make it two in a row against Nebraska this week.
Here’s what head coach Lovie Smith had to say:
On team’s players of the week
- Isaiah Williams (offense), Jake Hansen (defense) and James McCourt (special teams)
- It’s nice to see the Big Ten sees it the way we do.
On the quarterback situation
- What I see is that we have our starting quarterback who’s been out, and he’s available this week.
- What I also saw is what our other quarterback was able to do this week.
- I would say we have some good options going in to this week.
- As a head football coach, all decisions go through me.
- Brandon (Peters) can practice when the team practices.
- No one has cycled through quarterbacks more than we have.
Injuries
- Will continue to monitor (Alex Palczewski)
- He’s (Milo Eifler) getting better... we don’t know what his availability will be this week.
- He (Jamal Woods) is getting better.
On the defense
- If you take away those plays we did a lot of good things throughout the day.
- We played hard.
- We want guys that do have flexibility.
- It was improved (pass defense)
On individual players
- Khalan (Tolson) is a smart player with athletic ability
- We’ve asked him (Tolson) to do a lot.
- Jake Hansen has played better there (outside linebacker)
- I think wherever you put him he’s gonna make plays
- (Chase Brown has) been patient with his entire time here, having to sit out all year last year. You got a chance to see what we’ve seen behind the scenes.
- Height and weight are overrated.
- I think it’s a new day of what the quarterback position looks like. Its a smart, athletic guy, who can throw the football but he makes you miss in the open field... And we have a guy.
On the win against Rutgers
- I think you can say its a turning point when you lose three and then win one on the road when you’re being down 10 points.
On Nebraska
- It’ll be a big challenge for us this week.
- They have a good offense that put up a whole lot of yards against us (last year).
- We have an opportunity to put two wins together.
- We’re looking to take another step this week, we’ll have to.