CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The No. 21 Illini are hitting the road for the last time this regular season, as they’ll be making the trip up north to take on the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
Although this is an away game, Madison is a familiar place for Illinois head coach Bret Bielema, who spent eight years on the Badger coaching staff, with six of them being as head coach.
But for Bielema, it’s those moments that happened off the football field that stick with him.
“I have a lot of great
memories up there,” Bielema said. “My wife and I obviously got married in Madison, and so there’s a lot of things that have nothing to do with the game, but have everything to do with Wisconsin. I’ve got a lot of great friends there.”
Saturday’s showdown is almost certainly going to be marketed as a reunion game with Bielema, other members of his staff and even some players coming back to Camp Randall.
However, when asked whether it was a big deal for him to go back to his old stomping grounds, Bielema stressed that his focus was just on the game at hand.
“It’s just another big-time football game,” Bielema said. “I know it’ll be a narrative, but I think it’s more about Wisconsin playing Illinois.”
When it comes to those two teams facing off, it should be an interesting one under the lights in a primetime slot on Big Ten Network.
The Badgers haven’t had a great season, and currently sit at a 3-7 record with just one Big Ten win.
But that one win was against Washington, just one week after the Huskies beat Illinois by three possessions.
One strength of this Wisconsin team over the course of the season has been its defensive unit.
“They’ve played well all year, really, defensively,” Bielema said. “Obviously there’s been some games that got away from them during that stretch, but they’re big up front, they’re physical.”
In each of the team’s past three games, the Badgers have tallied at least four sacks.
At the forefront of that pass rush has been their freshman linebacker duo of Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano, both of whom recorded a sack last weekend against Indiana.
Another youngster will be leading the charge for Wisconsin on the opposite side of the ball, as true freshman quarterback Carter Smith is coming off his first career start.
In the eyes of Bielema, this group of Badgers is riding some momentum into Saturday’s contest.
“They got a little banged up, Washington did, but Wisconsin took advantage of every moment,” Bielema said. “Some of the players you see now that played really well last week against Indiana kind of emerged in that game, and that’s what they’ve been riding.”
The Illini are coming into the game on a high note as well, as they’re in the middle of a win streak and just cracked the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time this season.
As a team that’s had the mantra of going 1-0 each week all season long, Illinois certainly is looking to close out the regular season strong.
“The parts I enjoy about this group, their work ethic, their mentality, their focus,” Bielema said. “I really challenged them on Sunday to put a good week of work in, they’ve done that. Health-wise wise everybody’s cleared, everybody’s good to go.”
