with wire reports

In a flashback to last season, the Illinois football team will be sharing its facilities with another professional football team this week — only this time it's not the Chicago Bears.

In the face of wildfires and thick smoke engulfing the San Diego area, the San Diego Chargers will fly to Champaign tonight to prepare for Sunday's game against the Bears in Chicago.

"We don't want to deal with the health risks," Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Illinois head coach Ron Turner said Tuesday the Chargers would likely use the Illini's grass practice field, visiting locker room, weight room and meeting rooms but said they should not interrupt the Illini's practice schedule.

"They called, and I said, 'Hey if we can help out, fine,'" Turner said.

The Chargers were forced to move their Monday Night Football game against Miami to Tempe, Ariz., after Qualcomm Stadium's parking lot was turned into a relief area for people forced from their homes by the fires.

Turner's brother, Norv, the offensive coordinator for the Dolphins, saw the disaster area before the game was moved.

"I guess it's a mess out there. I talked to my brother, and he said it's unbelievable," Ron Turner said. "He said you're outside for five minutes and you smell like smoke. He said you think you're in a war zone. It's unbelievable."

The Chargers will stay in Champaign until Saturday before heading to Soldier Field. The Illini, who will leave for Saturday's game at Iowa on Friday, grew accustomed to sharing their field last season and the beginning of this year while the Bears waited for Soldier Field to be renovated.

Turner said the arrangement should work out fine.

"As long as they don't go beat the Bears...," Turner joked.

Weatherford nabs honors

Illini punter Steve Weatherford was named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week Monday after his performance against Minnesota on Saturday.

Weatherford averaged 45 yards on seven punts, including a career-long 66 yarder. It was the first time since 1948 an Illini had booted two punts of more than 60 yards in a game.

Beutjer heads to surgery

Illini quarterback Jon Beutjer will undergo back surgery today at 7:30 a.m. to help repair the spinal injury that sidelined him for the rest of Illinois' 2003 season.

The surgery, called microscopic discectomy, will help "to leave the nerve some room so basically it's not being pushed up against another disk," Beutjer said.

Beutjer had been playing through pain most of the season before having to sit out the Illini's last two games when tests revealed he had a herniated disk.

"I'm excited to go get it done because I'm in pain, and it's been like this for a long time," Beutjer said. "I want to get my feeling in my right leg back."

Beutjer said his surgeon worked with some professional teams in Chicago, and assured him that he has had a 100-percent recovery rate with the surgery in the past.

"I personally spoke with the doctor and he is extremely, extremely confident that he will be fine," Turner said. "If he wants to play football then he'll play football. Health-wise, from what I understand, it won't be an issue."

Filling in

The Illini are getting a look in practice this week at what it will be like to play without starting running backs E.B. Halsey and Pierre Thomas and starting receivers Kelvin Hayden and Lonnie Hurst, who are all out with injuries.

Turner said Tuesday that Mark Kornfeld and Ade Adeyemo will likely start in the receiver spots, while Morris Virgil will probably start at running back.

Marcus Mason will challenge Virgil at tailback, and Kendrick Jones and Franklin Payne will also play at receiver. Even receiver-turned-safety Eric McGoey could move back to his former position.

"(McGoey) looked fine," Turner said. "I asked him, 'Do you feel like a ping pong ball — back and forth, back and forth?'"

With so many inexperienced players looking to start this week, Turner moved the Illini practice off the usual grass practice fields to the Memorial Stadium field so the team could play longer under the lights.

"We need the meeting time. We've got a lot of young players. I didn't want to cut the meeting short," Turner said. "If this was the old Astroturf, we wouldn't have done that. But we don't mind coming in here."