Virgil takes over spotlight
Lisa Koulias
Sports editor
Last week against Missouri freshman E.B. Halsey led the running game for the Illini.
This week against Illinois State, junior Morris Virgil stepped in and turned that spotlight toward himself.
Virgil, who sprained his ankle during the Missouri game, had only one carry in the season-opener for a loss of 5 yards. On Saturday, he led the Illini by rushing for 84 yards.
"I wanted to come out and just run hard and focus on everything and help this team win a game," Virgil said.
Virgil said his ankle was bothering him a lot during Tuesday's practice, but said he was determined to play in the home-opener.
"They thought I may be doubtful," Virgil said. "I told my position coach that I was going to be ready."
And when Virgil went out there, he was right at home.
With 3:13 left in the third quarter, Virgil broke away for a 35-yard touchdown, his first of the season.
"It felt really good to go out there and get the adrenaline going and just running and getting in the end zone," Virgil said. "It was just something that I missed."
Turner was also pleased with Virgil's tenacity to play.
"I'm real pleased with the fact that he sprained his ankle last Saturday and missed the second half of the game," Turner said. "He showed the toughness to come out to practice."
Halsey, who led the Illini with 139 rushing yards against Missouri, finished third for the Illini with 73 yards in Saturday's game.
"We've been feeding off each other since he's got here, and he's been a big help to me and I've been a big help to him," Virgil said.
Newcomer Pierre Thomas made his collegiate debut on Saturday, rushing for 78 yards in only five minutes of play.
The waiting game
Last week, Turner and junior Mark Kornfeld had a conversion about the lack of a touchdown.
"Earlier in the week we were talking about different plays and coach Turner was talking to me in the meeting room, and he said 'Have you ever scored a touchdown before?' and I said 'Yeah' and he said 'In college?' and I said 'No' and he said 'We'll have to take care of that this week.'"
Kornfeld's 32-yard catch for his first touchdown, however, did not run as smoothly as planned.
"I don't know if people realize it, but it was definitely a broken play," Kornfeld said. "We only had ten guys on the field."
Beutjer is not surprised he made the off-kilter catch.
"That's the thing about (Kornfeld), if I put it in his vicinity he is going to catch it and that's good to know," Beutjer said. "He's got great hands, he knows the offense."
Weatherford gets the nod
Sophomore Steve Weatherford got the starting punter position for Saturday's game over junior Matt Minnes.
Weatherford, who did not see any playing time against Missouri, kicked three punts for an average of 45 yards.
Haywood steps up
With senior Carey Davis out for the next couple weeks due to a staph infection, sophomore Jason Davis was supposed to fill his shoes. Jason Davis tweaked his ankle during the game, making room for Haywood to pick up the first touchdown of his career.
"I think it was that he tweaked his ankle a little bit," said Halsey of Jason Davis. "That was a big blow for us because Carey Davis is already out, but Brad Haywood came in and stepped up and did a great job."
Excessive celebration
With four seconds left in the first half, senior defensive end Derrick Strong blocked a field goal attempt which was recovered by Travis Williams, who ran for 66 yards for the Illini touchdown.
Afterwards, Williams was bombarded with teammates, causing the Illini to get penalized for excessive celebration.
"The celebration penalty after the blocked kick really hurt us," Turner said. "We had guys think the half was over and heading into the locker room not realizing that we had to kick an extra point. So we got a celebration penalty, and we have to keep our composure better."
Sky's the limit
"We've got great receivers. The sky is the limit for those guys and this offense. We have so many great plays and it's up to us for executing them, and if we do that, we can do some great things and I think we showed that today."
— Illini quarterback Jon Beutjer
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