Illinois head coach Bret Bielema is always going to get emotional about his first recruit after getting the Illini job - his starting tailback vs. Michigan - Josh McCray.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

October 19, 2024

#24 Michigan at #22 Illinois

Date/Time/Place: Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024: 2:30 p.m. CST, Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Ill.

Surface: Field Turf

Capacity: 60,670

Records: Michigan 4-2, 2-1 in Big Ten; Illinois 5-1, 2-1 in Big Ten

Betting Line: Michigan by 3.5

Series notes: Michigan leads the all-time series 72-23-2. Illinois has lost the last six in a row to Michigan and the last two games in Champaign. Illinois' last win in the series came in 2009. Memorial Stadium’s last three AP Top 25 ranked vs. ranked games have been against Michigan (1991, 1995, 2000). Illinois has not won a ranked vs. ranked game at Memorial Stadium since #20 Illinois beat #11 Ohio State, 10-7, Oct. 12, 1991. Illinois head coach Bret Bielema is 3-3 against the Michigan overall and 0-1 since taking over the Illini program.

TV: CBS; Brad Nessler (play-by-play), Gary Danielson (analyst), and Jenny Dell (reporter)

Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (play-by-play), Kevin Mitchell (analyst), Kacey Standohar (sideline), and Steve Kelly (pre/half/post).  The broadcast can be heard live on TuneIn online radio, SiriusXM, the SiriusXM App, and at FightingIllini.com/live.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Shortly after the start of his freshman year after arriving at the University of Illinois, Josh McCray found himself battling a cold and flu bug.

On the laundry list of adversities that the 22-year-old had faced throughout his short life including the death of his mother and grandmother before he left for college, the common cold wouldn’t normally rank very high. The emotional problem for McCray in that fall of 2021 was his sickness reminded him of his recently passed away grandmother, who had always took care of her grandson when he wasn’t feeling 100 percent. This cold and flu was the first time he was on his own to physically take care of himself and his college head coach Bret Bielema knew this more than anybody in Smith Family Football Complex in Champaign. Bielema had the then-team nutritionist assigned to the football program inside the facility put together a meal plan for McCray for the next week or so to get the freshman tailback back to full health.

“She is who I do all this for,” McCray said Saturday. “My grandma was my person. I still love her and she’s not here anymore. She’s why I’m in college. She’s why I play football. She’s why I want to the be the best man I can be.”

The result was arguably the best two-game stretch of his college career as McCray rushed for 60 yards on eight carries including his first career touchdown inside Memorial Stadium against Maryland and then eight days later rushed for career-high 156 yards, the fifth-most in a game by a true freshman in 2021, on a career-high 24 attempts against Purdue.

Three years later, Bielema still gets emotional - like he did following the 50-49 overtime win over Purdue when asked about the now fourth-year tailback who has been forced to endure multiple injuries, including a concussion, a knee injury and a neck injury from a horse collar tackle in his first three years of college football.

“Josh has gone through so much that a lot of people don't have any idea about. He just continues to persevere,” Bielema said. “He sees all these other running backs come in — Kaden (Feagin), Aidan (Laughery) and now Ca'Lil Valentine — and everybody is writing about and talking about all those other guys and not him and he just continues to persevere.”

In place of an injured starter, Kaden Feagin last weekend, McCray totaled 124 all-purpose yards (78 rushing and 46 receiving) and will likely get the first and a majority of the carries today with No. 22 Illinois (5-1, 2-1 in Big Ten Conference) hosts defending national champion Michigan (4-2, 2-1) in the Illini’s debut on ‘Big Ten on CBS’ with a 2:30 p.m. CST kickoff.

In a contest that will be serve as a dedication game famously honoring the afternoon where Red Grange gained national headlines after scoring four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes to take down the previously undefeated Wolverines, McCray’s ability to lead the Illini rushing attack might be the tipping point for Illinois to get its first win over Michigan in Champaign since 2009.

“He’s an absolute pleasure to coach and it’s so much fun to see how free he’s playing now that he’s not worried about getting hurt,” Illinois running backs coach Thad Ward said.

“Coach Ward has told me since the first day I met him to stop chasing ghosts of my past here,” McCray said. “Once I felt like I could play without being in pain or a fear of getting hurt, I’ve had fun playing this game I love again. And you’ve seen my play get better and better.”
McCray, a under-recruited tailback from Enterprise, Ala., was the first scholarship offer, verbal commitment and signee of the Bielema era of Illini football as a February signee to the 2021 recruiting class. Bielema suggested in his Zoom media conference with media in Feb. 2021 that fate was the conclusion that a longstanding relationship with longtime Wisconsin high school football head coach Jed Kennedy resulted in a quick recruitment of McCray, a three-star Alabama tailback prospect that at least six Southeastern Conference programs wanted as a linebacker or safety at the college level.

“I’ll tell you this. If Coach Bielema was still at Wisconsin, this kid would’ve been exactly the kind of tailback Wisconsin would’ve made a priority and had committed already way before the February period,” Kennedy said in 2021. “He’ll be somebody who walks into that Big Ten locker room and you might think he’s an upperclassman.”

Kennedy, who in 2021 was the Enterprise (Ala.) High School defensive coordinator but is now the head coach at Dothan (Ala.) High School, never saw anything regarding his relationship with the Illini head coach or the recruitment of McCray as coincidental.

“Let me tell you this, I’ve done this long enough that I can say I’ve done this job a long time. So, most college coaches are people I’ll never hear from after the kid they are recruiting signs with them unless, of course, you have another player a few years later they want too,”

Kennedy said in 2021. “I truly believe Bret Bielema is the complete opposite. It didn’t matter if I ever sent him another player again. When he was in the NFL, he would constantly send me texts saying ‘Hey Jed, how’s the season going? What’s happening with your guys?’ type of stuff. This isn't about a what can you do for me mentality at all. That is the kind of person Bret Bielema is.”

When Kennedy sent a congratulatory text to Bielema after he was named the Illini head coach, he also mentioned he might have a tailback ready to commit to his new program.

“Everybody was recruiting Josh to be on defense and finally, I just said to myself I’m going to text Coach Bielema and see if he’d be interested in him at Illinois,” Kennedy said. “Maybe less than an hour later, I looked down at my phone and it was Bret calling me back personally. He wanted me to hear directly from me that he would give his film a long look.”

“I was kind of a one-man band on this thing and playing snare drum, tambourine and tuba to get him in a position to be here,” Bielema said in 2021.

In the short recruitment Bielema met McCray’s aunt and grandmother and were instantly sold on the genuine nature of the Illini’s new head coach.

“Whenever we first get up here, he made me feel like home. He got to see my family. My family really loves him. He's a real family man,” McCray said in 2021. “It was a done deal once I got that offer.”

In August, McCray was named to the 2024 Comeback Player of the Year preseason watch list by the College Sports Communicators, in association with The Associated Press and the Fiesta Bowl. Bielema, who was the first college coach to offer him a scholarship as a tailback after the recommendation by Kennedy, believes McCray is the epitome of everything this new era of Illini football stands for.

“Everything keeps telling him that he’s going to get beat down, and he just keeps getting back up,” said Bielema. “So I couldn’t be prouder of that guy.”