Several key players on this 2024 Illinois roster remember the anger and disappointment from that 76-minute flight back home from Kansas last season.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

September 7, 2024

No. 19 Kansas at Illinois

Date/Time/Place: Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024: 6 p.m. CST, Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Ill.

Surface: Field Turf

Capacity: 60,670

Records: Kansas 1-0; Illinois 1-0

Betting Line: Kansas by 5.5

Series notes: The all-time series is tied 3-3 including Kansas’ 34-23 win in Lawrence last season. The last time Kansas visited Champaign was 1968 when the Jayhawks won 47-7. Illinois will be wearing the underlined ‘Illinois’ helmets from the 1989-2012 era. A blue stroke was added in 2005 after the original version featured an all-white underlined Illinois from 1989-2004. The 2024 helmet will feature a white facemask and blue-white-blue center stripes.

TV: FS1; Alex Faust (play-by-play) and Robert Smith (analyst)

National Radio: ESPN Radio - Mike Couzens (play-by-play), Jordan Reid (analyst), and Mike Peasley (reporter)

Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (PBP), Carey Davis (analysis), Michael Martin (sidelines) & Steve Kelly (Pre/HT/Post). The broadcast can be heard live on TuneIn online radio, SiriusXM and at FightingIllini.com.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s approximately a 76-minute flight from the regional airport in Lawrence, Kansas to Willard Airport in Savoy, Ill.

Following the 34-23 loss at Kansas last year, the only description of that late-night trip back home for the Illinois football program would be miserable.

“The emotion was pretty much exactly what you probably would think it would be,” Illinois linebacker Dylan Rosiek said. “There was a lot of anger across the team. There was a lot of disappointment. Not exactly angry in just the outcome but in the way we played and how the game played out, especially early.”

So, what did Illinois (1-0) learn from the dominating loss in Lawrence, Kansas that was masked by some late-game scores? Rosiek had some quick thoughts.

“Well, let me think. What did we learn? We learned that getting down three scores early is probably not a good idea,” Rosiek said. “We learned that getting off to a fast start really matters especially when you’re in a hostile environment. I guess we played pretty well after getting 28-7 at halftime when I guess we decided we wanted to start playing the right way. That’s probably the biggest takeaway from last year at Kansas.”

Imagine being Matthew Bailey, who was sidelined with a severe offseason foot/ankle injury and wasn’t able to make the trip last season to the game at Kansas, as the then-sophomore safety was confused with the performance of his teammates he was watching on live television on Friday night.

“I think it was truly frustrating because you’re watching the TV version, but you don’t really know what’s going on, it's hard to see what the call is and what is being said on the sidelines,” Bailey said. “Because of our record on defense last year and what we weren’t able to build on after having so much success in 2022, we have to have a chip on our shoulder. Maybe (after 2022) we thought we could just replicate that and learned that’s not easy.”

Bailey, who knew he was likely to get medically cleared the following week for the Big Ten Conference opener at home against then-No. 7 Penn State, understood almost immediately during team meetings, player/coach meetings and positional meetings in the following days to recap the mistakes made in Lawrence.

“All of the different formations and things pre-snap they tried to do to us, we’re emphasizing a lot of eye discipline this week because it’s going to be key for us to focus on being true to our scheme,” Bailey said. “Creating that relationship throughout all this fall camp in terms of being able to communicate is going to play a factor in this game, one hundred percent.”

Bailey was forced to watch back in Champaign away from his teammates knowing his presence and leadership could’ve been a factor in the 21 consecutive points Kansas put on the board in the first 27 minutes of action. The pain felt from watching hundreds of miles away while Kansas executed a 10-play, 13-play and 11-play touchdown drive on a defense that was just removed from being the No. 1 scoring defense in the nation was not something Bailey will forget.

Throughout this week, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema has attempted to describe this early season non-conference home game against a Top 20 opponent as just another revenge game for this Illini program coming off a disappointing 5-7 record in 2023. However, the fourth-year head coach also knows the momentum that could be built with the program’s first win over a non-conference ranked opponent in Champaign since 2011. More importantly, Bielema remembers being out schemed by Lance Leipold’s Kansas staff in a Friday night game where the early energy of the game resided primarily on the home sideline.

“When they asked us to move the game to a Friday night, I wasn’t a big fan of that idea but the powers that be got involved to move it and I knew that was going to be playing into their hand,” Bielema said. “You saw a very active, loud crowd. It was a good awakening of the adversity that can happen away from our home. They definitely attacked us in ways that were game plan and scheme oriented and to have that big time awakening moment for us after having so much success in 2022 was enlightening.”

“Obviously it was an incredible teaching moment for me as a coach. You know, I think obviously there were things going into that game that you think you’re prepared for, and they get exposed,” Henry said.

In describing his constant review of the loss in Lawrence, Kansas, in the immediate aftermath but also in the spring, winter and summer preseason before training camp began, Henry kept using the word “opportunity” to describe moments that the Illini second-year defensive play-caller feels could’ve flipped the momentum of what was an incredibly lopsided 28-7 result over the first 30 minutes of action.

In the over 100 times of watching that first loss of the 2023 season, Henry found himself questioning everything about his plan, calls and his players execution in the moment that led to such a deflating performance.

“We didn’t properly execute on every single level and so, anytime as a coach, anytime you go through a loss like that the one thing you deal with is asking yourself why. You ask yourself what you could’ve done differently to ensure your players had success,” Henry said. “We were trying to create havoc from a defensive perspective, and we missed them.”

IlliniGuys Kansas at Illinois Preview Coverage

Video:

https://illiniguys.com/kansas-at-illinois-preview-matt-stevens-andy-mitts-sept-6-weekend-illiniguys-sports-spectacular-youtube-edition/

https://illiniguys.com/kansas-jayhawks-vs-illinois-fighting-illini-football-preview-with-henry-greenstein-392-youtube-edition/