Illinois head coach Bret Bielema knows the Illini’s senior special teams assistant Chris Hurd helped turn the momentum of a 45-19 win at Duke last weekend

Matthew Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

September 13, 2025

WESTERN MICHIGAN at No. 9 ILLINOIS

Records: Western Michigan 0-2; Illinois 2-0

Date/Time/Place: Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025: 6 p.m. CST, Gies Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Ill.

Surface: FieldTurf

Capacity: 60,670

Series notes: Illinois leads all-time series is tied at 4-2 but Western Michigan won the last meeting in blowout fashion by leaving Champaign on Sept. 17, 2016 with a 34-10 victory. The Broncos held Lovie Smith’s Illinois team to three yards rushing while they piled up 287 yards on 54 carries. Sophomore running back Jamauri Bogan led a Western Michigan with P.J. Fleck as its head coach with 189 yards on 24 carries, including a pair of long touchdowns.

TV: FS1; Noah Reed (play-by-play) and Robert Smith (color analyst)

Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (play-by-play), Carey Davis (analyst), Michael Martin (sideline), and Steve Kelly (pre/half/post).  The broadcast can be heard live on TuneIn online radio, SiriusXM 382, the SiriusXM App, and at FightingIllini.com/live.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Despite having over 20 years of experience as a special teams coach at the collegiate level, Chris Hurd almost always does his job is relative anonymity.

The long hours of film work inside the Smith Family Football Complex, consistent memorization of an opponent’s special teams depth personnel and daily repping of fundamentals on the practice field is sometimes a thankless task to fans of the program. However, there are moments where that seemingly endless amount of work and time devoted to your craft pays off in one fleeting moment. For Hurd, that moment came early in the second half last weekend during the Illini’s 45-19 win at Duke.

With Illinois getting ready to punt after its first possession of the second half and only up 14-13, Hurd’s expertise of the Duke’s special teams unit and a basic understanding of the rulebook allowed the veteran assistant coach to open his mouth in a big way as Duke lined up its punt block unit trying to create a big play against Illini punter Keelan Crimmins.

As he counted Duke’s players, Hurd knew something wasn’t right and wanted to make his long-time boss, Bret Bielema, and the officials on the field aware of what he knew was a big mistake on Duke’s part. Hurd began screaming out from the sideline that Duke “had two No. 8s on the field”. Hurd had easily figured out that Duke’s Jayden Moore and DaShawn Stone were both on the field at the same time wearing the same jersey number (No. 8) the players on the field and the rules state that the only way for that to happen would be if one of those players had switched jersey numbers and, in accordance with a 2024 rules change, reported that number switch to the referee before the play began. Hurd’s screaming of “they got two number eights!” caught the attention of the game officials and illegal participation penalty (which they announced as a uniform violation in real-time) was a 5-yard infraction that allowed then-No. 11 Illinois (2-0) to continue its drive that resulted in a touchdown and altered the momentum of what would become a 26-point win on Saturday.

“That literally changed the game in my opinion," Bielema said, “because the next play was a big play and that really kind of took the game away from them at that point when we scored there in a really, really huge point in the game.”

At the time, the Duke (1-1) had scored a touchdown with 8 seconds left in the first half and then followed that momentum in front of its home crowd by the defense making a third-down stop on Illinois' first possession after halftime.

After several hours of staring at Duke’s special teams units, Hurd immediately knew something wasn’t right about this personnel grouping the Blue Devils had in their first punt return in the second half. Duke had already had a muffed return in the first half lead to seven points for the Illini and Hurd knew these personnel changes didn’t look like what he’d seen all week inside the Smith Center. Unfortunately, Duke head coach Manny Diaz didn’t notice until it was too late that DaShawn Stone was a late substitution to this punt return unit.

“There was a guy who should have been in and ran off, and a guy who didn't even practice in the unit this week (and) sort of stayed on,” Diaz said in the post-game. “(Stone) isn’t even in our two-deep on that special teams unit so it was just sort of confusing for everybody because obviously with college football and the double numbers you have to make sure you don't have. And so, like I said, I'm responsible for all that.”

“I thought that was a crucial play in the game and very much an unforced error that we allowed (them) to take advantage of.”

Bielema, who is maniacal when it comes to game management details, knew immediately that Hurd had just bought him, Illini offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. and third-year quarterback Luke Altmyer another offensive possession.

“He puts in hours and hours and hours in our office,” Bielema said of Hurd last weekend. "And he starts screaming, ‘There’s two 8s on the field, two 8s on the field!’ ... That obviously drew attention to the officials.”

It is moments like this that help understand why Bielema knew he needed to bring Hurd back on his staff in Champaign-Urbana. Hurd was as special teams quality control coach, which back in the old NCAA rules meant he was cutting practice tape and doing the behind-the-scenes work for the special teams coordinator without coaching on the field, on Bielema’s first Arkansas coaching staff in 2013. He joined Bielema after two years at Tennessee, where he served in special teams quality control roles with the Volunteers. Hurd was the defensive coordinator at Cisco College from 2007-10 and was a graduate assistant at his alma mater, North Texas, from 2004-06.

After Bielema was fired at Arkansas, Hurd bounced around as a special teams coach at Florida Atlantic, Chattanooga, Akron and Arkansas again before Bielema’s assistant coaching staff was lengthen by his boss, Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman.

As No. 9 Illinois hosts Western Michigan (0-2) tonight (6 p.m. CST, FS1), Bielema knows one of his favorite phrases “more games at this level are lost rather than won” will likely come up at Gies Memorial Stadium again. At Duke, it was Hurd’s moment to break out of the shadows and be recognized for something that turned the tide of a key game. The only question, one even Bielema can’t answer yet, is who will be that previously anonymous person who makes an impact this time.

“Because a lot of times it happens in special teams where there's two players with the same numbers and it never gets noticed,” Bielema said Saturday. “Chris Hurd was screaming at it, it had popped up on our scouting report, and he was making a big deal of it.”