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What Lovie Smith said after Illinois’ blowout loss to Wisconsin
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Friday night did not quite go the way Lovie Smith had envisioned.
Illinois entered Friday’s B1G opener a heavy underdog to No. 14 Wisconsin, and it played out that way. Despite a defensive battle through the first 27 minutes of the game with the score at 14-7 with just over 3 minutes to play in the 1st half, the Badgers popped the lid off the game late in the second quarter.
Wisconsin scored twice in the final 3 minutes to bust a one-score game into a 21-point advantage heading into halftime. The Illini were never able to recover, falling 45-7 in Madison to open the year.
The story of the night was Badgers quarterback Graham Mertz, who completed 20-of-21 passes for 248 yards and 5 touchdowns, setting three new school records in his first start. Smith’s defense had no answer for the redshirt freshman.
Here’s what the Illinois head coach had to say following the 38-point loss to open the 2020 campaign:
#illini Lovie Smith: Not the night I envisioned coming up to Camp Randall. Thought team was more prepared.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 24, 2020
#illini Lovie Smith: Got to be able to challenge Mertz more. Got to be able to run the ball on offense.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 24, 2020
#illini Lovie Smith: We have to be able to play better coverage than that.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 24, 2020
#illini Lovie Smith: We never got in a rhythm with our passing game. We got to be able to complete more passes than that. Got to get our ball to the tight ends more. Brandon will tell you he'd like to have a few balls back.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 24, 2020
#iillini Lovie Smith: I just know the TD passes we gave up were busted coverages. Pretty easy to score with busted coverages back there.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 24, 2020
#illini Lovie Smith: Tarique Barnes came into tough situation. It was good to see him do well, and we needed him to at the time.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 24, 2020
#illini Lovie Smith: Isaiah Williams has done some good things in practice. Had a package designed just for him. Plan was for him to play no matter how the game went.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 24, 2020
#illini Lovie Smith: Jake Hansen is fine and alert. Hasn't had a whole lot of concussions. Will see how it goes this week. Player's health is at the forefront of all we do.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 24, 2020
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB