Illinois football has certainly had its struggles in 2018, but it hasn’t been all bad.

Going into Saturday’s game against Rutgers, the Fighting Illini owned a 2-2 record and was looking for their first Big Ten win of the season. Illinois got that victory and is now 3-2 on the season.

The 38-17 win was a convincing one, and after the game, coach Lovie Smith talked with the media. He brought up how long it’s been since Illinois has even gotten a Big Ten win, since in 2017, the team failed to do so — going 0-8 in conference play.

Illinois is at home against Purdue on Oct. 13.

Here is what Smith had to say about Illinois snapping its B1G losing streak of 13 games and 700 total days:

“It had been how many months, 23 months or so since we had a Big Ten win? All of us had to go back to what you do and celebrate a road win in the Big Ten. But all locker rooms are the same. There’s no feeling like a winning locker room. That’s what we had there.

“I think one win can do a lot. This was a big win. We put a big emphasis on this game. When it had been this long since we’ve had a Big Ten win on the road and just in general, that has to be big. Rutgers played well and almost came back and won the game last week. But after the bye week, we made some changes and we needed to see a better product. We saw a better product today.

“To be truthful, I didn’t even realize it until yesterday how long it’d been. When it’s been so long, it all runs together a little bit. That’s all in the past now. You kinda start over again this week.”