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What Illinois’ Lovie Smith said at weekly press conference
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Illinois survived a major scare in Week 1, holding off Kent State 31-24 in a B1G-MAC showdown.
The Fighting Illini found themselves down 17-3 in the first half, but they scratched and clawed their way back into the matchup and were able to hang on for a touchdown-victory.
Here’s what Illinois head coach Lovie Smith had to say following the 1-0 start and looking ahead to Western Illinois in Week 2:
On defeating Kent State:
#illini Lovie: Disappointing to allow conversions on 3rd and longs and 4th downs.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 3, 2018
#illini Lovie: Whenever you start season off, you're never sure what you have. What we saw is there are improvements we need to make, but we like some of the things we're doing. Luckily, there are two halves to a game.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 3, 2018
On individual performances:
#illini Lovie: AJ Bush's first game. He'll play better the second game. Gave us some good things.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 3, 2018
#illini Lovie: We've been waiting for Jake to come out for a long period of time. We counted seven tackles for loss for him. Played outstanding ball.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 3, 2018
#illini Lovie: Blake Hayes has just done his job every time we ask him to. He really put our defense in position to play well.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 3, 2018
On Mike Dudek’s season-ending injury:
BREAKING: #illini Lovie: Mike Dudek suffered season-ending knee injury during Week One.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 3, 2018
#illini Lovie: Dominic Stampley and Carlos Sandy will move into prominent roles.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 3, 2018
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