In a sea of jumping orange, fans cheered on the Fighting Illini as they played their way to victory in the first two home games of the season.

With a 2-1 record and new leadership from Head Coach Ron Zook, the University’s football team is off to a steady and exciting start.

It’s not only the fans that are eager about this season’s wins however. Local businesses have definitely seen an impact in store sales because of the Fighting Illini victories, said Cory Shumard, manager of Gameday Sports at 519 E. Green St.

“Our sales after the 2-1 start are way ahead of last year,” he said. “September is off to a fantastic start. We are exceeding our prospective goals for this month.”

Shumard also commended Zook for being proactive in driving the team to play well and said the T-shirts with the word “believe” across the front are Gameday Sports’ number one sellers.

“Any items pertaining to this year’s team have performed very well for us,” Shumard said.

Even though sales from this year are still shy of 2001’s numbers, Shumard said there is a definite pickup in sales over the last two years. He also said he’s expecting sales to increase even more once conference play begins.

“The Big Ten competition drives people to the games,” Shumard said. “And this increases our sales as well.”

Shumard said he never hides the fact that wins and losses are the biggest economic factors for a fan retailer store. Yet, he said he is still excited for the upcoming game this weekend to see how the Fighting Illini will perform.

Sports retailers in Champaign aren’t the only ones benefiting from the Fighting Illni’s victories.

Jessy Gregg, junior in LAS, said she is definitely more excited this year to attend the football games than in previous years.

“My freshman year I bought season tickets and the team was bad,” she said. “So I didn’t buy them this year and now I wish I had.”

Even though Gregg doesn’t have season tickets, she said she plans on attending as many games as she can this year. She also said she thinks the team will definitely do better this year than they did the past two years.

Chris Nickell, sophomore in Engineering, said he thinks the Fighting Illini will perform better due to Zook’s leadership and the player’s abilities.

“The quarterback, Tim Brasic, is going to do big things this year,” he said. “He has the ability to pump up the team more so than in past years.”

Nickell also said he thought the Fighting Illini kicker, Jason Reda, would help the team win more games.

“(Reda) pulls some field goals out of nowhere that other players can’t do,” he said.

Even with a solid team of individual players, most of Nickell’s praise went to the new head coach. He said he was happy Zook focuses not only on the players winning as a team, but also on the player’s academics.

“(Zook) is a good influence on the team,” he said. “He knows what the players are here for first and foremost.”

As for this season, Nickell said he hopes the team can win six games in order to make it to one of the bowls. He even said he would start betting on the Fighting Illini if they made it to any of the bigger tournaments later in the season.

“If they don’t make it this year, they will definitely be good in the near future,” Nickell said.