Stepping onto the field Saturday, Illinois wanted to improve on its miserable showing against Penn State. The Illini could not pull off a victory – the 41-24 loss moved them to 2-6 overall and 0-6 in the Big Ten – but they did manage to exhibit improvements on both sides of the ball.

“When your chance comes, you’ve got to play. You’ve got to step up and play,” head coach Ron Zook said.

Things looked bleak in the beginning, as Wisconsin scored twice in the first quarter. The opening touchdown, a six-yard rush by Brian Calhoun on second-and-goal, was followed by a missed PAT attempt.

Wisconsin’s big play came with 6:52 left in the first, as quarterback John Stocco nailed a 62-yard pass to Brand Williams. Illinois closed the quarter with a Melvin Bryant touchdown, bringing the score to 13-7.

Calhoun scored four more times before the clock ran out. He rushed 35 times for 197 net yards, including a fourth quarter 46-yard run into the endzone.

“He’s a great back; we knew that coming into the game,” Zook said. “He’s got speed, and you can’t coach speed.”

When Wisconsin’s Jonathan Casillas blocked a third-quarter Illini punt, it gave the Badgers an advantage they used to thier fullest – but proved a costly mistake for the inexperienced Illini.

“You give guys opportunities; guys walk around ‘Well I’m not playing,’ but we can only play 11 guys at a time. We need to play about 13, but they’re only going to let us play 11,” Zook said. “When your chance comes, you’ve got to step up and play.”

But the Illini found areas where they could shine. Pierre Thomas’ 28-yard rush in the third quarter was his longest of the season, and Jason Davis’ 61-yard catch in the first was Illinois’ longest play of the season.

True freshman Kyle Hudson snatched a deep 32-yard pass from quarterback Tim Brasic late in the fourth, and set a career-high with 10 catches and 114 yards.

“He’s becoming the go-to guy,” Zook said. “He catches everything that’s near him. He’ll catch a lot of passes before he leaves here.”

Hudson said he is becoming more confident with each game, and that Saturday – with the first touchdown and first rush of his career – was a season highlight.

“We’ve still got the loss, but I felt like we played a little bit better as a team, and hopefully, we’ll keep improving every week,” Hudson said.

Brasic rushed for 116 yards, setting the Illinois quarterback single-game rushing record and establishing a new season rushing record for any Illini quarterback, as his total jumped to 358 yards.

Brasic’s 277 passing yards was a career-high.

“We came out and moved the ball well, we thought we played decent, but when you get down to the score zone, you’ve got to score touchdowns, and that’s something we’ve struggled with all season,” Brasic said.

On defense, safety Kevin Mitchell set a career-high with 12 tackles, and Brit Miller broke past his best numbers with eight tackles and 1.5 tackles-for-loss. Alan Ball set a personal record with two TFLs.

“We got better as it went on,” Zook said. “What (Wisconsin) wanted to do was come out and establish the run game … we settled down, we made some adjustments on defense, and we started playing the run pretty well.”

With a road trip to Ohio State’s Horseshoe next weekend, things won’t be getting easier for the Illini. But Zook said his players are becoming better-equipped to handle everything being thrown at them.

“Until we start standing up and doing what we’re supposed to do, they’re going to have that same gut-sorry feeling that they’ve got,” Zook said.