Drew McMahon touches his cleat to the sideline then darts down the field, a rare orange blur in a sea of blue and white. Sweat has already soaked the gray T-shirt he wears under his practice jersey, and his shaggy red hair clings to his neck as he runs.

Practice is over and the orange-clad scout team – the Illini least likely to see action each Saturday – has been released to the locker room. But a few players, including McMahon, stay behind to run sprints alongside the starters and second-string athletes who constantly compete over spots.

McMahon hasn’t played in a game since the 2004 season. Yet each time the team conditions after practice, he voluntarily runs just the same.

“I don’t think Drew sees himself as truly on the scout team,” a staff member said as McMahon pivots on the far sideline and heads back. “He’s still competing for time.”

McMahon said he’ll vie for playing time until his football career ends. He said the only thing he loves more than the University of Illinois is being part of a big-time college football program. With a dad who coached here for 12 years and some of his closest friends beside him on the field, the junior walk-on said no list of Illini losses and no amount of time on the sidelines will change his dedication to Illinois football.

“It’s definitely tested my will power to come out here everyday and be on the scout team, to not get that playing time,” McMahon said. “It’s not easy to gut it out week-in and week-out, to give it 110 percent, to run the wind sprints when, as the scout team, we’re allowed to go back inside.”

But McMahon is not the fabled fan desperately hoping for one shot at glory. At 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds he’s undersized even for a defensive back, but linebacker J Leman said he is athletic and brings a unique brand of toughness to practice each day.

“I’ve never met a tougher football player,” Leman said of his high school and college teammate. “His heart and his toughness are by far his biggest strengths.”

At Champaign Central High School, McMahon recorded the most wrestling victories in school history and set school records for all-time leading rusher and most touchdowns in a single season. He made the Central Illinois football All-Star team and was an All-State selection his senior year.

McMahon acknowledges he probably could have contributed more on a smaller college’s football team. He also received letters from several wrestling programs. But he never returned any of the mail, choosing to walk on at Illinois instead of seeking scholarships elsewhere.

“It’s awe-inspiring when you walk into this place, there’s no place like it in my opinion,” McMahon said. “I would have loved to maybe play more going to another school, but I wouldn’t trade this for the world.

“I knew I’d be a walk-on, that it would be an up-hill battle, but that’s what motivates me personally,” he said. “It motivates a lot of guys to come out here, not only prove people wrong but prove to yourself that you can do it. So I was looking forward to that struggle.”

McMahon’s father, Greg McMahon, joined Illinois’ coaching staff in 1992 and served as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach under former Illini football head coaches Lou Tepper and Ron Turner.

Before moving to Champaign, the family jumped from one college town to another, sometimes staying just one semester.

Champaign became McMahon’s first real home. He remembers goofing around with teammate Jacob Willis, whose dad was also a coach under Tepper, at team banquets when Illinois appeared in several bowl games in the early 1990s. He and Willis would steal keys to golf carts and zip around the stadium. He remembers opening the emergency exit to the bubble, a tent-like dome inflated over the field before the indoor practice facility was built, and laughing as the pressure change launched him into the cool spring air.

“He’s still goofing around all the time,” said Willis, now an Illini wide receiver. “Drew still thinks he can dance. He’s still got the same moves he had back then.”

McMahon and Willis both stayed in Champaign, but ultimately Tepper did not. The losses began to pile up in the mid-’90s, and after a 2-9 season, a coaching change was inevitable. When Tepper was fired in 1996, Athletic Director Ron Guenther kept Greg McMahon on staff.

Spending 12 seasons in the same job is almost unheard of in the coaching world, but it allowed the McMahons to remain rooted.

After a successful high school career in track, wrestling and football, McMahon first suited up for Illinois in 2003.

He said growing up around the program taught him what to expect as a player, but didn’t mean he was prepared for the quick pace of college ball.

“Even my dad telling me what to expect, even standing on the sidelines every day, does not prepare you 100 percent for what it’s like,” McMahon said. “I remember talking to Tyler Rouse, the other freshman walk-on from Champaign, about that. When that first horn blew for Camp Rantoul, we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off.”

McMahon redshirted the 2003 season, when Illinois finished 1-11.

The next year, however, he began seeing consistent playing time, taking the field on special teams each game and recording one tackle against Purdue.

2004, however, was a low point for Illinois football. Illini fans often heckled the players and coaches as they ran on and off the football field, suffering loss after loss on their way to a 3-8 record.

Again it seemed certain that something would change in the football office.

“I remember as a kid being by the tunnel and hearing fans scream the most obscene things to one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met,” McMahon said of Tepper’s final season. “It’s different as a player. As a kid that kind of stuff would consume me. But as a player, you just have to block it out.”

Ron Turner was fired on Nov. 22, 2004, and 15 days later Ron Zook was named the new head coach. Greg McMahon began looking for a new coaching position, but his son never thought twice about staying on the team.

“My dad’s still an Illini, he’s still our biggest fan. He understands it’s a business and I understood that,” McMahon said. “I’m also an Illini through and through, I’ve been here since I was eight years old, so it wasn’t something I was questioning just because he wasn’t on the payroll anymore.”

The past two seasons have not looked much different in terms of wins and losses.

As existing players adjust to the new coaches and new players join the program, the Illini have struggled against almost every opponent.

Zook said he is confident the team is constantly improving, but fewer fans are buying tickets as the scoreboard stays the same.

For McMahon, however, nothing has changed. He doesn’t play anymore, but said he still comes to practice every day to prove he deserves a shot at game time.

“He’s worked for everything he’s got. He doesn’t take any shortcuts,” roommate Leman said.

“Even when things don’t look up for him, the dude always comes out and gives 100 percent. The kid doesn’t know what half-speed means,” he added.

While he’s only a junior athletically, this may be McMahon’s final season of football.

He is scheduled to graduate on time, and said it doesn’t make sense to pay for an extra semester of college just because he loves the game.

His family is now in New Orleans, where Greg McMahon is in his first season as the Saints’ special teams coach.

But McMahon hates the idea of leaving while the rest of his football classmates finish their eligibility.

All seven of his roommates will be back to the Illinois campus next fall, and McMahon said he cannot imagine being the only one to leave.

“I didn’t even think it was going to be an issue I was going to have to think about,” he said. “But after this semester and next semester, I’ll be done. So who knows?”

When he lines up to run with the first- and second-string players, McMahon isn’t thinking about whether he has eight or 20 more games as an Illini.

He doesn’t think about it when he stands on the sidelines game after game, or as he watches the games from home when he doesn’t make the travel roster.

“I definitely feel like every day I’m still competing to get back on the field; my ultimate goal is to get back out there,” McMahon said.

“I had a blast my sophomore year. I still remember that feeling, and that’s what motivates me every day to get back out there, make some plays, and just keep plugging away,” he added.