David Reisner woke up Saturday with a feeling he’d have to kick four times. He didn’t know how many he would make, but he had a weird premonition he’d take those four attempts. 

He missed his third attempt: a 50-yarder. But when he went back to the sidelines, coaches and teammates told him he would get another shot.

“I’ve never come off the field with a missed field goal and have so many nice things said to me,” Reisner said with a laugh. “That kind of changed my mood a little bit.”

He was calm when he took his final attempt with just eight seconds left in the game. It went though the uprights and sealed a 16-14 senior day victory over Penn State at Memorial Stadium.

Illinois (4-5, 2-5 Big Ten) had only made two field goals all year and Reisner was only 1-for-3 all season. But he would make three field goals Saturday and finished with a career-high 10 points.

It was a fight from the start after the Nittany Lions (6-5, 2-3) took an early lead with an 18-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Christian Hackenberg. The pass was dropped out of bounds after the receiver appeared to bobble the ball, but the play was not reviewed.

Though Illinois started with quarterback Wes Lunt, the offense failed to click and the Illini turned to senior playcaller Reilly O’Toole with three minutes to go in the first half.

O’Toole came in to lead the offense and went 18-for-25 passing with 157 yards and the one touchdown. Lunt went 8-for-17 and recorded 58 yards.

On O’Toole’s first drive, a Penn State penalty turned a fourth-and-three situation into a first down for the Illini.  

The offense took the momentum from that call and O’Toole finished the 68-yard drive with a touchdown pass to senior tight end Matt LaCosse to tie the game.

Penn State was supposed to receive the ball at the start of the second half, but the Illinois kickoff was high and short. The ball bounced around the 30-yard line and no Nittany Lions gathered it. The Illinois coverage team jumped on the ball and took over at the 28. 

Illinois would take a 10-7 lead off a field goal from Reisner minutes later. 

Penn State would score only once more, off a 47-yard touchdown run from Akeel Lynch at the start of the fourth quarter to put them ahead. It was one of the only mistakes the Illini defense would allow. Penn State finished with just 265 yards of offense and Hackenberg was sacked twice.

“We left everything on that field,” defensive back Earnest Thomas III said. “You look at guys like Donovonn (Young) and Reilly, the way they played, the way they just willed that toward the end, the way we stuck together as a defense. We did everything we could do. It wasn’t the prettiest, but I think as a senior class we really left it all out there and did the best to lead the team and got the ‘W.’”

Reisner came in with just under nine minutes left to cut the Penn State lead to 14-13 on a 25-yard field goal. And from there, Reisner made senior day history.

After missing the 50-yard attempt with 2:46 to play, Reisner rebounded to knock in a 36-yarder in the games final seconds. It gave the senior class its first senior day victory at Memorial Stadium since 2007.

After he made the game winner, in the blur of being hoisted by teammates and the cheers of the sparse crowd, he remembers looking at his teammate and ball holder Justin DuVernois.

And he followed through on his words.

“I told him before the game,” Reisner said. “I said, ‘I’m going to my best for you today and the seniors.’”