Head coach Lovie Smith gave the Illini 24 hours to celebrate their 24-23 comeback win against what was the No. 6-ranked Wisconsin Badgers. Now, it’s a new week of football, and the Illini will look to build on their momentum as they travel to face the Purdue Boilermakers at Ross-Ade Stadium Saturday.

“This time last year at Homecoming, we were embarrassed by Purdue,” said head coach Lovie Smith of the 46-7 loss. “They played well. We didn’t. So to get a chance to hopefully redeem ourselves and to stack some wins is important.”

Purdue currently sits one spot below Illinois in the Big Ten West at fifth overall, but either team has the same conference record of 1-3. So far the Boilermakers are 2-2 at home, while the Illini have split their two away games. Illini’s last Big Ten road loss came at the hands of the Minnesota Gophers, where they were beaten handily in Minneapolis to the tune of 40-17.

Purdue dropped to 2-5 after losing on the road to No. 20-ranked Iowa. The Hawkeyes almost suffered their own Wisconsin-esque loss to the Boilermakers after redshirt freshman quarterback Jack Plummer led a 72-yard scoring drive to find fellow redshirt freshman Payne Durham, cutting the lead down to 26-20 with 24 seconds left in the fourth. However, the Hawkeyes prevented the upset by recovering the Boilermaker’s attempt at an onside kick to secure their fifth win.

The Boilermakers were led in rushing yards by freshman wide receiver David Bell last week, who had the eighth-most rushing yards in school history with 197 yards, 13 catches and one touchdown. Plummer threw for 327 yards and two touchdowns, completing 30 of his 50 attempts and an interception.

Meanwhile, the Illini come off of not only a well-timed Homecoming victory but their biggest win against a ranked opponent since 2007. Despite losing four players to injury, including juniors Ricky Smalling and Oluwole Betiku, the Illini managed to come from a nine-point deficient halfway through the fourth to pave the way for a James McCourt field goal, sealing the upset.

The right-footed junior kicker capped off a final sequence that started with junior cornerback Tony Adams’ interception with just over two and a half minutes left in the fourth.

Junior linebacker Jake Hansen forced two fumbles on Saturday. He entered the matchup leading the nation in that category with 0.83 forced fumbles per game. Senior linebacker Dele Harding terrorized the Badgers offense with a game-high 16 tackles.

Walk-on sophomore receiver Donny Navarro had his first career touchdown, which snapped Wisconsin defense’s scoreless streak of 148:17 in-game time.

The last time these two teams met, the Illini got off to the faster start with an early touchdown from former quarterback AJ Bush Jr. However, the Boilermakers did everything they wanted to at Memorial Stadium.

Purdue drove a total of 611 yards to Illinois’ 250 and held on to the football for nearly 15 more minutes in the game. Purdue’s former quarterback David Blough threw for 377 yards with three touchdowns and completed 25 of his 36 attempts while running back D.J. Knox rushed for 150 yards and had 17 carries.

“Everybody knows here, good or bad, that you have to move on to the next play and the next game,” Smith said. “You can never take a win with you. If you’re playing good football each week, you should continue to improve, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

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