The Illini traveled far for their Redbox Bowl matchup against California. But for some, the trip to the West Coast was also a trip back home.

“It’s been a great experience overall having the team out here,” junior linebacker Milo Eifler, who grew up in Berkeley, Calif. said. “Really, in a way, this game feels like a homecoming. It’s great to be home and here around my friends and family.”

Among those friends are the California Bears’ cornerbacks Camryn Bynum and Elijah Hicks, who trained with Eifler in the offseason last year before officially starting summer camp.

“We’re working together every time I come home since Cal Berkeley is up the street from here,” Eifler said. “Whenever we get around we just like to go out and push each other to get better.”

But Eifler isn’t the only one familiar with the area. Illinois’ three transfers from So-Cal, fellow linebacker Oluwole Betiku, junior wide receivers Josh Imatorbhebhe and Trevon Sidney, who’s been sidelined for the season since Illinois’ loss to Minnesota, also find themselves in familiar territory leading into Monday’s game.

“We’ve been able to get around the city for a little bit,” Betiku said. “It’s been a while since I’ve just went to take a stroll. It’s cold in Champaign so I don’t normally just walk outside. It’s been great to practice with no hoodie for once and just enjoy the weather again. Getting time to just get back into playing shape and back to what I do has been great. We’re just excited to play in this game and really are eager to win this. That’s been our mindset every practice since we’ve gotten here.”

Betiku, who transferred to Illinois after hip surgery in 2018 and seeing limited playing time at the University of Southern California, spoke earlier in the season of wanting to get his family from Nigeria close to his old stomping grounds for a bowl game. However, he won’t get to see the latter come into fruition this year, but his family is still watching from abroad.

“It’s still going to be a great bowl game, and it’s always a great feeling knowing my mom is watching,” Betiku said. “There’s going to be a lot more games she’ll be able to see in the future.”

Among the team activities the Illini have partaken in, namely their trip to Alcatraz Island and the Chase Center for the Warriors game, it didn’t take long for the Cali natives to take the uninitiated into one of the West Coast’s most iconic fast food place: In N Out.

“People like it. They say the burgers are fire, but the fries are just alright. The fries are cool but I’m more of a burger guy anyway. Neapolitan shake too,” Eifler said. “Everybody’s really just been excited to be a San Francisco. It’s really been a good experience overall especially for some of the team that hasn’t been to California. And I haven’t been to Alcatraz since I was a kid, so learning more about its history was a fun experience.”

While the Illini have enjoyed their free time in the Bay, it’s still strictly business as Monday’s Redbox Bowl approaches. The team is continuing to work on its biggest strength on defense, taking the ball away and recovering fumbles. As a team the Illini are second in the nation (16), recovering one less fumble than NCAA leader Notre Dame (17).

“Going into the season we just knew we were a better team,” Eifler said. “Each and every week when we’d perform, we’d see those little things that we needed to change. We’ve bought into what Lovie said, getting takeaways, and now as a defense we’ve established who we are.”

Illinois lost its last two matchups of the season, including the season finale 29-10 loss to Big Ten rival Northwestern. The Illini had the last month to recover from several injuries that sidelined serious portions of players at a time and prepare to face their first Pac-12 opponent since losing to Washington in 2014. But, Illinois’ last win against a Pac-12 opponent was all the way back in 2011 and created a drought the Illini are hoping to break at Levi Center on Monday.

“It’s just football regardless,” Betiku said. “Pac-12 schools have a little bit more attendance than a Big Ten school but at the end of the day, it’s just football. They can only run or pass the ball. The good thing about football is that win or lose, you learn something. Our last game, we’ve been watching tape and just trying to fix what went wrong. The first three-four days after that Northwestern game, we worked on correcting anything we weren’t doing right. That’s winning, learning from your mistakes.”

@jaredfarmer

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