A week after facing the nation’s sixth-best defense, the Illinois football team (3-3, 0-2 Big Ten) faces an even tougher challenge this Saturday.

When Michigan State (6-1, 3-0) visits Champaign, the Spartans will bring the country’s best overall defense — allowing just 228.0 yards per game.

Facing the daunting task of the Spartans’ defense, offensive coordinator Bill Cubit wasn’t fazed by the challenge.

“I said, ‘If you don’t like challenges, just stay in the locker room. Don’t even bother coming out,’” he said. “For us, it’s a big challenge, and we’ve got to meet that challenge. Those guys on the other side, they want to stay No. 1. They don’t want to drop down.”

While this will be a tough challenge for the upstart Illini offense, facing stingy defenses is nothing new this season. The Illini faced Wisconsin last Saturday, who owns the sixth-best defense in the country, as well as the eighth-best defense in Cincinnati.

Illinois had success against both teams on the offensive side of the ball, scoring 45 and 32 points on Cincinnati and Wisconsin, respectively.

One of the most explosive playmakers on the Michigan State defense is sophomore Shilique Calhoun. The 6-foot-4 defensive end leads the team with 6.5 tackles for loss, four sacks and 15 quarterback hurries.

In addition, Calhoun recorded three defensive touchdowns in the Spartans’ first two games this season. In the season opener against Western Michigan, he returned a fumble 16 yards for a score, and he notched another scoop-and-score the following week to go along with an interception returned 56 yards for a touchdown.

“They’re really strong up front. They’re relentless,” Cubit said. “Every time I turn on the tape, they’re taking a sack-fumble back or an interception back for a touchdown. They’re just relentless.”

The Illini are spending this week trying to get healthy after having a few players get nicked up in the Wisconsin game. STAR Eric Finney is expected to play this weekend after sustaining a shoulder injury in practice last week and missing the Wisconsin game.

The news isn’t as good for the starting kick and punt returners for Illinois. V’Angelo Bentley, who is fourth in the nation in kick return average, injured his foot during the Wisconsin game and was in a walking boot after the game. Wide receiver and fellow returner Miles Osei left last Saturday’s game with a concussion after multiple players said he wasn’t acting like himself on the sidelines.

“He didn’t look right and wasn’t speaking all together,” head coach Tim Beckman said. “I really credit the players on that one for coming up to us.”

If neither are available to play, Martize Barr, Darius Mosely and Caleb Day will compete this week for the two spots as punt returners. Ryan Lankford will also vie for the two kick returner spots.

This is the first matchup against Michigan State since 2010, when the Spartans took home a 26-6 victory in East Lansing, Mich.

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.