It's Official: Illinois is For Real

So I wake up today around 1pm CST with my phone blowing up. Still in a haze, I go and check my voicemail. It's Noce. You'd of thought the fucker won a lottery ticket that allowed him to have sex with Scarlett Johansson for a week (if such a lottery does exist please email chicagobullblogspot@gmail.com immediately). Nope, his cup of Kool-aid spilleth over. "Dude you gotta wake up, Illinois is up 17 to nothing. This is awesome, get your ass up". I turn on the TV and Wisconsin has answered back with 13 straight points, but that was as close as they would get. So to every Illini fan and disbeliever in the country, it's time to wake up: Illinois is definitely for real.

Since Noce will mostly likely be professing his blue and orange love and how he saw this coming, I'll take a quick second to note my final score prediction: Illinois 31, Wisconsin 24. Pretty fucking good if you ask me. Too bad my National League playoff prediction is looking like complete shit. But that's neither here nor there. Pick up your vegetables. Ok seriously now. As good as Illinois looked ending the team with the nation's longest current winning streak, they piled up alot of injuries. Arrelious Benn, Juice Williams, Justin Harrison and Vontae Davis were all roughed up in the game.

Luckily for Illinois, these key injuries were in the second half, and all of their back-ups played solidly. I hate cliches, but this was a whole team effort considering how many had to contribute, and I thought it was cool that the team went into the stands to celebrate with the students. But the Illini are going to have to stay healthy down the stretch if they want to compete for their second Big Ten title in the past decade.

So go out and celebrate on Green st. Illini fans. For the first time since 1989, Illinois has defeated a top five team. I would imagine that Illinois should crack the top-20 with some losses around Division-1 including Kansas St., but this I do know: A: Ron Zook is on his way to consideration for Head Coach of the Year, B: The Illini are good, and C: Noce is not going to shut up for a week...Serenity Now!