Champaign – With one game remaining in the 2018 season, Illinois is solely focused on ending the year on a positive note and forgetting the catastrophe that was the Iowa Hawkeyes game.

After tying the worst loss in program history, the players and coaches have been quick to get the 63-0 score out of mind before the Illini head to Evanston to face in-state rival No. 22 Northwestern on Saturday.

“It’s been a long season. When you go through a long season and you get to the final game, I think it’s pretty neat that your rival is the last game,” Illinois head coach Lovie Smith said. “Especially, in our situation after a disappointing game to say the least against our last opponent. Our guys, of course, realize who we’re playing and realize what we’re playing for: The Land of Lincoln trophy. It’s been up there for too many years.”

While Illinois may have short term memory when recalling the Iowa game, answers were still needed to what took place last Saturday.

Heading into the game, offensive coordinator Rod Smith knew this Hawkeyes’ defense would be the toughest test of the year, but disappointment still reigns over him after his offense failed to drive past their 40-yard line.

Rod said the team was hurting without running back Reggie Corbin.

“Reggie’s been probably our most consistent football player all year,” Rod said. “He’s not just consistent, but he also provides you the big plays and we kind of lacked that on Saturday. I knew, even with Reggie in, there’d probably be less big plays than there been through the course of the year just because (Hawkeye’s) front was so good, but I knew he would give us a chance.”

With Corbin out, Iowa’s defensive front didn’t have to worry about runs getting kicked to the edge and turned into explosive plays. Instead the focus was placed all between the tackles, where they had a clear advantage over a young, but significantly improved, offensive line.

Running back Ra’Von Bonner still had a career game, rushing for a career-high 111-yards on 21 carries, but the Hawkeyes still had a clear advantage at the line of the scrimmage.

“Once again, you’re going up against a very good defensive line, so I’m going to give (the offensive line) a lot of credit because they did some good things,” Rod said. “We could’ve played better. There were some times we did some good things and covered them up, but there some times where they just got after our tail. I think what it shows you is that we need another year in the weight room getting bigger and strong because those were some grown men they were going against, some older guys, so we still have some developing to do.”

Senior guard Nick Allegretti said Iowa’s defensive line threw some twist stunts and rushes that got the offensive line leaning, but he said they did their best to match their opponent’s level of physicality.

Allegretti attributes the offense’s struggles to an inability to get in a rhythm.

“We got out of our rhythm and that hurts the most,” Allegretti said. “Early in the game we didn’t move the ball well, but it was really just a couple of runs. We had one run that lost us 10-yards. I don’ think we were playing terribly early in the game, but as the game progresses, you kind of have to get away from the run when you’re down 28 points. You can still run the ball, but you got to score a little bit, so you have to get out of your normal offensive rhythm and maybe that’s something that we weren’t ready for. I’m not sure.”

When Lovie was first hired as the head coach, his success on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL was expected to translate over into the college game. And while he did implement his cover 2 system, the results have been anything but positive to date.

The Illini, during Lovie’s first two seasons, gave up roughly 32 points per game, ranking them consistently as one of the worst defenses in the conference.

Year Three didn’t show any improvement in this department, allowing opponents to score on average 41 points per game. In all three seasons, Illinois has also consistently finished as one of the worst rush defenses in the Big Ten.

Illinois has shown the ability to create takeaways during Lovie’s tenure as head coach, forcing 18 his first season, 19 the next and 17 with one game to go this year.

He also has a wide variety of youthful talent on that side of the ball.

“I think you have to look at the big picture,” Lovie said. “Big picture wise, we have some players like Bobby Roundtree, Jake Hansen, Nate Hobbs, Tony Adams, Sydney Brown. We have some good young players in our system that will eventually be around when we have success with our defense. System is proven. We’ll keep working on it. Get the coaching staff right, get some more players here and eventually we’ll have success with it.”

Youth remaining on the defensive side may be a contributing factor to a still struggling defense. None of the players Lovie mentioned there are upperclassmen and there are several more defensive rotation players that are also underclassmen (Jartavius Martin, Calvin Avery, Delano Ware, Isaiah Gay, Owen Carney Jr, Deon Pate to name a few).

And for young football players, getting a full understanding for an NFL defensive system can prove challenging. This was the case for senior linebacker Del’Shawn Philips when he first transferred to the team his junior year and laid eyes on the playbook.

“Oh boy,” Phillips said on his initial impression of the defensive system. “That’s a lot to learn. First time getting the scheme, I was told I have to learn both linebacker positions. I got here in January and spring ball was coming up pretty soon, playbook was thick so I knew I was like, ‘oh boy, I’m in for it.’

“Some of the freshman are where I was last year. It’s a lot to learn. Got to think about it, they ran this scheme in the NFL, so for us, it may be a little bit more challenging. But the coaches do a great job of simplifying it for us and that’s what I feel like they did this year.”

Phillips said that it took numerous sessions with now linebackers coach Rob Wright to get the scheme down and credits him significantly with his ability to understand the playbook.

The talent is there but getting the necessary reps in game is what Phillips believes will allow the defense to take the next step.

“We got a bunch of playmakers,” Phillips said. “Once those guys get a little bit more experience under their belt, more games under their belt and a lot more reps under their belt, they’re going to be a tremendous defense.”

Lovie said the team was “hopeful” to get Corbin back for Saturday’s game against the Wildcats. The term “hopeful” is Lovie’s way of saying “probable” in more cases than not.

An Illini spokesperson confirmed today that Sydney Brown practiced fully today and Jartavius Martin didn’t practice at all.