CHAMPAIGN, Ill. _ Expectations and excitement have reached new heights at Illinois with Lovie Smith as the new coach. But after the Illini fell to 1-2 on Saturday, he acknowledged this isn't the start he envisioned.
"We're not where we need to be," he said. "You go into a season expecting to win every game. Nonconference football games, most people expect to win games at home. We've had nonconference home games. The plan was to win more than one."
The Illini went off track early against Western Michigan at Memorial Stadium in the 34-10 loss and found several areas of malfunction.
No stat was as disturbing as the run-game disparity.
Western Michigan gained 287 yards on the ground. Illinois managed to pick up only three.
On 24 carries, Broncos running back Jamauri Bogan alone ground out 189 yards, including runs of 1 and 36 yards for the game's first two touchdowns. Even taking out the 20 yards lost on tackles of Illinois quarterback Wes Lunt, the Illini would have picked up only 24 yards.
"Going in, we all knew it would be how our lines did," Smith said. "How our offensive line would block them and how our defensive line would control their rushing attack. We didn't do either one of those, of course, the way we expected."
He called the Broncos ability to rush with ease "unsettling."
That's not where the disturbing play ended for Illinois.
Smith didn't go easy on Lunt either. While Lunt connected on 29 of 42 passes for 312 yards with one touchdown and his first interception of the season, Smith said he failed to connect with receivers or push the ball down the field.
"Our quarterback play has to improve an awful lot or we don't have a chance to win many games," Smith said. "Connections. We had some receivers open today. Have to be able to hit some receivers. Some of our decision-making on dunking the ball. We have to push it down the field on third and long situations. We had opportunities to do more in the passing game."
The victory for Western Michigan (3-0) marks the best start in the school's history. They also have two victories over Big Ten teams for the first time after defeating Northwestern in the season opener in Evanston.
It's only the fourth time in Mid-American Conference history that a team has beaten two Big Ten teams in a season.
At one point in the game, coach P.J. Fleck sprinted to catch a punt that had gone out of bounds. He zipped up and down the sideline with the team at times and exuberantly threw his arms in the air when the team won.
"We came here expecting to win," Fleck said. "I love our culture. I love the type of kids we have, the character of those kids."
