Illini, LSU: Surprising Packages

Ron Turner is no stick in the mud. He gave his Illinois football players a day off from practice last week, so they could take a bayou tour.

“We had no intention of practicing [every day],” said Turner, who has coached at Illinois since 1997 and whose team will play No. 12 LSU today in the Sugar Bowl. “They had never seen a swamp or a gator before.”

No, but they had seen rock bottom. Who could have guessed the Big Ten champions would be 10-1 and ranked seventh in the polls? In Turner’s previous four seasons at the school, his teams finished 0-11, 3-8, 8-4 and 5-6, and no better than sixth in conference play.

“Obviously, we struggled when I first got there,” said Turner, a younger brother of longtime NFL coach Norv Turner. “I could see progress being made the first year or two. I felt all along we were headed in the right direction.”

And LSU? That’s a bit of a surprise too. The Tigers (9-3), who won the Southeastern Conference title with a 31-20 victory over then-No. 2 Tennessee, are making their first Sugar Bowl appearance in 14 years. Their bowl chances looked bleak when they were 2-2, then 4-3, but a five-game win streak made up for that bumpy start.

“By midseason, everyone was counting us out and saying, ‘LSU can’t get it done,”’ safety Ryan Clark said. “But we were messing with the lineup early on, starting new guys every week. Now, we’ve got a good crew on the field, and we’ve gotten better as the season’s gone on.”

The LSU players to watch are senior quarterback Rohan Davey and junior Josh Reed, winner of the Fred Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation’s best receiver.

Davey, an oft-injured backup before this season, has thrown for more than 300 yards six times in his career--five this season--double the number of any other quarterback in school history. He set school season records in completions with 217 and yards passing with 3,347.

Then again, any quarterback would love passing to Reed, the first LSU receiver to be named to the Associated Press All-American team in 62 years. He led the nation in yards receiving with 1,740 and ranked third in catches per game (7.8).

“I’ve been coaching for about 26 years, and Josh Reed is probably as good a receiver [as I’ve seen],” said Mike Cassity, Illinois’ defensive coordinator.

Reserves have also come through for LSU. Backup quarterback Mike Mauck filled in for an injured Davey in the SEC championship game and rushed for two touchdowns. Also in that game, Domanick Davis replaced all-conference tailback LaBrandon Toefield--who’d suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first half--and rushed for 78 yards and the final touchdown.

Likewise, the Illini are loaded with offensive talent. Their seven-game winning streak is second this season to Miami’s 11, and they have averaged 32.4 points a game. Big-play receivers Brandon Lloyd and Walter Young should put a vulnerable Tiger secondary to the test.

Illinois quarterback Kurt Kittner has thrown for 2,994 yards and 23 touchdowns this season. He led the Big Ten in passing offense and ranked second in total offense.

Four times this season, Kittner helped his team overcome fourth-quarter deficits, quite in contrast to last season, when Illinois blew four fourth-quarter leads.

“This team came in with an attitude that it was not going to be denied,” Turner said. “When we fell behind in the fourth quarter of games, there wasn’t any panic.”