#24 Illinois Improves to 4-0 With Overtime Road Win at #22 Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. – No. 24 Illinois marched into a sold-out, hostile road environment at No. 22 Nebraska and left with a win, securing a 31-24 overtime victory over the ranked Cornhuskers on Friday night.

Outscoring Nebraska 21-7 after halftime, the Orange and Blue became the first team in the nation with two AP Top 25 wins and improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2011. Illinois moved to 3-0 in overtime games under head coach Bret Bielema.

Luke Altmyer went 21-for-27 with 215 yards and four passing touchdowns, including the game-winning score to Pat Bryant in overtime. Altmyer recorded his second four-TD game of the season while completing passes to nine different receivers.

Pat Bryant tallied his third multi-touchdown performance through the first four games of the season while registering five catches for a team-most 74 yards.

Kaden Feagin amassed 12 carries for 69 yards, both of which were team-best tallies.

Defensively, Illinois totaled a season-high five sacks, including three in the overtime period to keep Nebraska out of the end zone. 

The Illini defense forced the Cornhuskers to punt on their first possession for the first time this season, and the Orange and Blue offense quickly worked their way down the field on their first drive of the night. A 29-yard strike to Pat Bryant on third-and-short moved the chains and brought Illinois into Nebraska territory for the first time. 

Three plays later, Altmyer found Bryant again, this time for a 27-yard touchdown to open the scoring. Needing only two minutes and six plays to march 78 yards down the field, the Illini held a 7-0 edge just over four minutes into the contest.

The home side accounted for the next 10 points as the Cornhuskers went in front for the first time late in the first quarter.

The Illini answered on their third possession of the night. An eight-play, 62-yard drive saw the visitors tie the game at 10-10 via a 26-yard field goal from David Olano.

With the Cornhuskers in Illinois territory, Torrie Cox Jr. ripped away a would-be Cornhusker touchdown with eight minutes left in the first half for his second interception of the season. 

Nebraska went into the break with a narrow 17-10 lead after the home side scored a touchdown late in the second quarter. Six Illini receivers registered a catch in the first half, with Zakhari Franklin (three catches for 37 yards) and Pat Bryant (two catches for 56 yards) leading the way.

After both teams were forced to punt on their opening possessions of the third quarter, the Illini found more success on their second drive of the second half. Illinois took advantage of a short field following a 37-yard punt return from Hank Beatty, converting a third-and-short near midfield and a fourth-and-1 inside the Cornhusker 40-yard line. Once in the red zone, the away side used back-to-back completions to Tanner Arkin to find the end zone and tie the game at 17-17 with under two minutes remaining in the third quarter. 

Nebraska retook the lead on the first play of the final frame, but Illinois responded right away. The Illini leaned on Feagin early, with the sophomore running back recording two runs of at least 10 yards to move the Orange and Blue into Cornhusker territory. With Illinois facing a fourth-and-2 inside the Nebraska 7-yard line, Altmyer tallied his third passing touchdown of the game, finding lineman-turned-tight end Brandon Henderson for a 6-yard score with 10:36 to play. 

Neither team could break the tie in regulation, sending the game to overtime with the score knotted at 24-24.  

The Illini, on offense to begin the extra period, needed only two plays to find the end zone. Feagin began the possession with a 21-yard rush that moved Illinois inside the 5-yard line before Altmyer found Pat Bryant to give the visitors a 31-24 advantage.

The Orange and Blue defense registered sacks on the first two plays of the overtime period, pushing Nebraska back to a third-and-42 situation while needing to score a touchown to extend the game. With the Illini applying pressure on the quarterback on all four plays of the Cornhuskers’ possession, Illinois closed out the ranked road overtime win to move to 4-0 on the season. 

No. 24 Illinois (4-0, 1-0 B1G) remains on the road next week, traveling to take on No. 10 Penn State on Sept. 28 under the lights at either 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. CT. Broadcast information has yet to be announced.

HIGHLIGHTS

PRESS CONFERENCE

POSTGAME NOTES

Team Notes

• Illinois has started a season 4-0 for the first time since 2011.
  • Is just the second 4-0 start since 1951.

• Illinois is the only team in the nation with two AP Top 25 wins this season.
• Illinois has two AP Top 25 wins during September for the first time in program history.
• Illinois has two AP Top 25 wins in a single season for the first time since 2007, when the Illini beat three AP ranked teams.
• Illinois picked up its first ranked win as a ranked team since #12 Illinois defeated #25 Ohio State on Nov. 17, 2001.
• Bret Bielema is 8-6 in Big Ten road games as head coach at Illinois. 
  • Bielema’s eight Big Ten road wins are the fourth-most ever by an Illinois head coach in his first four seasons, behind only Mike White (11, 1980-83), Lou Tepper (10, 1992-95), and John Mackovic (10, 1988-91).

• Bielema is 4-5 (.444) against ranked teams (AP/Coaches/CFP) as Illinois’ head coach. His .444 winning percentage against ranked teams is the second-best in Illinois history, behind only John Mackovic (8-8, .500, 1988-91). 
• Bielema’s four ranked wins (AP/Coaches/CFP) during his first four seasons are tied for the third-most in program history, behind only John Mackovic (8, 1988-91) and Mike White (5, 1980-83).
• Bielema tied the program record for road ranked wins (AP/Coaches/CFP) during his first four seasons. He is the second coach in Illinois history to win three ranked games on the road during his first three seasons, joining Lou Tepper (1992-96).
• Bret Bielema is now 3-0 in overtime games as Illinois head coach.
  • Is 2-0 vs. ranked opponents on the road in overtime.

• Bret Bielema has improved to 22-19 in his Illinois career with tonight’s win.
  • He is the first head coach in program history to start .500 or better through their first 41 games since Lou Tepper started 21-19-1 from 1992-95.

• Since 1942, Illinois has compiled an 82-50-2 (.619) record when ranked in the AP Top 25.
• The Illini have won three-straight games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, extending their program-long streak.
• Illinois became the first team to hold the Nebraska offense without a touchdown on its opening drive this season.
• The Illini offense was the first team this season to score a touchdown on the Husker defense on their opening drive this season.
  • Was also the longest scoring drive Nebraska has allowed this campaign.

• The Illinois defense has recorded at least one interception in each game this season and in five-straight overall dating back to 2023.

Player Notes

• Luke Altmyer completed 21 of his 27 passes for 215 yards and four touchdowns.
  • Matches his career high with four touchdown passes.
    • Also did so on Aug. 29, 2024, vs. Eastern Illinois.

  • First Illini QB with multiple games with four touchdown passes in a single season since Nathan Scheelhaase in 2013.

• Pat Bryant caught five passes for 74 yards and two touchdowns.
  • Caught his fifth touchdown of the season in the first quarter on the Illini’s first drive of the game.
  • Caught his sixth touchdown of the campaign in overtime.
  • Now has 15 touchdowns in his career, tied for fourth-most all-time in program history.
  • Third game this season with at least two touchdowns and second-straight such performance.

• Zakhari Franklin caught five passes for 50 yards.
  • Has at least five receptions in three-straight games.

• Tanner Arkin caught four passes for 28 yards and a touchdown.
  • Set a new career high in receptions (4) and yards (28).
  • Recorded the third touchdown reception of his Illini career in the third quarter.

• Kaden Feagin rushed 12 times for 69 yards.
• Josh McCray carried the ball nine times for 38 yards.
• Aidan Laughery rushed four times for 30 yards.
• Brandon Henderson became the first Illinois offensive lineman to score a touchdown since Corey Lewis on Nov. 9, 2013, at Indiana, with his touchdown reception in the fourth quarter.
• Torrie Cox Jr. recorded his second interception of the season in the second quarter.

QUOTES

Opening statement:

“I’m very excited for our players, our coaches, and our fan base. To take part in something like tonight, you have two ranked teams playing on a Friday night on national TV, and it played out like that. I give a lot of credit to Nebraska. Matt (Rhule) has obviously done a really good job to build this environment. You don’t come to 400 straight sellouts by chance, so there’s a lot of people that made tonight happen before this. 

“I can’t say enough about these guys. The attitude they work with, the perseverance, the humility, the gratitude, and all they’ve done has made this even bigger. We’ll take ourselves back to Champaign and get a chance to have a recovery day tomorrow. We can’t touch our players. As coaches, we’ll put this one to bed. I think Penn State plays at 2:30, and it’s obviously a great opportunity for us to go out to State College, another great venue, another great opportunity.

“I think we came out of it pretty healthy. Zakhari (Franklin) came out, but he was cleared to go back in there at the end; we just felt good about Malik (Elzy). There are a couple other guys who got banged up and went back in. Tanner Arkin is OK; he tweaked his back a little bit. There was tremendous perseverance by our guys: offensively, defensively, and with some really good special teams plays. I’m excited for these guys to go forward.”

On only having three penalties:

“I wouldn’t have the three penalties, but I thought we preached on it all week. My ears were blaring. We blasted those guys pretty hard on our two biggest work days in the stadium. We knew it was going to be loud today. This is a very intelligent crowd. I first played these guys when I was a young assistant at Iowa. I came over here when I was at Kansas State and knew this environment. We obviously came here two years ago. They are very intelligent fans. They know when to be loud: third downs, red area, backed up. I knew that that was going to play out, and it did today, but our guys really took in everything during the course of the week, and obviously took advantage of it today.”

On Illinois’ defensive pressure in the backfield after halftime:

“First off, they’re very good. I think their quarterback is a good player. Their wide receivers are good players. They’re opportunistic. There were some zone things that they were settling in behind our linebackers. We kind of dumped them right over the top. You can literally see this quarterback get better every play. If you’re a Nebraska fan, obviously, the bad news is you lost tonight, but the good news is you’ve got a quarterback who probably gets better every practice. From everything I’ve been told about him, his demeanor, his work ethic – just listening to Matt (Rhule) talk about him. Usually, the head coach doesn’t go over the top the way he does. If he’s saying that, that makes me think he believes in him. They’re putting their whole program behind him.”