Under a new coach, with fans packed into the stands for the first time since 2019 and its backup quarterback at the helm, Illinois beat Nebraska on Saturday to kick off the 2021 college football season.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Under a new coach, with fans packed into the stands for the first time since 2019 and its backup quarterback at the helm, Illinois beat Nebraska 30-22 on Saturday to kick off the 2021 college football season. The Big Ten conference win didn’t come without a price for the Illini. Illinois starting quarterback Brandon Peters left the game holding his left (non-throwing) shoulder after being sacked hard near the end of the first quarter. He was 3-of-4 passing for 35 yards. He did not return and was replaced by Artur Sitkowski, a sophomore transfer from Rutgers. “No injury updates yet,” first-year Illinois coach Bret Bielema said. “But as you could see, it was Brandon’s non-throwing arm, so there’s that.” Sitkowski engineered several long scoring drives using a balanced attack under Bielema’s new system, which he worked to perfection during a successful tenure at Wisconsin. Sitkowski was 12 of 15 passing for 124 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. “I can’t say enough about Art,” Bielema said of his backup quarterback. “You know, from day one he just projected a serious, very direct kind of personality. He walks like a quarterback and he talks like a quarterback.
