Officially ending a bowl drought, Illinois learned Sunday it will play California in the Redbox Bowl.
While the news is a significant accomplishment for a program that hasn’t been to a bowl since 2014, coach Lovie Smith and athletic director Josh Whitman were firm: This is a stepping stone, not a milestone.
“We’re not in (this) game and that’s the goal. What’s the goal: become Big Ten champions,” Smith said. “In the meantime, we’re going to keep building. It’s a process we’re going through right now. Part of the process was playing better football.”
And reaching a bowl game.
The 6-6 Illini will play 7-5 Cal at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., with the telecast on Fox at 3 p.m. Dec. 30.
The bowl bid eases the agony of long-suffering Illini fans, but instead of basking in that, Smith and Whitman focused on raising the bar higher.
“It’s important we don’t confuse being happy with being satisfied,” Whitman said. “It’s the next step in the progression.”
In Smith’s fourth season as coach, the Illini’s schedule was peppered with impressive wins — and a few confounding losses.
A victory in the Redbox Bowl would mark Smith’s first winning season in Champaign. Last season’s four wins had been the most in his tenure.
After starting this season 2-4, including an especially worrisome home loss to Eastern Michigan, Illinois recovered and posted impressive upsets against Wisconsin and a 25-point comeback at Michigan State as part of a four-game conference winning streak.
The season ended with consecutive losses to Iowa and Northwestern.
“We’re not going to apologize for having six wins or being 2-4 and making a run,” Smith said. “We’re going to be excited about where we are right now going to a bowl game.”
Illinois hasn’t played in a bowl since losing 35-18 to Louisiana Tech in the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl in 2014 under former coach Tim Beckman. The Illini haven’t won a bowl game since 2011, when they beat UCLA 20-14 at the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl — now the Redbox Bowl — after coach Ron Zook was fired.
Smith took over a program on the rocks — and it was challenging for him.
The Illini went 3-9 and 2-10 in his first two seasons.
Even when Illinois stumbled early this season, Whitman said he didn’t doubt Smith’s vision.
“Staying the course, having faith, that’s not hard,” Whitman said. “I know who we have as a leader. I know who we have in the locker room. It wasn’t hard for me to have faith the program was changing. … I’m just so excited and happy for the football program and specifically for the people involved in it.”
Illinois leads Cal 7-3 in the all-time series. The most recent meeting, in 2005, was a 35-30 Cal victory.
The Redbox Bowl meeting should prove to be a defensive battle. Cal’s defense is fourth best in the Pac-12, allowing only 22.1 points and 385.5 yards per game.
Illinois owns the best turnover margin in the Big Ten (11) with 16 recovered fumbles and 12 interceptions.
For Illinois, the bowl presents an opportunity to make the program respectable again. But this can’t be the end.
“At some point we’ll be talking about what bowl we expect to get into,” Whitman said. “Not ‘Will we get into a bowl?'”
