Illinois beats Northwestern 38-28 for first nine-win regular season since 2007

It was a beautiful day for ice fishing Saturday at Wrigley Field.

For baseball? Lord, no. For football? Depends whom you asked. Chances are, Illinois and its frigid fans had at least a glass-half-warm outlook on a sub-20-degree day after beating Northwestern 38-28 in the regular-season finale for each team.

The Illini (9-3, 6-3 Big Ten) came in ranked 22nd in the AP poll and 23rd by the College Football Playoff committee. Now with nine regular-season wins for only the eighth time in school history and the first time since 2007, they’ll wait for their bowl assignment — which almost certainly will be the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, on New Year's Eve.

Anybody ready to see this team take on a banner opponent from the SEC? Alabama, perhaps?

“I don’t know what the future holds, but I just know that I’m excited about this football team,” coach Bret Bielema said. “I think we’re a team that can play with anybody in the country.”

Northwestern’s place in the college football world isn’t nearly as prestigious. The Wildcats finished 4-8 (2-7) in coach David Braun's second season. Braun's record has gone from a surprisingly good 8-5 after Year 1 to 12-13. Next season will be difficult again for a team that will be without a true home stadium for the second year in a row.

Can Braun and his staff make inroads in recruiting with a little more NIL dough to throw around and some modified admissions policies? Even if they do, moving up significantly in the conference would be another matter altogether. The biggest “haves” in the Big Ten are crushing it. In the time of the expanded playoff, everybody else is fighting just to be relevant.

This season, anyway, Northwestern disappeared under the radar.

“We’re all frustrated,” Braun said.

Illinois, meanwhile, is on the move. After the four conference teams that each spent weeks in the playoff picture — Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana — the Illini made the next-most noise and deserved the consistent rankings they received. Bielema continues to make references to how close his team is to a playoff berth, and those references frankly are stretching it, but no one could argue this wasn’t an 18-team league’s fifth-best squad overall. That’s not too shabby.

“To say that Illinois is [up] there?” Bielema said. “I think it’s a pretty big-ass statement.”

It’s a mighty big moment for Bielema, too. This is his first time with nine wins since his next-to-last season at Wisconsin, in 2011. He never won that many in five tough years at Arkansas. He was up in 2022 at Illinois, winning eight games, but then back down in 2023, going 5-7 and losing to Northwestern in a finale that kept the Illini ineligible for a bowl.

At 54, Bielema isn’t the hotshot he once was. Instead, he’s beginning to make a name for himself as a program builder. Not a thing wrong with that, either.

“I’ve kind of had my [own] moments,” he said. “I want Illinois to feel what Illinois should feel. This isn’t a mistake. It didn’t happen by chance. This happened through a lot of really hard work and a lot of really good dedication.”

Illini running back Aidan Laughery had a career day, rushing 12 times for 172 yards and three touchdowns — the middle of which was a 64-yarder that put his team up 21-10 a few plays into the third quarter.

Pat Bryant notched his 10th receiving touchdown of the season, a 43-yarder. Quarterback Luke Altmyer threw two interceptions — only his fourth and fifth of the season — but otherwise operated with the steady hand that has been critical to Illinois’ success since he transferred from Ole Miss.

“As a small-town boy from Mississippi,” Altmyer said, “I’d never have thought I’d be playing at Wrigley Field for Illinois against Northwestern.”

He grew up dreaming of starring in SEC clashes. He’ll have to try to beat an SEC power while representing a Midwestern school that for decades has struggled to make its football mark instead.

“To go out there and play a really high-profile SEC team will be really cool, but ain’t nobody gonna be afraid or anything like that,” Altmyer said. “We’ve got a confident bunch, and I’m excited to lead that charge.”

Northwestern’s Jack Lausch threw for 287 yards and two touchdowns — finding A.J. Henning 10 times for 199 yards and a score in Henning’s final game — but the Illini defense picked off Lausch twice and Ryan Boe once and came up with four turnovers in all.

Bielema comes to Wrigley during baseball season once a year to guest-conduct the seventh-inning stretch. That’s nice and all, but Illini fans surely like it better when he conducts good football seasons.

This has indeed been one of those. A bowl win would mean Illinois' fifth-ever 10-win season, matching the school record. The last of those was in 2001.

“Hopefully,” Bielema said, “this [will be] more of the norm than not.”