Pat Hill anxious to get eighth win

"It was a game that we had to work really hard to win," said Head Coach Pat Hill. "We put ourselves in some holes with our turnovers obviously three times inside the compete zone. We really hurt our self with some scoring opportunities. But there's a lot of positives we took from that game."

Coach Hill was happy with special teams. Junior kicker Kevin Goessling nailed three field goals to keep adding points on the board. And the Bulldogs were focused when it mattered most: The fourth quarter drive with under a minute to go.

"I was very happy the way that game finished because that could have been a disastrous loss," Hill said. "The way we had to come back and win it I think showed a ton of character from a football team that was a little bit reeling with two minutes to go."

But it's also a team that will have an extra swagger to them after the come-from-behind win, and playing at home on Senior Night. They'll need it to take on a tough Illinois team that is already bowl eligible.

"These guys are a couple plays away from being 8-3," Hill said. "They're a very good football team. They've shown great improvement. People feel really good in Illinois about the progress of their football team. They're 6-5 and headed to a bowl game. People in Illinois are very happy about that.

"It's a great challenge for us and I can't think of a regular season game in December that we've played against this type of an opponent."