Chase Brown, Illinois Football News: Draft Scout Player News

10/01/22 - RB Chase Brown, Sr/2023, Illinois

Chase Brown rushed for 129 yards, Tommy DeVito had three short touchdown keepers and Illinois trounced Wisconsin 34-10 on Saturday to give coach Bret Bielema a triumphant return to Camp Randall Stadium. Illinois (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) scored 17 points off Wisconsin turnovers and scored the game's final 27 points to win as a 6½-point underdog. The Illini sacked Graham Mertz six times and held the Badgers to 2 yards rushing on 24 carries. Bielema had gone 68-24 in seven years as Wisconsin's coach before leaving for Arkansas at the end of the 2012 regular season as the Badgers were preparing for a Rose Bowl appearance. Wisconsin won at least a share of the Big Ten title each of his last three seasons.

He was fired at Arkansas in 2017 after going 29-34 and took over Illinois' program in December 2020. The Badgers won 24-0 at Illinois last season, but this was the first time Bielema had faced Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium. Bielema was the first coach to take an opposing Big Ten team to a school he coached to a Big Ten title since John Pont coached Northwestern in a 1973 game at Indiana. Pont had led Indiana to a share of the 1967 Big Ten crown. Bielema received a smattering of boos when his name was announced in the pregame introductions, though the stands were less than 20% full at that point about half an hour before the 11 a.m. local time kickoff. A much larger crowd showed significantly more displeasure as the Badgers got dismantled for a second straight week. Wisconsin (2-3, 0-2) was coming off a 52-21 loss at No. 3 Ohio State. - Illinois/AP College Football

Sr/2023