October 24, 2009

Associated Press

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Joey Elliott passed for 166 yards and ran for 62 yards and a touchdown, and Purdue beat Illinois 24-14 Saturday to avoid a letdown after upsetting Ohio State last week.

Ralph Bolden ran for 78 yards and a touchdown, and Jaycen Taylor ran for 71 yards and a score for the Boilermakers, who rushed for 220 yards on 39 carries.

Mikel LeShoure rushed 15 times for a career-high 122 yards for the Fighting Illini (1-6, 0-5 Big Ten). Illinois lost its fifth straight, and all have been by double digits.

Juice Williams started at quarterback despite Illini coach Ron Zook's decision not to commit to him during the week. Williams completed 9 of 18 passes for 77 yards and ran 14 times for 38 yards.

The Boilermakers (3-5, 2-2) won back-to-back games for the first time this season. It was Purdue's first turnover-free game this year.

Leshoure got off to a good start. He went 65 yards on an option play in the first quarter before Daniel Dufrene scored on a 4-yard run on the next play to make it 7-0.

Taylor's 44-yard run tied the score for Purdue.

After Williams threw an interception, Purdue went 68 yards in 10 plays to take the lead. Bolden scored on a 3-yard run, his first touchdown since Week 2, and the Boilermakers took a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter.

Williams was benched and replaced by redshirt freshman Jacob Charest on the next drive, but Illinois went three-and-out. On Purdue's next possession, Elliott scored on a 5-yard quarterback draw to make it 21-7.

Illinois had the ball fourth-and-4 at the Purdue 35 when Charest completed a pass to tight end Hubie Graham for 31 yards. A face-mask penalty moved the ball to the Purdue 2-yard line. On second down, Arrelious Benn scored on an end-around, but the play was called back because of holding. Illinois' Matt Eller missed a 23-yard field goal wide left to close the half.

Williams came back to start the second half, and he took advantage by scoring on a 6-yard run to cut Purdue's lead to 21-14.

Purdue's Carson Wiggs kicked a field goal late in the third quarter to extend Purdue's lead to 24-14.

Below is a recap of Illinois AD Ron Guenther's halftime comments about the status of head coach Ron Zook
Guenther: I want to put one thing to rest, there will be some changes here but not at the top. There is a great deal of frustration obviously with the program at the moment but that's all I have to say. We still will evaluate but I think it's really unfair to start jumping at the end of the fifth year on the guy. That's what I wanted to put out there. We will sit down and evaluate at the end of the year but there will be no change at the top."

Below is a recap of Illini head coach Ron Zook's post game comments
Got off to a good start, 7-0 lead but couldn't sustain it.
Ron Zook: Like I just told the football team, if we had competed and come out with the same type of intensity first half that we did second half, it could have possibly been a different football game. But we didn't do that.

Big series, 2nd half, Jacob Charest comes in and leads a nice drive, hits Hubie Graham to go inside their ten yard line, walk us through what happened? You talked about the other night, get into the red zone and make too many mistakes and that was the case that drive.
Ron Zook: Holding call (on Illini center Eric Block that negated a Arrelious Benn TD run)...anytime someone is on the ground, they call holding. We score, it comes back and we miss the field goal. Those are the things....you know....obviously we should have come out of there with three points but those are the things that make the difference. But we didn't. We did some good things to get down there.

During that drive, you go from Charest to Juice at QB. What was the thought process on that?
Ron Zook: The reason was the running game. We had some room before that to throw the ball but once you get down there, the passing game, it changes a little bit. And Juice has spent a lot of time down there and obviously we felt the running game was what we needed to do down there.

Was it a set time to put Charest in at quarterback?
Ron Zook: I think we planned on the 3rd series of the game, no later than the 3rd, earlier than the 2nd. Hindsight is 20/20 but I didn't think I wanted to get him his first start instead just let him settle down a little and get out there and play some.

Defense did your team a chance stopping Purdue on two 3 and outs early 2nd half.
Ron Zook: Like I was telling them, we are going to win this game guys. We just have to focus, do the things we need to do.

True freshmen Terry Hawthorne (cornerback), Walt Aikens (strong safety) and Ashante Williams (redshirt freshman nickel back) all played a lot and got the start. Talk about them.
Ron Zook: Terry Hawthorne is going to be a heckuva football player. He is in there playing and that's one of the things we said we needed to do. Get those guys some experience and he will only get better and better. He played with purpose, enthusiasm trying to get us to another level. Playing young guys is up and down but we will be a better football team for it. Just have to get better and better.

Big day for Mikel Leshoure.
Ron Zook: Over 100 yards. Happy for him. We have to run the football and I think we proved that today but we can't shoot ourselves in the foot. Get in situations where we are behind the chains.

Everyone come out healthy?
Ron Zook: I think 'OO' (senior tight end Michael Hoomanawanui) tweaked an ankle again but other than that, we are fine.

	Box Score Final
	Illinois (1-6) 7 0 7 0 14 Purdue (3-5) 7 14 3 0 24

Scoring Summary
	Illinois: Daniel Dufrene 4 yd run (Matt Eller kick)
	Purdue: Jaycen Taylor 44 yd run (Carson Wiggs kick)
	Purdue: Ralph Bolden 3 yd run (Carson Wiggs kick)
	Purdue: Joey Elliott 5 yd run (Carson Wiggs kick)
	Illinois: Juice Williams 6 yd run (Derek Dimke kick)
	Purdue: Carson Wiggs 25 yd FG

Team Statistics
	Purdue	Illinois
TOTAL FIRST DOWNS	21	15
TOTAL NET YARDS	386	322
Total Plays	63	64
Average Gain	6.1	5
NET YARDS RUSHING	220	180
Rushes	39	37
Average per rush	5.6	4.9
NET YARDS PASSING	166	142
Completions-attempted	15-24	14-27
Sacked	0	0
Yards Lost	0	0
TOTAL TURNOVERS	0	1
Interceptions	0	1
Fumbles Lost	0	0
OTHER
Penalties	7	8
Penalty Yards	44	65
Time of Possesion	31:37	28:23
Punts	5	5
Punt Average	37	44.8
Return Yards	37	134

Passing
Purdue	CMP	ATT	YDS	TD	INT	YDS/ATT
Joey Elliott (0)	15	24	166	0	0	6.9
Illinois	CMP	ATT	YDS	TD	INT	YDS/ATT
Juice Williams (0)	9	18	77	0	1	4.3
Jacob Charest (0)	4	8	52	0	0	6.5
Eddie McGee (0)	1	1	13	0	0	13.0

Rushing
Purdue	ATT	YDS	TD	AVG
Ralph Bolden (0)	21	78	1	3.7
Jaycen Taylor (0)	6	71	1	11.8
Joey Elliott (0)	9	62	1	6.9
Al-Terek McBurse (0)	1	6	0	6.0
Dan Dierking (0)	2	3	0	1.5
Illinois	ATT	YDS	TD	AVG
Mikel LeShoure (0)	15	122	0	8.1
Juice Williams (0)	14	38	1	2.7
Daniel Dufrene (0)	4	12	1	3.0
Justin Green (0)	1	5	0	5.0
Arrelious Benn (0)	1	3	0	3.0
Jacob Charest (0)	1	1	0	1.0
Jason Ford (0)	1	-1	0	-1.0

Receiving
Purdue	ATT	YDS	TD	AVG
Keith Smith (0)	5	61	0	12.2
Aaron Valentin (0)	4	50	0	12.5
Ralph Bolden (0)	2	29	0	14.5
Kyle Adams (0)	2	10	0	5.0
Keith Carlos (0)	1	12	0	12.0
Jeff Lindsay (0)	1	4	0	4.0
Illinois	ATT	YDS	TD	AVG
Jack Ramsey (0)	3	44	0	14.7
Arrelious Benn (0)	3	16	0	5.3
Chris Duvalt (0)	2	22	0	11.0
Michael Hoomanawanui (0)	2	18	0	9.0
Hubie Graham (0)	1	31	0	31.0
A.J. Jenkins (0)	1	15	0	15.0
Fred Sykes (0)	1	3	0	3.0
Juice Williams (0)	1	-7	0	-7.0

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