Tim Meier of Galva correctly picked Mid-County in the tie-breaker game to win Week 1 of the Galva News Football Contest this past week.

 

Powered by scores from its defense and special teams, Mid-County defeated Princeville 26-12 at Bill Adams Field in Oneida on Friday night, opening the new era of Cougars football with a win.
Coach Tom Buck – who earned his 100th career victory with the win – said the win wasn’t pretty, but he’ll take it.

 

Like the rest of the Big Ten Conference, there's change for Illinois football, but traditions and even some basic geography were retained for the Illini as the league announced divisional alignment Wednesday.

The Big Ten Conference will reveal divisions in football Wednesday night, the league announced. According to a report by ESPN, the Big Ten divisional alignments will be:

-- Illinois, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue and Indiana.

-- Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota.

The Big Ten Conference will reveal divisions in football Wednesday night, according to the leagtue.

Illinois athletic director Ron Guenther will be around a little longer. He just doesn't know how much longer. After meeting with Illinois president Michael Hogan last week, Guenther's contract that originally ran through 2010 was extended through the academic year. That gave Guenther and Hogan a chance to see how a new hierarchy comes together.

Illinois middle linebacker Martez Wilson admitted he learned his lessons the hard way, and he's not yet done anything big. That didn't keep him from setting big goals heading into his junior season and fourth year in the program.

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase returns to his “home’’ state when the Illini open the season against Missouri at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis in the final game of a four-year series pitting the border rivals.

CHAMPAIGN — Another day, another player lost from the Illinois defensive backfield.
Starting cornerback Terry Hawthorne is out 4 to 6 weeks with a stress fracture in his foot, coach Ron Zook revealed Saturday, and the Illini will head into the season opener next Saturday against Missouri without three key players on defense.

The question mark on defense just got bigger for the Illinois football defense. With junior safety Supo Sanni lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon during practice Wednesday and the dismissal of cornerback Walt Aikens by the university, the defensive backfield needed a shuffle and a raid on the offensive depth chart with Missouri and talented quarterback Blaine Gabbert just around the corner.

Illinois could use a strong start to the Big Ten Conference season, because they have a tough schedule at the finish, according to the schedule released Thursday.

The Galva High School varsity volleyball team opened its 2010 season with a 20-25, 15-25 loss at home to Putnam County on Tuesday night.
 

After edging Michigan State last season to trigger a full-court celebration on ESPN's College GameDay, the Illini are set to appear again on the popular Saturday night telecast, this time on Feb. 19. The showdown is one of six appearances by the Illini on ESPN or ESPN2, according to a Big Ten schedule released by the network.

Between them, Galva and ROWVA high school varsity football teams have amassed over 600 wins, 61 winning seasons, 20 conference championships, 19 playoff appearances and countless memories. Beginning Friday night, they’ll add to that list. But this time, they’ll be doing it together. The era of the Mid-County Cougars – a co-op of Galva, ROWVA and Williamsfield playes – kicks off at 7 p.m. versus Princeville at Bill Adams Field, Oneida.
 

Illinois junior Zach Becker, the first-string option at both tight end and fullback, will miss the first three football games with a stress fracture in his foot, coach Ron Zook said Tuesday. A former walk-on, Becker twice underwent surgery to repair stress fractures in his feet.

In his role as Illinois graduate assistant/video coordinator, former Illini guard Chester Frazier can't coach on the floor. That's OK with Frazier and Illini coach Bruce Weber. Frazier might do his best work with the team behind closed doors, when he's trying to get the point across from the coaching staff to a roster that remembers him as the team's hard-working MVP in 2009.

Former Illinois guard Chester Frazier officially returned to the program when he accepted a position as graduate assistant/video coordinator, coach Bruce Weber announced Tuesday.

It would be easy to look over his shoulder and think what might have been. Instead, former Rochester High School football coach Dave Jacobs ponders what still could be.

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois offensive coordinator Paul Petrino wasn’t ready to concede the loss, and redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase protested being off-limits to tackles and the possibility of a big play. “I’ll never let (the defense) say they won when I have a red jersey on,’’ Scheelhaase said.

The Illini will scrimmage on the Camp Rantoul practice field at 10:15 a.m. Saturday on the last day before camp breaks and the players return to campus. The fall semester begins Monday. The practice session was moved from its originally scheduled time of 3:30 p.m.