Illinois Football's Greatest Upsets: 4 Biggest Shockers

The Illini boast a stunning, unranked-over-No. 1 upset of their own in the program's recent past

Nov 10, 2007; Columbus, OH, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini quarterback Juice Williams (7) runs for a first down n a fourth and one against the Ohio State Buckeyes safety Anderson Russell (21) at Ohio Stadium. The Fighting Illini beat the Buckeyes 28-21. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-Imagn Images / Matthew Emmons-Imagn Images

You won't find many bigger college football upsets, in this or any other era, than the 40-35 mind-boggler Vanderbilt pulled off against top-ranked Alabama on Saturday.

Consider: In breaking a 23-game losing streak to the Crimson Tide, the Commodores also notched their first-ever win over a No. 1 team – or, indeed, over even a top-five opponent (after previously going 0-60 in such matchups).

Frankly, it's a bit of a surprise that fans, after tearing down the goalposts at Vanderbilt Stadium and marching them through Nashville, settled on depositing them in the Cumberland River rather than pushing straight on through to the Atlantic.

But the Saturday stunner got us thinking: What are the biggest upsets authored by Illinois football in the program's history?

Rather than try to parse out the significance of feats from the leatherhead era, we'll focus on the Illini's most impressive upsets of the past 25 years:

Illinois 34-31 win at Michigan: Oct. 23, 1999

Upending a borderline top-10 team may sound like relatively small potatoes for a Big Ten program with a solid football pedigree, but in '93, after a prolonged stretch of mediocrity, the Illini were just coming out of the desert.

So a fourth-quarter comeback win over a high-powered Michigan squad in Ann Arbor was a splash of water in the face, snapping an Illinois streak of 16 consecutive losses to top-25 opponents.

Quarterback Kurt Kittner outdueled Wolverines counterpart (and future GOAT) Tom Brady, firing four touchdown passes, and Rocky Harvey tallied 167 total yards and scored twice as the Illini rallied from a 27-7 deficit, shutting out the lights and slamming the door on their way out of the Big House.

Illinois 28-21 win at No. 1 Ohio State: Nov. 10, 2007

Even after the Illini had dispatched No. 21 Penn State and No. 5 Wisconsin weeks earlier, no one saw this one coming – arguably the greatest upset in University of Illinois football history.

Facing a Buckeyes juggernaut packed with All-Big Ten players and future NFL picks in Columbus, Illini quarterback Juice Williams all but pulled a rabbit from his hat in rushing for 72 yards and passing for four touchdowns to topple OSU.

Under coach Ron Zook, Williams, linebacker J Leman and future pros Arrelious Benn, Rashad Mendenhall and Vontae Davis would go on to lead the Illini to one of their best finishes in decades – a 9-4 season that ended in a Rose Bowl appearance.

We have a decision.@IlliniFootball upsets No. 7 Penn State in an FBS-record 9⃣(!) OTs. pic.twitter.com/I23CJ2ohIM

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 23, 2021

Illinois 24-23 win over No. 6 Wisconsin: Oct. 19, 2019

As long as the Illini had gone without a taste of glory against a ranked opponent ahead of the Michigan upset back in '99, things were even bleaker in Champaign 20 years later.

Illinois, just 2-4 and down 20-7 early in the third quarter against a visiting Wisconsin team with national championship ambitions, had come into the game on a streak of 24 consecutive losses to AP Top 25 ranked opponents.

But the Illini – 30.5-point underdogs at kickoff – chipped away, getting a breakthrough scoring run from running back Reggie Corbin, a forced fumble that led to a Brandon Peters touchdown pass to receiver Josh Imatorbhebhe, and an interception from defensive back Tony Adams that set up the coup de grâce: a James McCourt 39-yard field goal at expiration that prompted jubilant Illini fans to rush the Memorial Stadium field.

Illinois 20-18 (9 OT) win at No. 7 Penn State: Oct. 23, 2021

In an otherwise forgettable 5-7 season – coach Bret Bielema's first in Champaign – a record-setting nine-overtime bonanza in Happy Valley marked one of the more remarkable wins (and upsets) in the Illinois football canon.

The Illini had played the Nittany Lions to a 10-10 stalemate after four quarters in one of college football's least-welcoming road venues, and then the teams matched one another tit for tat in extended play to essentially treat fans to an edge-of-your-seat college football doubleheader.

With the score now tied 18-18 in the ninth overtime, and after getting a stop against the Penn State offense, Peters rolled right and threaded a bullet into the end zone, finding receiver Casey Washington between three Nittany Lions defenders for the winning two-point conversion.

Unforgettable.