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Michigan State beats Illinois 24-14

By DAVID MERCER, Associated Press Writer Oct 10, 5:04 pm EDT

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP)—Keith Nichol threw for 179 yards in his first start to lead Michigan State to a 24-14 win over Illinois on Saturday.

Larry Caper rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown for Michigan State (3-3, 2-1). Glenn Winston ran for 69 yards and a score in the first half before leaving with a knee injury.

Nichol, a sophomore, started in place of Kirk Cousins, who entered the game late. Nichol was 13-for-25 with an interception.

Illinois (1-4, 0-3) had its own first-time starter at quarterback, junior Eddie McGee. Illinois coach Ron Zook made McGee the starter this week over senior Juice Williams to try to spark the sputtering Illini.

But McGee’s run lasted just over 32 minutes. Zook pulled him early in the third quarter after watching him complete two of his 11 passes for 31 yards.

Williams was 7-for-17 for 109 yards and a touchdown in relief.

The Spartans turned the ball over twice and killed one of their drives with back-to-back personal foul penalties that wiped out big gains in Illinois territory.

But they were good enough to spoil Illinois’ homecoming with a 17-0 lead by halftime that could have been worse.

The Spartans drove 60 yards on their opening possession and were up 7-0 after Winston’s 2-yard touchdown run.

They had 14 points on the scoreboard before Illinois had a first down.

They held the ball for 22 of the game’s first 30 minutes, a period during which Michigan State piled up 281 yards of offense—149 on the ground—to the Illini’s 60.

Illinois’ student section showered the Illini with boos as they left the field at the half.

The Illini struggled to move the ball with McGee at quarterback, though he was saddled with bad field position.

Before starting a drive late in the third quarter at the Michigan State 30 after an interception by Tavon Wilson, the Illini had opened drives from their own 2, 9, 13, 20 (twice) and 24-yard lines.

Blair White, Nichol’s favorite target Saturday, had four catches for 50 yards. But Nichol spread the ball around, hitting seven different receivers.

Winston left the game in the second quarter after his right knee buckled as he hurdled a tackler in the Spartans’ backfield. He had to be helped off the field and was carted to the locker room at halftime.

Information on his injury wasn’t immediately available.

Updated Oct 10, 5:04 pm EDT
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Head to Head - Week 6

Team Total Yds Pass Yds Rush Yds First Downs 3rdD% Pen./Yds Turnovers Time of Poss.
Michigan State 372 179 193 18 33.3% 5/50 2 36:07
Illinois 272 140 132 13 21.4% 6/58 1 23:53
NCAAF

30 Comments

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  1. fan of baseball
    30. Posted by fan of baseball Mon Oct 12 10:42pm EDT

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    RON ZOOK...you have to go...U of I let him go..NOW Please...
  2. <i>hunter4664</i>
    29. Posted by hunter4664 Mon Oct 12 12:50pm EDT

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    Ron Zook has to go........ If he doesnt go , then U of I should get rid of him and the Atheltic director. The Illini will not have a winning season under Zook , they should never hired him to start with.If Illinois is going to win in the Big 10 , they need to change there style of play , maybe pattern the west coast type football. Mich , Mich State, Penn State, Iowa, and of course Ohio State can win games ..... Why cant Illinois????? Zook , go recruit somewhere else , leave the coaching here to someone that has a clue what its all about......... Take the athletic director with you ,please
  3. JeffreyM
    28. Posted by JeffreyM Sun Oct 11 11:14am EDT

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    I grew up in Champaign county and have followed the Illini for 50 years or more. Here's a stat for ya. In the last 50 years there have only been 2 0ut 0f 9 coachs with a winning record. There has never been to my knowledge, a strong consistant program there since the first 30 years of the 20th century. The most consistant problem has been lack of talant combined with mediocre coaching. I Now live in Florida for the last 20 years, there was a reason Zook was fired. He may be a good recruter but his coaching skills got him canned. Illinois should never have hired a coach that was fired. Despreate I guess. The other problem is if you get a great coach he will get hired away. Winning at Illinois almost makes a coach look like a wizard. I wish you all luck but I don't expect a change in direction.
  4. Ocean Gator
    27. Posted by Ocean Gator Sun Oct 11 1:16am EDT

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    Seriously, is there a more clueless head coach in the history of college football than Ron Zook?

    I really don't think so.
  5. CMU04BSBA
    26. Posted by CMU04BSBA Sun Oct 11 12:59am EDT

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    Juice Williams should not have been benched.. They had a tough schedule to start the season and any team would have difficulty competing against Missouri, Ohio State, and Penn State. Now Zook has basically thrown in the towel on this season and is looking to next season already. He lost his team as a result. Zook needs to go!

    Michigan State once again left plenty of points on the field. For whatever reason they can't put a team away and that is why they are likely heading for a 6-6 season. At least they have some momentum now.
  6. David M
    25. Posted by David M Sun Oct 11 12:33am EDT

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    Lifelong Illini. Get rid of Zook.
  7. Dennis and Jill
    24. Posted by Dennis and Jill Sat Oct 10 11:53pm EDT

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    Love the Illini,but this is getting old. Is this team prepared to play these games? I dont think so.
  8. Eric B
    23. Posted by Eric B Sat Oct 10 10:25pm EDT

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    Juice isn't to blame for this mess...his recievers can't catch when the ball is thrown right at them. Even Benn has dropped a few this year in critical stages of the game. The OC is new, so i hate to take it out on him. The offense needs to be more aggresive down field and get away from the flats and the option once in awhile. It becomes predictable after about two series. Execution, Execution....Execution...can't say it enough!!!!
  9. Eric
    22. Posted by Eric Sat Oct 10 9:25pm EDT

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    i think its time for the firezook.com websites to reappear, at least only 4 weeks till the start of the illini basketball season, at least i'll be able to stand to watch a half with them this year, this football team is hard to watch
  10. Jiffy Pop
    21. Posted by Jiffy Pop Sat Oct 10 8:45pm EDT

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    Cousins is clearly the better qb. Does anyone remember how awful Illinois was before Zook came in?
  11. Joe B
    20. Posted by Joe B Sat Oct 10 8:37pm EDT

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    also I agree, Cousins is the best qb at MSU
  12. Joe B
    19. Posted by Joe B Sat Oct 10 8:37pm EDT

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    I am confused by this game, why did Zook sit Juice? When he was in they rally for 14. Zooks days numbered at Illinois. They most likely would have beat this mediocre MSU team with him in the whole game. Zook brings Illinois from the bottom of the big 10 to a contender the last 4 years. Is it time for him to go?
  13. Larry S
    18. Posted by Larry S Sat Oct 10 8:10pm EDT

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    If Dantonio were to have named Cousins the starting QB and sat Nichols to learn, MSU would have had a real backup QB playing today. He would have been totally out of sinc. Hats off to Dantonio for keeping two QB's sharp while leaning slightly more to Cousins in recent games. Hopefully both will be healthy next week. If so, keep playing both of them.
  14. L
    17. Posted by L Sat Oct 10 7:10pm EDT

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    Dantonio managed his players well this game. He played Nichol because Cousins is still recuperating from a sprain ankle from last weeks game. He realized he could put Nichol in at QB and still win. In the second half, after State had secured a comfortable lead, he took Caper out of the game rather than risking him getting hurt. It's clear that he wanted to give his other running backs more play time and experience. He also had Nichol stop throwing the ball as much, to cut down on the chance of a turnover. Dantonio platooned his players to keep the key players healthy and rather than run up a lopsided score that might look impressive he protected his players for the next game down the road. That's a smart coach :)
  15. Chad
    16. Posted by Chad Sat Oct 10 6:47pm EDT

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    Perhaps you don't see what Dantonio sees in Cousins and in NIchol BECAUSE YOU AREN'T COMPETENT TO SEE IT! You're "game over" QB's who have no experience or expertise, just your own sorry opinions. Those are no substitute for knowledge. Perhaps that is why Dantonio gets paid what he gets paid, and you, well, you don't.
  16. Chad
    15. Posted by Chad Sat Oct 10 6:46pm EDT

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    Perhaps you don't see what Dantonio sees in Cousins and in NIchol BECAUSE YOU AREN'T COMPETENT TO SEE IT! You're "game over" QB's who have no experience or expertise, just your own sorry opinions. Those are no substitute for knowledge. Perhaps that is why Dantonio gets paid what he gets paid, and you, well, you don't.
  17. Jacob
    14. Posted by Jacob Sat Oct 10 6:13pm EDT

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    really rondavis? have you watched any of the games this year? did you watch any of the games last year? did you notice how every time cousins came in last year he drove the length of the field for points, yet we still started Hoyer. and now you wanna say that this Nichol kid is better???? not a chance. there is no momentum and no fire when Nichol is in the game and cousins is completing 10% more passes than Nichol. dont let the stats fool you Nichol may have 5 TD's but he was set op for them, he played all day today and didnt get 1 TD against a mediocre defense at best! the kids are playing great its dantonio that needs to get his head screwd on right, pick a QB and stick with him, there is no reason to keep switching back and forth and id even go so far as to day that his indesision regurading the QB's has cost us a game or two this year!
  18. Lind
    13. Posted by Lind Sat Oct 10 6:08pm EDT

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    Who cares about basketball it is football season, idiots!!!!!
  19. <i>lizjid</i>
    12. Posted by lizjid Sat Oct 10 5:41pm EDT

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    Philip,

    To answer your question, MSU will be great in basketball this year, returning a core group from last year's team, so it will be tough for any Big Ten team to beat them. (Though maybe not as unbeatable as Illinois was in 2005.)

    But this season for Illinois basketball should be good...and even better over the next several years years. (They have three consecutive highly-rated recruiting classes....better overall than MSU's. So, watch out.)
  20. <i>rondavis22</i>
    11. Posted by rondavis22 Sat Oct 10 5:04pm EDT

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    from what ive seen of nichol is that he is better then cousins and that is y he got the start sure cousins was hurt but nichol is more mobile and has better vision then cousin and is more accurate so that is why they relied on him so much today
  21. cpt
    10. Posted by cpt Sat Oct 10 4:12pm EDT

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    who is this drew cousins you speak of? ive heard of a kirk cousins but no drew...
  22. PHILIP
    9. Posted by PHILIP Sat Oct 10 4:11pm EDT

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    You all are begging for basketball to begin, but do you really think you can take MSU in THAT sport?
  23. J S
    8. Posted by J S Sat Oct 10 4:03pm EDT

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    I knew this would happen - this was a game that Illinois could have won but Zook just had to start a quarterback competition when the team is 0-2 in conference play. Win or not, Juice Williams is the best shot they have this year. McGee has never proven that he could lead the team or get anything done and I think that was made apparent today. I'm not sure where Zook thought he was going to be after opening to Ohio State and Penn State - of course Ilinois was going to 0-2 - but as a coach you don't panic and start throwing everything against the wall. End of the day, Williams has regressed as a player, the OC is HORRIBLE, the O-line is trash but it's up to Zook to figure it out. Putting Mcgee in for this game was the absolute worse thing that he could have done b/c Eddie can't cut it and now Williams' confidence is shot.
  24. <i>big_evil_da_undertaker</i>
    7. Posted by big_evil_da_undertaker Sat Oct 10 3:55pm EDT

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    Kevin I agree that Nichol is not as good as Cousins.....but Kirk was hurt in last weeks game, and couldn't get 100% healthy, so Nichol got the start. He played pretty well throughout, until the injuries started stacking up like firewood. But all in all, a solid win, get us back to .500 with a good chance at a bowl game with remaining games against NW, Minnesota, Purdue, Western Michigan
  25. Rex
    6. Posted by Rex Sat Oct 10 3:51pm EDT

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    Bring on basketball!

    The Spartans and the Illini will have some good games this season. I watched the game on the internet come through a play at a time. It looks like State made some dumb penalties but Illinois just could not generate anything. Don't be down Illini because from bleak situations, like the game today for the home team, good things will arise.

    Go State!!!
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Top Performers

 Top Performers
 Michigan St.
L. Caper L. Caper, RB
16 Rush, 95 yds
1 TD
 Illinois
M. LeShoure M. LeShoure, RB
3 Rush, 22 yds
1 TD
1 Rec, 41 yds, 1 TD

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