With a ninth-place Big Ten finish already in the bag—and a bowl berth out of the question—Illinois continues the longest regular season in school history with Friday's game at No. 5 Cincinnati before finishing with the Dec. 5 home game against Fresno State.

After taking Thursday through Saturday off during their bye week, the Illini began to tackle the Bearcats on Sunday. Coach Ron Zook claimed his team is treating these last two weeks like bowl practices—which suggests they'll get their reserves lots of work in preparation for the 2010 season—but Zook didn't mean bowl practices in the traditional sense. He plans to get his veterans their usual work and keep them in their usual roles.

What does that mean?]]> Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:36:04 PST ncaaf urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,sportsxchange:20080101:ncaaf,article,teamreports-2009-ncaaf-iic:1 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:54:00 PST ncaaf urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,rivals:20050301:ncaaf,article,rivals-339643:1 University of Illinois senior offensive guard Jon Asamoah was named second-team All-Big Ten by both the coaches... Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:26:00 PST ncaaf urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,rivals:20050301:ncaaf,article,rivals-339377:1 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:08:00 PST ncaaf urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,rivals:20050301:ncaaf,article,rivals-337699:1 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:52:56 PST ncaaf urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,ap:20050301:ncaaf,article,ap-200911140026.nnviic.recap:1 Mike Kafka threw for 305 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score and Sherrick McManis made a last-minute... Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:51:00 PST ncaaf urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,rivals:20050301:ncaaf,article,rivals-336678:1 Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:52:04 PST