Vontae Davis
Kurt Kittner
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Fighting Illini football has experienced its ups and downs recently. Ron Turner coached the Illini to two bowl games: the Micron Bowl winning against Virginia in 1999 and the BCS Sugar Bowl in 2002, where it lost to LSU. The 1999 team staged a remarkable comeback against #9 Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Fighting Illini were 22-point underdogs and trailed Michigan 22-7 in the middle of the third quarter. Kurt Kittner led the Illini to four consecutive TDs, two in the final 2:42 to win 35-29. Kurt Kittner quarterbacked the team in both bowl games and finished second on the all-time Illini passing yardage list with 8722 yards. The 2007 Fighting Illini under the guidance of Ron Zook capped an exciting season by playing in the BCS Rose Bowl against the University of Southern California. Pierre Thomas and Rashard Mendenhall had outstanding careers as running backs at Illinois. Pierre Thomas is second on the career all-purpose yardage list with 4451 yards, and Mendenhall leads in season all-purpose yardage with 1999 yards. Several defensive players had outstanding careers as well. Eugene Wilson (2001,2002) and Vontae Davis (2008) were named All-American cornerbacks, and J Leman was selected as a consensus All-American linebacker in 2007. “Juice” Williams (2006-2009) accumulated more than 10,000 total offensive yards to lead all former Fighting Illini quarterbacks in this category. |
