Written By Alex Compton (@alexncompton)

Last Saturday saw IU’s last chance at a regular season “breakthrough” moment slip away, and now three in a row must be won against some of the Big Ten’s perennial bottom-dwellers in order to attain bowl eligibility. Morgan Ellison returned from injury last week to face the Badgers, and struggled mightily. He rushed for just 17 yards on 6 carries, and has now put together two consecutive subpar games in a decently successful freshman campaign so far. On paper, IU should dominate the Illini and get back in the win column. However….. the only sure thing with IU football is that there isn’t a sure thing, so this game really could go either way like every other game this year. The Illini are ravaged with injury on both sides of the ball, but this has allowed some young guys to get good experience and make fans excited about the future. Getting out to a good start on Saturday will be key, as putting young team in a nice deficit generally leads to comfortable wins. In order to start fast, IU actually needs to establish a running game, and Ellison will again be the guy that is counted on for most of that production. Watch for him, and watch for him against some of Illinois’ young edge guys this weekend.