Illini

I had the good fortune on Saturday to attend my 2nd consecutive Ohio State game. This time the tickets came from my sister and Dan and I made the road trip to Champaign.

Our seats were 12 rows up and there were easily as many Buckeyes fans there as Illinois fans. This made me proud of our people and their willingness to travel, but one thing that embarrassed me was how ignorant some of them were. Everyone knows that the big cheer for Ohio State is an O-H met with an I-O. For Illinois, their cheer is an I-L-L met with an I-N-I. This of course spells Illini, their mascot. But Dan and I heard our peers comment several times that their fans didn't even know how to spell, assuming that they were trying to spell out the name of their state. But at least they're loyal enough to make the road trip.

In the end, the Buckeyes won the game, though not as convincingly as some might have liked. The media is trying to paint it like they narrowly avoided an upset, which is not really accurate. They lead 17-o at halftime and played Tressel-ball for the 2nd half. Illinois started to play a little bit at the end but were never at a point where any of us were worried. At least not in the way that Ball State had Michigan worried. Besides, you can't really fault the players for not wanting to go all out and risk injuring themselves before the biggest game in the history of the universe.

More pictures are available in the gallery.