CHAMPAIGN -- The Illinois football team is feeling good about itself. And it should.
Bret Bielema's fourth squad is 2-0, coming off an upset win against ranked Kansas and is just outside the AP Top 25.
But -- and this is a very crucial but -- it needs to view Saturday's homecoming opponent Central Michigan as dangerous. Extremely dangerous.
The numbers help make the point. While Illinois ranks first in the nation in turnover margin, Central Michigan sits 129th. Those breaks tend to even out over the course of a season. Illinois' current plus-seven total can disappear with a couple of rough games. Before committing six turnovers at Florida International (a 52-16 loss), the Chippewas didn't have one during their opener, a 66-10 blowout victory against Central Connecticut State.
"It's kind of tale of two different cities for Central Michigan," Bielema said to the Illini Quarterback Club on Thursday.
MAC schools love to upset teams in the Power Four. Just ask Notre Dame about Northern Illinois.
In its first appearance at Memorial Stadium, Central Michigan will not be intimidated. The team played at Notre Dame in 2023, Penn State and Oklahoma State in 2022 and LSU and Missouri in 2021. All under current head coach and former Florida boss Jim McElwain.
"Coach McElwain is a guy I have known forever," Bielema said. "Their defensive coordinator Coach (Robb) Akey, he and I have known each other for a long time. A tremendous football coach. They have a bunch of guys that played with our guys. They are a Midwest-oriented roster."
The Chippewas found some help in the transfer portal. Starting quarterback Joe Labas began his career at Iowa. He started in the 2022 Music City Bowl for the Hawkeyes.
"They're going to be a very opportunistic team," Bielema said.
Bielema understands no win is guaranteed.
"I know coming out of the weekend, everybody's telling them how great they are, how pretty they are, how good they play," Bielema said. "I let them feel that for a couple days, and then (Wednesday), I started hammering them, especially after practice. I let them have a little come to Jesus (Thursday) morning at 7 a.m. and then went out and had a really good practice."
Illinois is in great position to return to a bowl game this season. But a loss to Central Michigan is not part of the equation. A stumble at home against an inferior team would devastate Illinois' most important goals.
Early risers
The first two Illinois games this season were at night, 8 p.m. against Eastern Illinois and 6 p.m. against Kansas. Next Friday's game is also at night, with kickoff at Nebraska set for 7 p.m.
Saturday's game kicks at 11 a.m.
Will the Illini be up and ready to go?
Well, Bielema geared practice in recent weeks toward a morning kickoff. The daily workouts wind up at about 11:30 a.m., each day, just before the players zip off to class.
Intentional scheduling? Absolutely.
"I think that really does help us," Bielema said.
And in case the early workouts didn't do the trick, Bielema came up with another idea: cold showers.
On the sheets Bielema hands out to the players before the game, there is an article about the value of waking up with a cold shower.
"I won't actually be feeling their head, but I will tell them, 'Hey, I expect to see some wet hair on Saturday morning breakfast,'" he said.
The team has a pregame meal four hours before kickoff.
"If they haven't showered by then, I want them to shower by the time we have our meeting two and a half hours before we go to the stadium. If they haven't showered by then, they should be getting wet in the Smith Center as soon as they get over there. It's interesting to see guys respond to that. They're very coachable."
Been there, done that
Illini great Howard Griffith knows what it is like when your team "expects" a win.
In 1990, Griffith was the star running back for John Mackovic's team when it hosted lower-division Southern Illinois.
Griffith shared the story with the Illini Quarterback Club members Thursday at the I Hotel.
"It really started the summer before," Griffith said. "We would have a few parties on campus and players from Eastern, Southern, Western, Illinois State would all come here. We'd have one big party."
The Salukis knew they were playing in Champaign the third week of the season (Sept. 22) and it came up during the player conversations.
"I distinctly remember, I said, 'I don't know why you guys are even talking trash to me. I'm not even going to be playing. By the time I'm done in the first quarter, this game will be over.'"
He was half right. The Salukis took a 21-7 lead. One of the Southern Illinois touchdowns came when linebacker Kevin Gilgallon stole the ball from Griffith and raced into the end zone.
"Southern's feeling really good about themselves," Griffith said. "We're feeling not so good. The lesson in that is you always respect your opponent and you give your best effort. And the reality is, we didn't do that. We thought it was Southern Illinois. We didn't need to do our best job because we have better players."
Which they did, but ...
"We weren't mentally focused when that game started," Griffith said.
At halftime, Mackovic let his team know he wasn't happy with the effort or the performance. Considered calm and cool, the coach threw stuff in the locker room.
The Illinois players got the message. It all worked out in the end for both Illinois and Griffith. For the Salukis? Not so much.
Griffith scored an NCAA-record eight rushing touchdowns in a 56-21 victory. He broke the school established by legend Red Grange and the NCAA standard set by Mississippi's Arnold "Showboat" Boykin.