1983 Illinois Fighting Illini football team

1983 Illinois Fighting Illini football
Big Ten champion
Rose Bowl, L 9–45 vs. UCLA
ConferenceBig Ten Conference
Ranking
CoachesNo. 10
APNo. 10
Record10–2 (9–0 Big Ten)
Head coach
CaptainTim Brewster, Joe Miles, Don Thorp
Home stadiumMemorial Stadium
Seasons
← 1982
1984 →
1983 Big Ten Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 10 Illinois $ 9 – 0 – 0 10 – 2 – 0
No. 8 Michigan 8 – 1 – 0 9 – 3 – 0
No. 14 Iowa 7 – 2 – 0 9 – 3 – 0
No. 9 Ohio State 6 – 3 – 0 9 – 3 – 0
Wisconsin 5 – 4 – 0 7 – 4 – 0
Purdue 3 – 5 – 1 3 – 7 – 1
Michigan State 2 – 6 – 1 4 – 6 – 1
Indiana 2 – 7 – 0 3 – 8 – 0
Northwestern 2 – 7 – 0 2 – 9 – 0
Minnesota 0 – 9 – 0 1 – 10 – 0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1983 Illinois Fighting Illini football team represented the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a member of the Big Ten Conference during the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. Led by fourth-year head coach Mike White, the Fighting Illini compiled an overall record of 10–2 with a mark of 9–0, winning the Big Ten title. Illinois was invited to the Rose Bowl, where the Illini lost to UCLA. The team played home games at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.

The team's offensive leaders were quarterback Jack Trudeau with 2,446 passing yards, running back Thomas Rooks with 842 rushing yards, and wide receiver David Williams with 870 receiving yards.[1] Defensive end Don Thorp was selected as the team's most valuable player and also received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the Big Ten Conference.[2] The 1983 Illini were the first team in Big Ten history to go 9–0 in regular season conference play, and the only team to do so until the 2017 Wisconsin Badgers football team repeated the feat. Since then, the 2019 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, the 2024 Oregon Ducks football team and both the 2022 Michigan Wolverines football team & 2023 Michigan Wolverines football team have accomplished the feat.

Schedule

DateTimeOpponentRankSiteTVResultAttendanceSource
September 101:30 pmat Missouri*
L 18–2853,744
September 176:00 pmStanford*
W 17–772,852
September 2411:30 amat Michigan State
ABCW 20–1075,867
October 11:00 pmNo. 4 Iowa
  • Memorial Stadium
  • Champaign, IL
W 33–073,351
October 81:30 pmat WisconsinNo. 19
W 27–1578,307
October 151:00 pmNo. 6 Ohio StateNo. 19
W 17–1373,414
October 221:30 pmat PurdueNo. 11
W 35–2169,328
October 2911:30 amNo. 8 MichiganNo. 9
  • Memorial Stadium
  • Champaign, IL (rivalry)
CBSW 16–676,127[3]
November 57:00 pmat MinnesotaNo. 6
W 50–2335,514
November 121:00 pmIndianaNo. 5
  • Memorial Stadium
  • Champaign, IL (rivalry)
W 49–2173,612
November 191:00 pmat NorthwesternNo. 4
W 56–2452,333
January 24:00 pmvs. UCLA*No. 4
NBCL 9–45103,217
  • *Non-conference game
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game
  • All times are in Central time

[4]

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ "1983 Illinois Fighting Illini Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  2. ^ "Fighting Illini Football Record Book" (PDF). University of Illinois. 2015. p. 155. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  3. ^ Joe Lapointe (October 30, 1983). "Illinois on the road to Roses after dominating U-M, 16-6". Detroit Free Press. pp. 1F, 7F – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ DeLassus, David. "Illinois Yearly Results: 1980–1984". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on May 3, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2013.


Stub icon

This college football 1980s season article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.