THE WIN QUENCHER: For Illini, Juices Quenches Win, Not Thirst

Juice is most commonly referred to as a tasty beverage made out of fruit. In Champaign, Illinois though, a different Juice named Williams teamed with Rashard Mendenhall to snap the nation's longest winning streak against Wisconsin.

The Badgers have certainly looked vulnerable the past few weeks and the Fighting Illini exposed them. Illinois jumped out to a 17-0 lead and then hung on to preserve a 31-26 victory that vaulted them into the Top 25 for the first time seemingly since, well....ever. Of course that's not true but it's been a while since the residents of the Land of Lincoln have tasted success. (Kurt Kittner ring a bell?).

Juice Williams might make fans forget about those days as he played an effecient game, completing 12-19 throws while running around the Wisconsin defense and handing the ball off to Mendenhall who pounded out 160 yards against a Badger front line that was supposed to be one of the best in the Big Ten.

In the meantime Wisconsin QB Tyler Donovan continued his incosistent play, throwing two costly picks, and the Badgers shut down back PJ Hill for only 83 yards well below his 133 yd average.

A mere 3 years after winning only four games in that span and one Big Ten win, Coach Ron Zook's (inexplicably?) good recruiting classes are finally starting to show up and have Illinois talking Rose Bowl.

As for the Badgers, coach Bret Beilema summed it up when he proclaimed that "Illinois played right up to our ranking." What he didn't mention is what most of us suspected all along.....that maybe the #5 ranking wasn't all that justified after all.

—C. Nierman