The game was interesting. It had such a tough rhythm to it. The first quarter went by in a snap. The second quarter took forever. That, of course, was aided by the tough injury to Illini Donsay Hardeman. As of Tuesday night I heard that he was back in Champaign and mostly doing well. The tests were negative and he mostly just had soreness. The important thing was that they mostly handled it the way they did on Saturday because he had neck surgery last November. And that if it was anyone else on the team they wouldn't have treated it the same way.

But the win was massive for Indiana as they are now two wins away from bowl eligibility. And their schedule shows they have a chance to get two wins (perhaps at Northwestern and home against  Purdue) still this year.

As for the Illini? Devastating. Can you believe this team is 1-5? I said on here a few weeks back that orange and blue fans should not panic because they Illini played such a tough schedule. Well, not anymore. And seeing them up close and personal I can tell you they looked beat. I didn't get a chance to report this during the game, but after that succession of fumbles in the third and fourth quarters I was watching the team react.

The first fumble in the second half didn't drop their spirits. Coach Zook was running up and down the sidelines screaming "Lets go! Lets go!" Offensive Coordinator Mike Schultz was repeating over and over again "Lots of time left, lots of time."  And their offensive line coach was praising his men, despite the outcome of the drive. Spirits were up.

Then after the second and third fumbles, not at all. Not much chatter from players or coaches. It was as if they realized they were 1-5. Too many mistakes for the Illini to comeback. Six games remain.  They need to go 5-1 just to make a bowl game. It does not look good.

Once the game was done, I had a chance to go hang out at a couple of fun spots in Bloomington.  I've always gone to Nick's but the line there literally stretched around the block (it was homecoming weekend). So we went to Upstairs and met some nice people there and enjoyed the AMF drink.  I recommend.

Then we went to Bluebird and heard a fantastic live band play for the rest of the night. That place was a blast. One of my favorite college bars I've been to.

Back to football. Perhaps the player of the week was Zeke Markshausen. Now Ben Chappell and Blair White had ridiculous performances and deserved to share the offensive player of the week award from the conference. But Zeke … let's call him the Big Ten story of the week.

His 16 catches was one shy of the all-time school record. This for a guy who came into the season with a career grand total of one reception. One! He was a walk-on until this season. Yet he is second in the conference with 50 catches thus far! 

I had a chance to talk to him about it this week, and he's a very likable guy, too. Says he looks up to Wes Welker and watches him whenever he can. That isn't often because of the availability of Patriots games on TV in Evanston. But he'll catch the similarly sized Welker on Youtube. And he said he's a big fan of Welker's feet. Described them as "amazingly quick."

He also talked about smiling. He apparently is known to have a big ole' grin on when he makes a catch. I asked him why that is and he said it's hard to stop smiling. He's having the experience of a lifetime, why not smile? He said Andrew Brewer has a similar philosophy. And that it started for him back in high school when he started loosening up and having fun.

Speaking of having fun, this week we have an extra special guest for Alumni Interview on Tailgate.  Its Chris Hansen. As in, Dateline NBC's "How to Catch A Predator" Chris Hansen. Yeah, he's a Spartan alum! And Jordan flew to NYC this week to sit down with him. I haven't seen the tapes yet, but this one has a lot of potential!