CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — For the first two games of this season, the Illinois defense provided something that had been missing for a while in Champaign: a wall that kept the opposition off the scoreboard.
At North Carolina, playing against a Power Five school for the first time this fall, that defense looked more familiar.
The Tar Heels rolled up 471 yards on the way to a 48-14 win over Illinois (2-1) that is a concern with high-scoring Middle Tennessee State coming to town Saturday.
A big part of the problem, according to Illinois coach Bill Cubit, was the leap in competition Illinois made from Kent State and Western Illinois over the season's first two weeks to the Tar Heels.