Illini Beat UCLA In Kraft Bowl Game

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jan 1, 2012 10:00PM

The University of Illinois football team won their first game in 12 weeks when they took down UCLA 20-14 at the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Game in San Francisco yesterday. It was a weird season for the Fighting Illini. The team went from winning six straight games to losing six straight. This little piece of information demonstrates just how inconsequential these bowl games have become. ABC7 writes:

The game between two six-win teams who have already fired their head coaches matched the underwhelming expectations as there was little excitement before Hawthorne's third-quarter touchdown that gave Illinois its first lead.

U of I spent $2.6 million to fire Coach Ron Zook in November. The school hired Tim Beckman from the University of Toledo, but defensive coordinator Vic Koenning was in charge as interim coach yesterday. The team was nearly not coached at all. Some of the assistant coaches threatened to boycott the bowl game in their labor fight with the university.