BRANDON PETERS

Brandon Peters threw for 242 yards and a touchdown and Illinois rolled over Big Ten rival Northwestern 47-14 on Saturday. With the resounding win to end the regular season, Illinois hopes to secure its second bowl bid in five years. “It's been fun to build this thing,” first-year Illinois coach Bret Bielema said.

Casey Washington caught a 2-point conversion pass from Brandon Peters to end the first nine-overtime game in NCAA history and lift Illinois over No. 7 Penn State 20-18.

Nine of the 14 Big Ten football teams appear set at quarterback heading into the fall.

Both tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and will be sidelined 21 days per Big Ten protocol. Both would be eligible to return for the Nov. 21 game at Nebraska. Illinois also announced that contact tracing sidelined several other players for the Purdue game and next week’s game against Minnesota. Sophomore Matt Robinson started at quarterback for the Ilini. The Illini opened the season last week at Wisconsin, whose team has had 22 players and staff test positive for COVID-19 this week.

14 Badgers beat Illinois 45-7 on Friday night to open the pandemic-delayed Big Ten football season. Mertz became the first-team quarterback after returning starter Jack Coan underwent foot surgery on Oct. 7, leaving him out indefinitely. After Illinois fumbled the ball away on the game’s second play from scrimmage, Mertz hit fullback Jason Stokke for a 10-yard touchdown pass. Mertz responded to Illinois’ touchdown by throwing a 34-yard completion to Ferguson and then hitting the senior tight end again for a 14-yard score with 1:06 left in the half. After Illinois went three-and-out on its next series, Mertz threw deep and found Danny Davis for a 53-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds left until halftime.