Illinois Football: Top 5 Illini wins in the Lovie Smith era

5. Illinois at Michigan State – 2016

Going into this game, both teams were 2-6 with Illinois being 1-4 in conference play and Michigan State being 0-5 in conference play. Illinois was missing their starting quarterback Wes Lunt for this game, which enabled Jeff George Jr. to get the start.

In the first quarter, only the Spartans were able to score with Michigan State kicking a field goal early to go up 3-0. It took Illinois a while to score this half. After the Spartans went up 6-0, Illinois fired back with a 19-yard Kendrick Foster touchdown run. This was huge because it was right before halftime and it put the Illini up 7-6.

Illinois was on fire during the 2nd half. After Michigan State took the lead 9-7, the Illini responded with a 64-yard touchdown run by Foster. Not even three plays later, the Illinois defense forced a fumble which was recovered by Jaylen Dunlap.

That fumble gave Illini good field position which led to a Chase McLaughlin field goal. This gave Illinois a 17-9 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Spartans tied the game up at 17-17. Illinois then drove down the field and scored a touchdown when Goerge connected with Ainslie Johnson.

Michigan State wasn’t laying down, as the Spartans scored on back-to-back drives to take the lead back 27-24. One of the scores was a field goal the other was a touchdown pass. Illinois then had a turn to ice the game as George threw a touchdown to Sam Mays with 1:35 left to go in the game.

The Spartans would try to drive at the end of the game to take the lead, but on fourth and three, the Illini defense got a stop behind the first down marker which ended the game. The final score was 31-27.

This win checks in at No. 5 on this list because this was the first time Illinois beat Michigan State since 2006. Any win against the Spartans is a good one, but the fact that Lovie was able to pull this off in his first season was special.