Joe Sports

ST. LOUIS -- Illinois’ first special teams play of the year went fine: Arrelious Benn returned the season’s opening kickoff 23 yards to ILL’s 28-yard line.

Illinois’ first offensive play of the year went fine: The Illini spread out five receivers on the line, Juice Williams took a shotgun snap, dropped back and fired to Florida transfer Jarred Fayson for an easy 11 yards.

Illinois’ first defensive play of the year went fine: With Missouri pinned back at its own 7, defensive tackle Josh Brent crashed through the line and dropped RB Derrick Washington for a 2-yard loss.

As for all of the other plays on Saturday at Edward Jones Dome? Well, they didn’t work out so well in Illinois’ thorough 37-9 defeat.

ST. LOUIS -- Cheer up, Illini fans! Missouri's 16-3 halftime lead is its smallest since the Arch Rivalry resumed in 2007. Missouri led 31-13 at this point last year and 23-6 after two quarters in 2007.

Now here's all the bad news: All-America WR Arrelious Benn left during the game's first series with an undetermined injury, though the TV guys suggested he hurt his lower back. From all the way across the dome, I thought I saw the docs working on his lower left leg, but who knows? In any case, we haven't seen him on the sideline for a long time.

It's not good when all you get out of your All-American is a 23-yard kick return and a 9-yard reception.

ST. LOUIS -- There's a half-hour before kickoff and the drenched tailgaters are filing in for the third-straight opener between Illinois and Missouri.

I'd attempt some poetry here, but let's go straight to the travel roster. Illinois' 70-man squad features six true freshmen, 12 redshirt freshmen and just 13 seniors.

The true frosh:

2 QB Nathan Scheelhaase
6 CB Joelil Thrash
8 CB Patrick Nixon-Youman
12 CB Terry Hawthorne
26 RB Justin Green
99 DE Michael Buchanan

Senior RB Daniel Dufrene, who has been wrestling with a sprained ankle, hasn't done a ton during warmups, though I just saw him jog and he didn't appear to have much of a limp.

More at halftime and after the game.

LW

Right now, I should be playing with my kids or working in the yard or writing college football stories for the paper.

Instead, I'm sitting here dumbfounded as I watch the White Sox's final day in the 2009 pennant race. This is the nadir of the season, which prompted the headline to this blog. (Who else remembers the Sox's fabled former pitching coach?)

When Hawk Harrelson is calling out Jose Contreras with nobody out in the second inning -- and moments later declares that somebody in the third-base dugout needs to pull up the team by its bootstraps -- it's a sign the season is OVAH.

Northwestern left Camp Kenosha on Monday. It doesn’t start fall quarter until Sept. 22.

Yet Wednesday’s double sessions served as the official end to fall camp (it’s because the Wildcats are simulating game day on Thursday, taking Friday and Saturday off and then starting game-week mode on Sunday).

To say the Wildcats wrapped up camp with a bang would be an understatement. The 105-minute afternoon session inside Trienens Hall (attended by a fistful of NFL scouts) featured some fiercely physical play even though they weren’t tackling to the ground.

I can't wait for the Ryder Cup to come to Medinah in 2012. In fact, I've been eagerly awaiting it since the announcement was made way back in October 1998.

That's so long ago, Tiger Woods had just one major to his credit. So long ago, Mark McGwire had just hit 70 homers and we believed it a legitimate feat. So long ago, we weren't certain Michael Jordan had played his final game as a Bull.

Point is, I possess a lot of long-held expectations for the 2012 Ryder Cup -- and now I have one more: I expect the PGA and Medinah to pull off a Ryder Cup as satisfactory for all concerned as the LPGA and Rich Harvest Farms just did with the Solheim Cup. That's no small task.

In deadline situations, off-beat things amuse me. While trying to hurry through some interviews after the Bears' 17-3 win over the Giants tonight, I stood impatiently waiting to talk to new left guard Frank Omiyale while WBBM radio king Zach Zaidman conducted a one-on-one interview.

As Zaidman pulled away from Omiyale, he kept talking and mentioned how Omiyale would receive a $200 gift certificate to Mario Tricoci Hair Salon for being the interview of the game or some such honor. Omiyale, hearing this, arched his eyebrows at Zaidman and then at me. Then we couldn't help but chuckle. You see, Omiyale has just enough hair to disqualify himself from being called bald. Omiyale shrugged his shoulders and said it'd be something nice for the wife. So there you go.

Consider the Cutler-Chicago love affair on again -- and stronger than ever.

Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, Devin Hester, Earl Bennett and Orlando Pace have called it quits tonight after three series that produced 17 points and 199 total yards. As one press-box wag said, "So that's what a quarterback looks like."

Cutler completed 8 of 13 passes for 121 yards and 1 touchdown. That translates to a 117.8 passer rating, which is pretty durn good.

Hey gang,

Please scratch the following Bears from your active roster for tonight's exhibition game with the New York Giants:

No. 33 CB Charles Tillman
No. 35 CB Zackary Bowman
No. 38 FS Danieal Manning
No. 53 SLB Nick Roach
No. 64 OG Tyler Reed
No. 75 DT Matt Toeaina

In other words, the Bears will feature the same secondary that didn't fare well against Buffalo last week. Eli Manning, the NFL's richest man, will provide a nice test for this bunch.

LW

I'll be honest. Over the last year, we at the Daily Herald have expended a lot of time and effort to bring you Solheim Cup coverage. Our coverage has been so comprehensive, at times it has felt like we've been telling you, "YOU WILL WATCH THIS EVENT AND LIKE IT, DADGUMMIT!"

With that in mind, I didn't plan to tune in to today's opening matches. Nobody's going to tell me what to watch, you know? But here I am watching the Solheim Cup and liking it. I picked it up late this morning as the pairings were making the turn and I haven't turned it off. Here's why I've enjoyed it:

1) The crowds are enthusiastic without being overly jingoistic. When Euro players make a nice shot, the fans acknowledge it.