No. 20 Illinois enters its Saturday afternoon showdown at Autzen Stadium with No. 1 Oregon (2:30 p.m. CT, CBS) at 6-1, and it’ll face a Ducks team sitting at 7-0 with a 12-game home winning streak.
The Fighting Illini are coming off a win over defending national champion Michigan, but the showdown with the Ducks is the ultimate litmus test: Are Bret Bielema’s Illini truly a contender or a pretender?
This type of stage certainly is what Illinois envisioned when it hired Bielema, who won 3 Big Ten titles as Wisconsin’s coach. In Year 4, Bielema has Illinois in position to win 10 games for the first time since 2001…