The fall from Florida to Illinois has been a steep one for Illinois coach Ron Zook.

The Illini (2-8, 0-7 Big Ten) are last in the Big Ten in both scoring offense and scoring defense, and are the only winless team in the conference.

“Sometimes when you play so many young players – improvement isn’t always tangible,” Northwestern coach Randy Walker said of Illinois’ struggles this season. “When a kid’s getting better, sometimes it doesn’t show up on the scoreboard or as a team or as a unit.”

With a win against the Illini, the Wildcats (6-4, 4-3) can secure a winning season and possibly improve itself in the bowl selection process.

While NU players and coaches insist they are not overlooking Illinois, the Illini have struggled this season.

Illinois is in the midst of a eight-game losing streak and last won in the second week of the season when they defeated San Jose State 40-19.

The Illini have not put up more than 24 points since that victory, and have scored 14 or fewer points in six of seven conference games.

In the past two games Illinois has registered five points – a blocked extra point returned for a two-point conversion against Ohio State and a fourth-quarter field goal against Purdue.

“I don’t know that we’re to the point where we can get outside our realm of what we do,” Zook said. “We’re going to have to come up with some way to put points on the board to stay in the game.”

The Illini are led by junior running back Pierre Thomas, who is 10th in the Big Ten in all-purpose yards with more than 121 a game.

“After seeing how many yards rushing we’ve given up the last couple games, obviously they’re going to try to run the ball on us a little bit,” sophomore cornerback Deante Battle said.

Illinois has struggled on defense as well, as it is 11th in the conference in rush defense, scoring defense, sacks and opponents 3rd-down conversions.

The Illini have given up at least 35 points in every Big Ten contest this season.

“We haven’t scored very many points in the last couple games, so we can’t overlook anybody,” Basanez said. “If we don’t come out and play our game and execute our game plan, they’re going to make us pay for it.”

This is also NU’s only trophy game, as NU and Illinois have faced off for the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk since 1945.

The Cats have won six of the last 10 match ups in the series.

“When it comes to rivalry games, you pretty much have to throw the records out,” Battle said. “It’s their last game. This is what they’re looking forward to so they’re going to come out and give us everything they’ve got. And we have to be aware of that.”

Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].