The Illinois Fighting Illini football team finished 5-7 in 2021, and is hoping to building on last year’s results with a better performance in 2022 under Head Coach Bret Bielema, formerly of the Wisconsin Badgers.

The Illini started out the 2022 campaign with a win over the Wyoming Cowboys by a final score of 38-6 on August 27, and began Big Ten play on September 2, 2022.

Their second game was held in Bloomington, Indiana against the Hoosiers, during which two evenly matched teams went at it with the goal of starting off league play on the right foot.

Led by starting QB Connor Bazelak and wide receiver Cam Camper, the Hoosiers pulled off a 23-20 victory — but not before fireworks went off in the form of a huge hit by Illinois junior defensive back Devon Witherspoon.

Witherspoon tallied six tackles on the evening, but it was his monstrous hit on Indiana running back Shaun Shivers, shown below, that had the Twittersphere talking.

Witherspoon led the Illini in tackles on the evening, notching six, while Shivers ran for just 28 yards on 15 carries.

Unfortunately for Bielema’s bunch, Shivers answered back with the game-winning score.

Just 23 seconds remained on the clock as Shivers found paydirt, and the Illini’s last-ditch comeback effort fell short.

Indiana moved to 1-0 on the season thanks to the offense and defense’s late-game heroics.