A snap of the fingers. A blip in time. Just like that, the John Paddock Experience happened — and it was glorious.
Amid all the rivalry games and elite quarterback matchups that unfolded in Week 10, Illinois’ 27-26 win at Minnesota was pretty much lost. But within that Illini win was something extraordinarily special, and that was Paddock’s sudden, shocking, spectacular contribution to what might not be a lost season after all as the Illini rallied with a touchdown drive in the final minute.
Paddock, a sixth-year graduate transfer from Ball State who competed for the starting job but failed to win it and then faded deep into the background, inherited a next-to-impossible situation when Luke Altmyer was sacked and knocked out of the game with 1:25 to go and the Illini trailing 26-21.
Oh, hi, John. Lots of luck. By the way, it’s fourth-and-11.
So what did Paddock do? Three plays. Three completions. Eighty-five yards. Ballgame.
He did a long line of Illini football players proud. His great-grandfather Robert C. Wright, grandfather John Wright Sr. and uncle John Wright Jr. all played at the school to which Paddock wasn’t a big enough deal as a high school QB to grab the baton and follow them. But he sure got there eventually, didn’t he?
John Sr., from Wheaton, was a two-time All-American at Illinois in the 1960s who set pretty much all the school’s receiving records at the time before moving on to the NFL. Talk about leaving a mark. Now his grandson has left one of his own.
“I’m just happy we won the game,” Paddock told reporters.
Right, kid. No big deal. …
At 4-5, Illinois needs to win at least two of its three remaining games — at home against Indiana and Northwestern, with a visit to Iowa in between — to get to a second straight bowl game. That hasn’t happened since 2010 and 2011, the tail end of the Ron Zook era.
If Altmyer can’t play, Paddock will be right back in the fire.
“We can only go up,” coach Bret Bielema said.
That’s not true, though it is kind of hard to imagine the Illini blowing any two of those games as beatable as the Hoosiers, Hawkeyes and Wildcats are.
And how fun does this sound? CBS Sports’ latest bowl projections have the Illini going up against USC and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams (you might know him as the Bears’ next QB) in the Las Vegas Bowl. Cha-ching. …
Speaking of Williams, some observers found it curious that, after USC lost 52-42 to Washington, he went into the stands and sobbed in his mother’s arms.
Look, you’d cry, too, if you had the Trojans’ astonishingly terrible defense. …
Where was Notre Dame’s sense of urgency in a 31-23 loss at Clemson? The three-loss Irish had the pieces to take a step forward in Year 2 under Marcus Freeman, but it hasn’t happened and it’s too late now.
CBS projects Notre Dame will play Oklahoma State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. The HoHos and Ding Dongs Bowls must’ve already been taken. …
Cheers to all those maniacs — nearly all of them Iowa fans — who sat through the entirety of Iowa’s 10-7 win against Northwestern at Wrigley Field. Some of us were bored so stiff, we were on the Red Line by halftime.
The Hawkeyes passed for 65 yards. The Wildcats passed for 81 yards. It was like playing CPS football in the 1980s all over again. …
My Heisman five if I were voting today: 1. Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr., 2. Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. 3. Oklahoma State QB Ollie Gordon II, 4. Florida State QB Jordan Travis, 5. Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy.
