The daily pitch from Sports Editor Matt Daniels: Oct. 28, 2024

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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:

Three reasons we love sports today

➜ 1. Former Illini football standouts and identical twins Chase Brown and Sydney Brown went against each other on Sunday with their respective NFL teams. Sydney’s Philadelphia Eagles got the best of Chase’s Cincinnati Bengals, winning 37-17.

➜ 2. Friday night high school football playoff games. The trend is to have a majority of them on Saturday afternoons, but LeRoy and Mahomet-Seymour will host first-round games this Friday night, while Oakwood and Tuscola hit the road to play in games under the Friday night lights.

➜ 3. All told, 15 area high school football teams are in the IHSA playoffs. Unbeaten St. Joseph-Ogden and LeRoy are No. 1 seeds, with SJ-O in Class 3A and LeRoy in 1A.

Numbers game: 7.0

Points is the average margin of victory Bret Bielema has against Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck since Bielema got the Illinois job. The Illini are 3-0 against Fleck and the Gophers during Bielema’s tenure, with the next opportunity coming at 11 a.m. this Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Champaign. This is the last game between Illinois and Minnesota until 2027, when the two teams are scheduled to meet in Minneapolis.

Crowd control

Three events I’m paying attention to

➜ 1. Minnesota at Illinois football. Going into October, Minnesota’s season looked lost. Then, the Gophers upset Southern Cal, edged UCLA and dominated Maryland. All of a sudden, Minnesota heads into Champaign at 5-3 and just one win away from a bowl berth before Saturday’s 11 a.m. kickoff at Memorial Stadium.

➜ 2. Fisher/GCMS vs. Normal U-High boys’ soccer. The Bunnies have a monumental task ahead: trying to beat the Pioneers in a Class 1A sectional title match at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in Monticello.

➜ 3. Centennial at Champaign Central volleyball. The two rivals meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a Class 3A regional semifinal match. Should be an entertaining one.

Coach’s corner

Three questions with Ridgeview boys’ basketball coach Jake Kennedy, whose Mustangs open the 2024-25 season on Nov. 25 at the Route 17 Classic at Woodland:

➜ 1. My favorite sports team is … the St. Louis Cardinals.

➜ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are … Bud Grant, = and Herb Brooks.

➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … when people do not hold doors open for others.