BIG TEN Penn St., Illinois fighting for their lives

The teams, who meet Saturday, have struggled through disappointing seasons thus far.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- When the season began, both Illinois and Penn State were talking about winning the Big Ten championship.
But when the Illini (3-5, 2-2) visit the 20th-ranked Nittany Lions (5-3, 2-3) Saturday, Penn State will be fighting to stay focused after another close loss, while Illinois fights to keep its fading bowl hopes alive.
That's not how it was supposed to be -- particularly for Illinois. The defending Big Ten champions thought they could pick up where they left off. Instead, they lost three of four non-conference games, including a shocking 38-35 home upset at the hands of San Jose State. Losses to Michigan and Minnesota to open conference play left the Illini 1-5, their worst start since the winless 1997 season in coach Ron Turner's first year.
"I was surprised. I think we all expected to win," Turner said. "You can't ever assume you're going to win, but we expected to, and it just didn't happen.
"As I said all along at that time, we weren't that far off. We were a few plays away from making a play here or there that would make a difference, but we just weren't making them."
Paterno not fooled
Penn State coach Joe Paterno wasn't fooled. He knew that despite their record, Illinois was a good team.
"I think they are a lot better than people realize," Paterno said. "I think Illinois is a very solid football team. Unfortunately, you look at scores and you look at Michigan -- they had Michigan on the ropes and then they kicked the ball around. They were in a great position to beat Michigan."
The Illini proved that during the last two weeks with a 38-31 overtime win against Purdue and a 45-14 thrashing of Indiana. Running back Antonio Harris averaged 185.5 rushing yards in those two games and is 147 yards away from becoming just the seventh Illinois player to have a 1,000-yard season.
"We've got the swagger back. We're on a roll," Harris said. "If we keep doing what we've been doing, there's no telling what we can do."
But they'll have to do it against the Nittany Lions, who are also looking for some redemption after an offensive collapse at Ohio State.
Penn State, too, was shooting for the Big Ten championship when the season started, and after a 40-7 rout of then-No. 8 Nebraska it looked like the Nittany Lions might just be contenders.
They kept that goal even after overtime losses to Iowa and Michigan, but the 13-7 loss at Ohio State last week all but eliminated the Lions from the conference title race.