Minnesota Golden Gophers beat Illinois 17-3, become bowl eligible

It goes without saying how great of a job Jerry Kill has done at Minnesota since leaving Northern Illinois to take over the Gophers football program.

Minnesota (6-4, 2-4 Big Ten) traveled to Memorial Stadium Saturday and beat Illinois 17-3, scoring two touchdowns in the second half to seal the win. Beating Illinois gave Minnesota it’s six win on the year and enough wins in total to become bowl eligible.

Phillip Nelson completed nine passes for 78 yards, Donnell Kirkwood carried the ball 28 times for 152 yards and touchdowns, and Isaac Fruechte caught three passes for 40 yards.

It was another lousy day for the Illinois offense, as the team only converted four third downs into additional first downs. Nathan Scheelhaase completed 15 of 23 passing attempts for 175 yards.

Minnesota will travel to Nebraska next Saturday to take on the Cornhuskers at 3:30 p.m. ET. Illinois (2-8, 0-6) will host Purdue next weekend at the same time.