Local Recruits Infuse Illinois With 'Swagger'

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Less than a year ago, wide receiver Arrelious Benn sat down with his mother at their kitchen table in Northeast Washington and told her that he planned to accept a football scholarship to Illinois instead of Notre Dame. Denise Benn, assuming her son was joking, suppressed a chuckle. When he reiterated his decision, Denise fought back tears.

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"Are you crazy?" she remembers asking her son. "That just doesn't add up. What in the world could Illinois football have that's better than what they've got at Notre Dame?"

For Benn and the rest of his teammates who gambled by committing to an Illinois program in disarray, the last two months have served as a resounding I-told-you-so. Despite an upset loss at Iowa last weekend, the once-dreadful Illini have helped flip college football's traditional hierarchy on its head this season. Illinois is 5-2, and it can climb into second place in the Big Ten by beating Michigan in a sold-out game here Saturday night. And Notre Dame? As Benn gently reminds his mother, the Fighting Irish are 1-6, and three players have left the team this season.

At the heart of the Illini regeneration is a core of a Washington area underclassmen who have tinted the team with what they call "East Coast swagger." Eddie McGee, from H.D. Woodson, has played well while rotating in as quarterback. Benn and defensive back Vontae Davis, both from Dunbar, are the team's leaders in receiving yards and interceptions, respectively. After shunning college football's powerhouses, they've turned Illinois into an emerging power of its own. The Illini, who entered this year 2-30 in Big Ten play since 2003, have wins over Penn State, Wisconsin and Indiana this season.

"It makes it fun that nobody expected this but us," Benn said. "When I said I was coming here, pretty much everyone I talked to just said: 'Why? What are you thinking?' Every person on this team heard stuff like that, and now we're turning it back on them."

On Sunday night, Benn hobbled into the athletic cafeteria on the Illinois campus, sore from the previous day's loss to Iowa. He walked through the food line with Davis, his former high school teammate, and the two players approached an otherwise empty table in the corner of the room. They squabbled over who got to sit next to the wall, and Benn finally consented.

"Just take it, man," he said. "You always get what you want."

Neither Benn nor Davis has felt homesick at Illinois, because they still feel like they're essentially living in Washington. They share the upper floor of a four-bedroom house, and Denise visits at least once each month to cook and help clean the bathroom. When not at home, Davis and Benn spend their free time at defensive end Will Davis's self-proclaimed "Maryland House." The Eleanor Roosevelt High School graduate bought a place in Champaign last year and turned it into a hangout for his teammates. At one point, he had five Illini players from Maryland or Washington living with him.

Nine players on the Illinois roster come from the Washington area, and they've worked together to change the style of an entire Midwestern college town. Illinois players used to wear the baggy jeans and long white T-shirts that are popular in Chicago. Now they wear the designer jeans and form-fitting screen T-shirts popular in Washington.

"You're starting to see more people looking like us," said McGee, a redshirt freshman quarterback who has thrown for 342 yards while sharing time with Juice Williams. "It's kind of like a mini-Washington out here. We're young guys on the team, but we're having a major influence."

That a group of underclassmen has so immediately reshaped Illinois has surprised even the team's coaching staff. Benn enrolled in January after graduating from Dunbar a semester early, and he practiced with the team last fall. As a result, he said, "football seems easy," and he's become one of his team's most explosive offensive threats. He has four times as many receiving yards as any other Illinois receiver. Ron Zook, the Illini head coach, said he has received dozens of e-mails from fans, begging him to give Benn the ball more frequently.

As a playmaker, Davis might be the only Illinois player equal to his roommate, coaches said. Davis, whose brother is San Francisco 49ers tight end Vernon Davis, made the freshman all-American team last season. His three interceptions rank second among Big Ten players this year.