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Ron Zook took his team to the locker room for possibly the final time, facing a 20-point halftime deficit Saturday against Minnesota.
''There wasn't much I could say,'' the Illinois coach said. ''It's like I told them all week: `This isn't about me. It's about you. How you want to be remembered, so to speak.'
''I still think they're a much, much better football team that what we've shown, and that's what falls on me.''
After a 6-0 start, the program's best in 60 years, the Fighting Illini finished with six straight losses.
MarQueis Gray rushed for 167 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another score, guiding the Golden Gophers to a 27-7 victory in the season finale and perhaps sealing Zook's fate.
Troy Pollard's 11-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the only highlight for the Illini (6-6, 2-6 Big Ten). Nathan Scheelhaase, who was 4 for 6 for 15 yards in a quarterback time share with Reilly O'Toole, lost a costly fumble on one of his five sacks, the most by the Gophers in a game in more than three years.
''When things start going south, I think you start trying hard and all the negativism maybe gets to them,'' said Zook, who is 34-51 in seven seasons. ''But that's part of life. That's part of growing up.''
The Illini, who beat Baylor in the Texas Bowl last year, have never won bowl games in consecutive seasons. There's no guarantee they'll get invited this time, with 10 eligible Big Ten teams and only eight contracted tie-ins. Ohio State, Northwestern and Purdue are all 6-6, too, and the Buckeyes are always a big draw.
''I honestly hope we go to a bowl, and I'm here to be able to do it,'' Zook said.
Leading receiver A.J. Jenkins was held to four catches and a season-low 30 yards.
''This game was very frustrating,'' Jenkins said. ''But we have to learn from it, regardless if we're going to a bowl game or not.''
Zook's winning percentage ranks 11th among the 13 Illini coaches who've coached more than one season.
''It doesn't matter what I think. It's what they think,'' said Zook, referring to university officials. ''I think this program is on very, very solid footing. I think it's a pretty good team coming back. They're going to have to decide that.''
Zook said he hadn't spoken with athletics director Mike Thomas about his status.
''I'm sure when he feels like the time's right, he'll talk to me,'' Zook said.
Gray took off 27 times to break the single-season rushing record for a Minnesota quarterback, giving him 966 yards. The Gophers stopped an FBS-long streak of 23 straight games of giving up 17 or more points.
They held Illinois to 18 yards on 23 plays in the first half and a season-low 160 yards on 59 plays for the game, by far their best performance of the year.
Illinois held an opponent under 100 yards passing for the fifth time this season - Gray went 7 for 14 for 85 yards - but couldn't stop him from scrambling for critical first downs. Jordan Wettstein kicked field goals of 43 and 51 yards for the Gophers (3-9, 2-6), who have won nine of their last 12 games against the Illini.
The Illini looked defeated and lethargic except for a first-down run by freshman O'Toole, who jumped up and pumped his fist to fire up the sideline in the third quarter. That drive was extended by a successful fake-punt run by Jay Prosch and capped by Pollard's score, but the Gophers were unfazed.
They danced on the sideline between the third and fourth quarters and kept up their sure tackling throughout the final minutes. The outcome - and perhaps Zook's dismissal - was sealed when sixth-year senior Kim Royston sacked Scheelhaase for a 7-yard loss on fourth-and-goal at the 5-minute mark.
The Illini, even star linebacker Jonathan Brown, had trouble tackling Gray all afternoon. They couldn't protect Scheelhaase or O'Toole.
''It's not just the quarterback that has to pick up and adjust,'' Scheelhaase said. ''It's also the offensive line and everybody else.''
The Illini insisted they had a strong week of practice and came into the game with confidence. But they're college kids who couldn't help but be distracted at least a little by the uncertainty surrounding their coach.
''We're living people,'' Scheelhaase said. ''We walk around. We're not stuck in a hole. We hear things. You get frustrated when you don't do your job, and it ends up getting put on the coaches.''
