Getting here early gives me a chance to get started ahead of the other freshmen.

Everybody kept the tempo up. Nobody gave up. That's what we do. I said it don't matter if don't score at all or I score four times. If we win, I'm happy.

Miami was my dream school. But they wanted to wait to see what I did as a senior before deciding to offer or not. What if I waited and they didn't offer? I had several offers. I didn't want to drag out the recruiting process. I feel comfortable with my decision to go to Illinois.

We wanted it. It was that simple. It came down to who wanted the game. And once it clicked in, we weren't giving up in the second half like last year. We came out to play.