Think Nathan Scheelhaase was excited about his first touchdown run since Week 1? Well, the Illinois quarterback did attempt to high-five an official following his second-quarter run Saturday at Wisconsin. To little surprise the ref wanted no part of the high-five. Scheelhaase had reason to be excited, though, as his scoring scamper gave Illinois its first lead, 7-0, since it struck first in a Week 4′s 52-24 home loss to Louisiana Tech.

There’s a familiar face on the side of the BTN tour bus this summer. It’s that of Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase, the same guy who was featured on the bus last summer. Last year, the tradition was to take a picture of the players in front of their likeness on the bus. This year, we’re having them sign it. See a picture of Scheelhaase putting his autograph on his likeness in this post.

Illinois raced out to 6-0 start and a national this season only to lose the next six games before Ron Zook was dismissed as head coach.  The Fighting Illini (6-6) take on UCLA (6-7) in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at 3:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 31. Like Illinois, UCLA fired their head coach this season. BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart breaks down the game, gives his keys and offers his prediction. See it all in this post and find the entire 2011-12 bowl schedule.

BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart spent the season covering Big Ten football, and now it’s time for his team-by-team season recaps. Every day, for the next 12 days, Dienhart will post a recap for each Big Ten school, in alphabetical order. Up first: Illinois. Watch our video from the Illini’s impressive nonconference victory over Arizona State now and read Dienhart’s season recap in this post.