The Illinois Fighting Illini have already been dealt their first major injury of the season. Unfortunately, it's happened to a familiar face. The school announced Monday that senior wide receiver Mike Dudek has sustained yet another season-ending knee injury. And this time it may be the end of his football career.
Dudek came to Champaign from Naperville where he was originally recruited by former head coach Tim Beckman. As a freshman in 2014 he caught 76 passes for 1,038 yards and six touchdowns. He also averaged 13 yards per catch that year which was the last time the Illini played in a bowl game (lost to Louisiana Tech in that years Heart of Dallas bowl). Dudek was a Freshman All-American, Second Team All-Big Ten, and set a freshman school record for receptions and receiving yards that year.
He was primed for a big sophomore year and beyond but that's when the injuries began. He tore an ACL during training camp in 2015 and never saw the field. He tore his ACL again during spring practices in 2016 but there was optimism that he could return at some point during the season. Unfortunately that wasn't the case as the school announced midseason that Dudek would remain on the shelf until 2017.
In 2017 the then 22-year-old Dudek played in seven games and gathered 24 receptions for 262 yards and a touchdown. It wasn't a repeat of 2014 but it was a sample size of what he can do when healthy. Heading into this season, Dudek was looking for redemption. The hope is that he would have been a top target for quarterback A.J. Bush who was named the starter for the season.
He took the field this past weekend in the team's opener against Kent State. It appears that it was this game in which he was injured again although he did catch four passes for 65 yards. But in the end it's the third such injury of his career. Head coach Lovie Smith said the following in a statement...
"It's kind of hard to put into words, Mike Dudek has worked so hard throughout his career here. (His) season will end, he had a knee injury that happened during the course of the game... Some things are hard to understand, that's definitely one of them. Mike has meant so much to our program."Dudek could apply for a hardship wavier and try to gain a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA, but those aren't granted so easily. Aside from Dudek's abilities when healthy, the encouragement and support he provided to his teammates even when he couldn't play was an even bigger plus for this team. For the remainder of the season, the other wideouts that the Illini will lean on are sophomore Ricky Smalling, senior Sam Mays, and junior Justice Williams. The three men combined for eight receptions and 121 yards against Kent State. The other receivers on the roster include a trio of sophomores in Donny Navarro, Carmoni Green and Dominic Stampley, senior Zac Holman, a pair of juniors in Caleb Reams and Trenard Davis, and a large group of freshman with Carlos Sandy, Edwin Carter, Dylan Thomas, Jordan Holmes, and Cam Stacy. The Illini return to the field at Memorial Stadium this Saturday to host Western Illinois, kickoff is at 6:30pm.
