California @ Illinois preview

REDBOX BOWL STORYLINES

1. Two of the top linebackers in the country square off when California faces Illinois in the Redbox Bowl on Dec. 30 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Cal. Cal’s Evan Weaver leads the nation in tackles with 173, while Illinois’ Dele Harding is second with 148. The contest will serve as a virtual home game for Cal, which is located less than an hour away in Berkeley.

2. Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman views the game as a major milestone for a rebuilding program playing in a bowl for the first time in 2014. Coach Lovie Smith’s team took a step forward this season with several noteworthy wins over Wisconsin, Michigan State and Purdue. “To go out and win the bowl, I think will be important for us,” Whitman told reporters. “As you start to build a program and go through the heavy lifting of taking a program from where this one has been to where we want it to go, momentum is critical. You have to start gaining it with incremental steps. This one is a big step for us."

3. Cal is headed to a bowl for the second consecutive year after opening the season with four straight wins, including road victories over Washington and Ole Miss. Coach Justin Wilcox’s squad battled injuries throughout the year and stumbled in Pac-12 play with ugly losses to USC (41-17) and Utah (35-0) before closing with back-to-back wins over Stanford and UCLA. The Bears struggled offensively and were forced to lean on their defense, which ranked fourth in the conference at 22.1 points allowed per game.

TV: 4 p.m. ET, Fox. LINE: Cal -6.5

ABOUT CAL (7-5): Weaver was named the Pac-12 defensive player of the year while cornerback Camryn Bynum and safety Ashtyn Davis were second-team All-Pac-12 selections. Davis will miss the bowl game due to an undisclosed injury, but the Bears are expected to have wide receivers Jeremiah Hawkins and Kekoa Crawford available after both missed the regular-season finale against UCLA. Sophomore quarterback Chase Garbers threw 10 touchdown passes in eight games and will be looking to improve on last year’s outing at the Cheez-It Bowl, when he threw three interceptions in Cal’s 10-7 overtime loss to TCU.

ABOUT ILLINOIS (6-6): Harding and punter Blake Hayes (44.8 yards per punt) both earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for the Illini, who started 2-0 before losing four in a row to Eastern Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota and Michigan. Quarterback Brandon Peters passed for 1,611 yards with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions and is expected to start after missing the team’s 29-10 loss to Northwestern in the regular-season finale due to a concussion. The bowl game is a homecoming for Berkeley native and junior outside linebacker Milo Eifler, who had 59 tackles, including nine tackles for loss.



PREDICTION: Illinois 24, Cal 20