On to Illinois

Boiling down Mark Dantonio's Tuesday news conference...

    * Roderick Jenrette is now ruled out until a possible bowl game. Kendell Davis-Clark, who didn't play last week with an undisclosed leg injury, may practice and play this week. Dantonio said longtime head trainer Jeff Monroe deems Davis-Clark one of the top five fast healers he's seen here. That's it on the injury front.

    * Dion Sims is practicing at defensive end for a period a day, and there's a chance he'll get some DPR looks, as did Kellen Davis in 2007. Dantonio emphasized that Sims is a tight end first.

    * Motto this week? "If we're even, we're leaving." In other words, if MSU can get to 3-3, it can take off. But Dantonio expressed a lot of concerns about an Illinois team he says is as talented as any in the league. I'd say, despite how poorly Illinois has played against a brutal schedule, those concerns are justified. Dantonio said he expects to see Juice Williams at some point Saturday.

    * Dantonio did submit some penalties for review to the Big Ten, but hasn't heard back and didn't want to comment specifically.

    * On the WJR flap, Dantonio said "you start to feel like enough's enough sometimes," and he also said: "For those of you who have seen me mad, I wasn't mad."

    * The Spartan Stadium scoreboard apparently stayed lit with Saturday's final score into Tuesday. Dantonio was asked if he was concerned about too much emphasis on U-M. "I'm sort of concerned," he replied with a smile, "I thought they said they were gonna keep it up there for a year."

    * Dantonio wore the Tigers jacket Jim Leyland gave to him a year ago when Dantonio threw out the first pitch at Comerica Park. He adjusted the interview schedule today, moving them back from 6 p.m. to about 1:30 p.m. so they don't conflict with the Tigers-Twins one-game playoff for the AL Central title.