CHAMPAIGN, Ill. | When Illinois runs out onto the lush green of the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, it'll be facing a hostile road crowd and playing a game few expect the Illini to win.

For quarterback Juice Williams, that sounds a lot like the Illini's trip to Ohio State. That trip last month ended with the 28-21 win over the top-ranked Buckeyes that punched Illinois' ticket to Pasadena.

"It's gonna be a similar environment to what it was in Columbus," Williams said. At Ohio State, "it was almost like it was Illinois versus the entire state."

Take away the San Gabriel Mountains that give the Rose Bowl its made-for-TV backdrop, and there are strong similarities between the game at Columbus and the one they're about to make out west.

Ohio State has the top-ranked defense in the country, one spot better than Southern California. Illinois took on the Buckeyes at the Horseshoe, one of the biggest stadiums in the country, laden with football history.

The Illini will face USC, ranked 7th in the BCS, at the Rose Bowl, one of the biggest stadiums in the country. The 84-year-old stadium was the scene of some of Southern Cal's best memories. Nine of USC's 11 national titles have been sewn up with Rose Bowl wins.

Illinois coach Ron Zook said the Rose Bowl is practically USC's home stadium n they play their regular season home games not far away at Memorial Coliseum.

With almost all of the 25,000 tickets allotted to Illinois already spoken for, Zook expects more Illini fans in Pasadena than he saw in Columbus.

"I'll bet you're gonna see a lot of orange in that stadium," he said.

And he doesn't believe his 9-3 team, second in the Big Ten behind the Buckeyes and 13th in the BCS, will be overwhelmed.

"Our guys kind of thrive on that kind of thing," he said.

Or, as Williams put it, "Just like when we played Ohio State, we were on a national stage."