Coach Bret Bielema's Illinois Fighting Illini are 6-3 on the season and 4-2 in the Big Ten after an impressive 24-13 home win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers that included a fake field goal early in the third quarter that worked to perfection. 

Kicker Lars Rau lined up to attempt a 50-yard kick but decided to pull down the football instead, and ran it all the way down inside the five-yard line.

The play came with the score tied at 7, and helped the Illini to beat their talented visitors from Lincoln, Neb. 

After the game, Bielema shared his Charlie Brown-inspired coaching tactics with gathered media members. 

Bielema said the same play was used against the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2009 with the Wisconsin Badgers, whom he was coaching at the time. 

"Yeah, if you go to 2009, Wisconsin at Ohio State, it was the exact same play, I kinda had been watching it and then Chris Hurd (Illinois' special teams coordinator) brought it to my attention," Bielema said.

"We were gonna maybe do something a little different, but I just said, 'Hey, the best way to run a fake is to let them do what they do.'

"So we knew they were collapsing hard from our left, it was actually, Charlie Brown, we actually had to show a video of Charlie Brown with Lucy pulling the ball out from underneath him, cuz not many guys who were coaching, they sure as heck didn't know Lucy was holding it, so it's kinda been fun for us all week to go through it and practice it, we don't really practice it much.

"The main thing is just keep everybody quiet because, plays like that, everybody's telling their mother or their uncle Pete from Peoria what they're going to do and it gets out," Bielema added. 

Illinois got a touchdown pass of five yards from Katin Houser to running back Jordan Anderson after the fake field goal, which made the score 14-7 in favor of the Illini. 

The Cornhuskers, who took a 7-0 lead to start the game behind a Mekhi Nelson touchdown run, would never lead again after the fake field goal and Anderson touchdown catch. 

Houser found Collin Dixon for another touchdown at the 13:38 mark of the fourth quarter to make the score 21-7, before an Ethan Moczulski 21-yard field goal placed what would be the final score at 24-13. 

Bielema and the Fighting Illini now find themselves fifth in the Big Ten, tied with the USC Trojans. They aren't mathematically eliminated from the Big Ten Championship race yet, a testament to Bielema's unique ability to relate to players and coaches and get the most out of them, regardless of what generation they come from (and what cartoons they've watched).