CHARLESTON - Trash talk, albeit friendly for now, is well under way for Saturday's Eastern Illinois-Illinois football game.

What else did Eastern defensive tackle D'Angelo McCray expect when he returned to his freshman stomping grounds Sunday to visit the likes of Illini running back Troy Pollard, defensive back Mike Locksley Jr. and linebackers Ian Thomas and Martez Wilson.

"They were just bragging, talking about how they were going to beat us by 50," McCray said. "I said it may be closer than people think."

Illini by 50?

"They said they guaranteed it," McCray said.

For the former USA Today high school second-team All-American from Jacksonville, Fla., this is the chance to show he actually belonged at Illinois.

After redshirting last season and then missing the spring with a knee injury, the 6-foot-3, 333-pound McCray transferred in the summer to Eastern where he had one tackle as a backup in last Thursday's season-opening 31-12 loss to Central Michigan.

"It will be the first time I've gotten on the field at Illinois," he said. "It's a chance to show them what they missed."

McCray might get some coaching from fellow defensive lineman Jeff Sobol, who now can be called a veteran at this returning to the place that let him leave.

Two years ago Sobol transferred from Illinois to Eastern, which that year opened the season with a 42-17 loss at Memorial Stadium.

"I told him the first year I went back I knew the whole team," Sobol said. "Everybody is going to give him crap."

Since these teams played last, Illinois has gone from a losing record to last season's Rose Bowl with Ron Zook reloading the roster while administrators renovated Memorial Stadium.

"I don't know too many now," Sobol said. "There's only about five from my class."

One of those is Illinois' second-team All-Big Ten center Ryan McDonald, who used to be Sobol's roommate.

Rather than both reaching for the last slice of pizza at home, now the two will battle for supremacy at the line of scrimmage on Saturday.

"It will be kind of cool," Sobol said.

Like McCray, Sobol would like to prove some points to his former team.

"I'd be lying if I said no," said Sobol, who last season led Eastern with 9.5 tackles for loss while starting all 12 games. "I don't want to say the wrong things but I get excited about this more than a normal game."

No one has to tell Zook that.

"What you watch on film from last Thursday won't be the same team that comes in here," he said. "They have guys from Mahomet. They have guys from all over. This is going to be their Super Bowl. If you don't put the fire out immediately, they're going to stick around."

Eastern quarterback Bodie Reeder had discussions with Illini coaches before going to Wyoming as a walk-on and then transferring to Charleston. Reeder's backup Luke Hockaday, who led Maroa-Forsyth to the 2006 IHSA Class 2A state championship, was also once on Illinois' recruiting list.

"We talked to Bodie when I first got here," Zook said. "Luke Hockaday? We really liked him. As a coach, we kept him in until the end. We know both those guys are good players."

Reeder cannot deny his excitement about facing the Big Ten school so close to his home.

"You know I grew up bleeding orange and blue," he said. "Maybe after Saturday I can go back and be an Illinois fan again. Right now they're my biggest enemy for about the next 100 hours.

"I'm a big Illinois basketball fan. I love to go there and paint the Assembly Hall orange. It's a dream come true just to walk out on the field there."

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