Clay Nurse sat down in class last week and put his head down. The junior had studied X’s and O’s all week at football practice, but now it was time to learn about “Argumentation.”

Just as the 6-foot-3, 260-pound defensive end was dozing off, though, the professor said something that grabbed his attention.

“We were talking about arguments and debating, and he was like, ‘I can propose an argument today that it is impossible for Illinois to beat Ohio State University,’” Nurse said.

“I just looked up, and he looked at me, and he tried to spin it a little to make it funny. I just laughed at him because I just thought it was hilarious that he would bring it up.”

Nurse’s classroom incident typifies the type of attention the Illini have been getting after an embarrassing 1-2 start to the 2009 season.

Head coach Ron Zook received a multitude of angry e-mails after the team’s 37-9 loss to Missouri, and other players have told similar stories.

That type of criticism tends to follow increased expectations, which the Illini procured in the wake of a Rose Bowl appearance following the successful 2007 season.

After a disappointing 2008 and a discouraging start to 2009, the Illini know there is only one way to silence these naysayers — beat Penn State on Saturday.

“We’ve just got to get this victory,” receiver Chris Duvalt said.

“After a game like (the Illini’s 30-0 loss to Ohio State), you’re obviously pretty down. So we just talked to each other and said, ‘We’ve got to get everybody motivated and refocus everybody on next week and, kind of, try to get back to the basics in practice.’”

Nurse went one step further. He thinks people are in their full right to criticize.

“If you want to shut somebody up, shut them up. If you want to prove them wrong, prove them wrong. If you don’t, then that’s on you. You can’t say anything to that person,” Nurse said.

“If someone says, ‘Clay, you can’t run a 4.6 in the 40 (yard sprint),’ I’m going to train, and I’m going to work hard to run that 40 in 4.6, and I’m going to shut them up. If I don’t do that, they can talk as much as they want because I didn’t prove them wrong.”

Still, Nurse came to the defense of his team against that argumentative professor.

“Of course I made the argument,” he said with a grin. “I looked at him, I gave him the look.”