Northwestern looks to keep the Land of Lincoln Trophy in Evanston for a fourth straight year by beating in-state rival Illinois on Saturday at Ryan Field.

While the Wildcats are surging, having won 11 straight Big Ten West games and 14 of their last 15 in conference, the Illini are trending in the opposite direction.

Illinois (4-7, 2-6 Big Ten) has won just four of 26 conference games under coach Lovie Smith and is coming off of a humiliating home loss to Iowa last week. Smith is 0-2 against Northwestern and just 2-11 in road games during his tenure.

We went to publisher Doug Bucshon of OrangeandBlueNews.com to get the inside scoop on Illinois and see if the Illini might have what it takes to pull off the upset.

Here is our Q&A.

Q. This is Year 3 for Lovie Smith at Illinois. Do you feel like the Illini have shown any progress this year? He has a monstrous buyout, but is he under pressure in Champaign? Could he get fired?