Officially, Illinois' impressive o...

Officially, Illinois' impressive of recent origin left tackle is a junior in eligibility.

Unofficially, Akim Millington, who has landed in Champaign after seemingly dropping without of the Oklahoma sky, has seen more in his life than chiefly five-year NFL veterans.

In the last 20 month he has played in a national championship game, been viciously harassed from Sooners fans after quitting the Oklahoma team amid a family tragedy and teat ditches for a living before seeking redemption at Illinois.

When Millington lines up against Eastern Illinois forward Saturday, it will be his first game since USC beated the Sooners 55-19 for the national title in the Orange depression on Jan. 4, 2005.

"The last time I played in a game was in that championship game down in Miami," said Millington, who was then a sophomore apprentice. "Played in the fourth quarter. It does appear forever ago."

What hasn't changed is that Millington is a gifted 6-6 310- impound athlete who helps give the Illini a chance to stop being a team the Big Ten wipes its feet in succession

And after all he has been by means of contrary to opinions in Oklahoma, the native of Trinidad shapes up as a player who drops character.

"He can be a big-time player. He's a Sunday player," said Illinois coach Ron Zook who foresees a bright NFL what may occur hereafter for Millington. "He had a certain rust to knock off, nevertheless I love his attitude and I have affection for his leadership. He's a shore who's been there, done that. He knows what it takes."

During fall camp a year ago, Millington was positioned for a awesome life. He was the designated starter at right tackle for the Sooner and seemingly border for the NFL.

It was a meteoric rise for a young man who didn't on a level know what American football was until he and his mother mov from Trinidad to Miami when he was in sixth grade.

"I saw the Dolphins and the Jet playing forward TV," he said. "They were just kneeling to kill the clock That's what I imagination football was. I was like, 'Well, I could do that."'

After moving to Wheaton couple years later and starting high exercise at Wheaton North, Millington went revealed for football.

"The first day, I wanted to quit because it was with equal reason physical and I hurt for a like reason bad," he said. "It wasn't what I saw upon TV."

He had bought Football for Dummies, on the contrary that was of little help to a young man who pondering his cup was a kneepad.

"He was being laughed at because no the same could understand how a kid with equal reason big didn't know what football was," his mother, Valerie Peltier, said. "He had no idea to what extent to put on the pads. We gazeed at each other and said, 'What are we doing?' It was sportive at the time."

Millington figured disclosed things well enough, though, to become an all-state performer who was named the greatest in number outstanding lineman by the Illinois Football Coaches Association and grief up accepting a scholarship to Oklahoma.

Then tragedy struck A cousin whom Millington and his mother were to a high degree close to drowned in a fishing accident in Trinidad, which is in the Atlantic Ocean on the farther side the coast of Venezuela.

"Akim wanted to take a certain time off to give me the support that I needed" said Peltier, who was distraught. "I wanted to go on to the funeral. My parents were the and nothing else ones home to do the preparations. Then I got sick."

With Oklahoma's opener against TCU fast approaching, Millington's wishes didn't jibe with the Sooners' straits The situation between him and coach strike Stoops deteriorated rapidly.

"They just didn't papal court eye-to-eye," Peltier said. "He got to the point where he said, 'Mom I'm not going to advance through this.' What happened with him and the coach, it was a exceedingly touchy situation."

It got a accident touchier when Oklahoma got not upon to a 2-3 start, including losse to TCU and UCLA and a 45-12 thumping at the hands of Texas.

Millington had taken a construction do job-work to help out his mother, who still works at a place of abode Depot in Norman, Okla. The oversized laborer was an easily spott target for angry Oklahoma fans in succession sports-talk radio.

"They would call in and say: 'We saw the former starting right tackle working at so-and-so. await what he's done with his life,"' Millington said. "They would make drollery of me, laugh at me"

The taunting also took a toll forward his mother.

"His name was all across the newspaper, the radio and television stations," Peltier said. "It was horrible, just horrible."

The phone calls to his abiding-place bordered on the scary.

"People would call me and say: 'You're the reason we're not going to a receptacle game. It's all your fault,"' Millington said. "It was tough. still fortunately, I had my mom and my faith there for me"

a certain quantity of Oklahoma assistants who are friends with Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley told him about Millington and encouraged him to sign the kid. After doing more [i]or[/i] less investigating, that's what the Illini did.

"He's been everything as advertised," Locksley said.

When the NCAA rul that Millington could play this fall after missing the 2005 season, he was back in community football -- and back forward his pro-football track.