Mississippi State players and staff felt they knew what Mike Leach would want them to do following the Dec. 12 death of the Bulldogs coach due to complications from a heart condition: play in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Illinois.

Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers is among a group of team leaders that have taken on additional roles for the 24th-ranked Bulldogs (8-4, No. 22 CFP) leading up to the matchup Monday with Illinois (8-4).

Rogers, who completed 386 of 566 passes for 3,713 yards and 34 touchdowns, faces an Illinois defense that allowed fewer than 10 points in six games this season.

Illinois lost all four of its games by eight points or fewer, including a 19-17 loss to Michigan. This is just its third bowl game since beating UCLA 20-14 in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

Illinois will be without running back Chase Brown. The nation’s second-leading rusher in the regular season (1,643 yards) has decided to enter the NFL draft and will not play in the game.

Illinois quarterback Tommy DeVito completed 69.9% of his passes (234 of 335) for the third-best completion percentage nationally during the regular season. He threw for 2,397 yards and 15 touchdowns and had four interceptions.

Mississippi State has a streak of playing in a bowl game for 13 straight years, although none before was like this one.