At Illinois, Jerry Schumacher is a big man on campus.

The senior from Chicago is in his third year as the starting middle linebacker for the Fighting Illini, carrying on a tradition of tough Illini linebackers that goes back to the legendary Dick Butkus and includes current pros Simeon Rice and Kevin Hardy.

He's coming off a season in which he was named second team All-Big Ten, and helped lead the Illini to the Sugar Bowl after winning their first outright Big Ten title since 1983.

This year, he's everyone's pick for the All-Big Ten team. He was nominated for the Butkus Award, he leads his team in tackles by a gaping margin and he's looked up to as one of the team's leaders.

But if he ever gets on an ego trip, he doesn't have to look far for someone to knock him off of it.

Schumacher's sister Katie, who spent the last four years as a dominant outside hitter for the Penn State women's volleyball team, has taken residence in Champaign as a volunteer assistant coach for the Illinois squad. She will be coaching there until the winter when she embarks on her first season of professional volleyball.

The Fighting Illini began this season 1-5, so no matter what he does from here on in at Illinois, she will always have him beat. She has a national championship ring from the Nittany Lions' 1999 title season.

"It was nice to get the Big Ten title and the Sugar Bowl, because I got a little bit closer to matching what she's done," Schumacher said. "But, of course, I can't actually match what she's done."

Of course, Schumacher isn't tortured by the fact that his sister's athletic achievements surpass his own and that she is there to remind him of that. The Schumachers are a very close family, and he is happy to have his sister in town after four years of mostly separation.

Jerry and the rest of his family often attended Katie's games when the Lions came back to the Midwest, but they rarely made it out to home games, and Katie almost never got to see her brother play. Other than the time the Fighting Illini came to Beaver Stadium in 2000, this year's Sugar Bowl was the first time Katie was at one of Schumacher's games. This year, she's been able to see all of the Illini home games.

"It's been great to have her around and to have her see me play," Schumacher said. "We used to always go to each other's games in high school and it's just great that she can do that again."

Athletics have always helped the Schumachers come closer together. Their father Gerald played football at Michigan, and along with their brother Brian, now a freshman at Illinois, and older sister Karen, both of whom were high school athletes, they always had someone to play sports with, be it on the playground or in the back yard or wherever. It has also helped them cope in times that they have struggled.

"You always have someone there to talk to who is going through the same things you are," Schumacher said.

Katie is just a year removed from her senior season at Penn State. Like Schumacher's it didn't go as well as she had planned either.

Last year's Lions were the first ever to lose a playoff game at Rec Hall, and the first since 1995 not to advance past the second round in the NCAA tournament. However, Katie fought through that season, earning All-Big Ten honors, and it seems that Schumacher is doing the same in the tough times for the Illini.

"It's been awesome to play alongside of him," Illini sophomore linebacker Matt Sinclair said.

"He's a great example of how the game should be played."