Keith Randolph Jr. tells hilarious story about taking No. 0 from Jer'Zhan Newton, not wearing it

Illinois boasts one of the best defensive lineman duos in all of college football with Keith Randolph Jr. and Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton anchoring the front. And the pairing almost both wore single-digit uniforms in 2022, if not for Randolph getting cold feet in comical fashion.

Heading into the 2022 season, Nos. 0 and 4 came open. Newton originally wanted to sport No. 0, but lost out a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to his teammate and had to settle for No. 4 — only to be miffed when Randolph didn’t end up wanting it. The duo recounted the hilarious saga with On3’s Andy Staples at Big Ten Media Days.

“Funny story again, actually. Coach had called me and said, ‘Hey, Keith, No. 0 and No. 4 is open.’ So Johnny and I had a rock, paper, scissors for zero. I beat him. So they gave me zero and they gave him No. 4. So I was wearing No. 0 for the spring and I was like, ‘Ughhhhhhhh. It’s not me.’ You know, I’ve had 88 forever. I’ve worn it all throughout college. People know me as 88,” Randolph said.

It culminated with a moment of movie-like introspection for Randolph, including the cliche of bolting awake in a sweat from a nightmare.

“I looked myself in the mirror, and I was like, ‘Bro, Keith, you’re 88 dude.’ And then that same night I had a nightmare. I was wearing zero and just everything was going wrong. I woke up that morning. I actually got the text message screenshot, I texted the jersey guy and was like, ‘I’m going back to 88. I had a nightmare. I couldn’t do it.'” Randolph said. “He’s mad at me about that,” he said, gesturing to Newton as he handed off the mic.

“I was jumping offsides. Missing tackles. I woke up,” Randolph said, making a startled, gasping noise, “and sweat. So no way. I’m going back.” 

Newton was honest, he was steamed by his teammate flip-flopping on his number.

“I was probably mad for about a week after that. He texted me, he was like ‘You could No. 0, bro. I don’t want it no more.’ I’m like, I was the one who originally wanted No. 0. I was like, ‘You can just have it’ at that point,” Newton said as the duo laughed about it now.

As a result, you got No. 4 for Newton and No. 88 for Randolph — an unorthodox pairing of numbers for two of the best defensive linemen in the country.