Illinois football opens its season Saturday at 11:00 a.m. against the Penguins of Youngstown State. Can you feel the excitement? I can’t.

I’m starting to get the feeling that many Illinois students will be fighting their hangovers in bed Saturday morning instead of heading out to Memorial Stadium to support their own Fighting Illini.

Unlike much of Illinois’ student body, I am excited for this year’s football team. Let me tell you why.

Two words, nay, two magical words. Wes. Lunt. Lunt attended Oklahoma State his freshman year and started 5 games before going down with an injury.

He was the first true freshman to start a season opener for Oklahoma State since 1950. That’s 64 years ago. You know what song was No. 1 on Billboard’s charts in 1950? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

That song was new the last time a true freshman started a season opener for Oklahoma State, so yeah, Lunt might just be a once-in-a-generation talent.

By all accounts Lunt has handled himself very well since arriving in Champaign, well enough to beat out senior Reilly O’Toole and talented sophomore Aaron Bailey for the starting spot this year.

Do you have any idea what number he’ll be wearing? The answer: 12. Some other number 12’s throughout football history? Joe Namath, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady to name a few. Those three have five Super Bowl rings between them.

Seriously though, Wes Lunt appears to be a very talented quarterback and should be reason enough to get excited for tomorrow’s game, but he’s not the only new Illini who deserves your attention.

The team’s major problem last year was defense. The Illini were ranked 106th nationally in points against, letting up 35.4 points per game. You could probably put together a team of 11 of your non-athletic friends and be about as effective on defense as they Illini were last year.

The coaching staff was aware of this, so they decided to do something about it. That “something” is defensive lineman Jihad Ward.

Jihad Ward is 6-foot-6 and 295 pounds. I’m 6’2, and it’s very rare that people don’t remark on my height when they meet me. Ward has about four inches and 100 pounds on me. Wow.

He was the crown jewel of the junior college transfer class for the Illini and should greatly improve their pass rush, a problem that plagued them last year. I really wouldn’t want to be an opposing quarterback having to worry about Ward driving me into the turf.

Ward is from Philadelphia, making him yet another awesome person born in Philadelphia along with Bill Cosby, Bob Saget, Will Smith, and wait for it… KEVIN BACON.

The Illini defense may very well struggle again this season, but I can just about guarantee that with the addition of part man, part monster Jihad Ward, opposing Big Ten quarterbacks won’t have as much time in the pocket as they did last year.

My final reason to get excited about Illini football is simply because, well, there aren’t any grand expectations for this team to do any more than win six games.

That might not sound like a reason to get excited, but it really can be depending on how you look at it.

The pessimist would say a team with no expectations is nothing to get excited about. If you are one to look at the glass half full, however, you can see that this is a team that can cause a whole lot of noise.

They have been a punching bag for much of the Big Ten the last few years, and in 2014, with a new quarterback and potentially re-vamped defense, all of that could change.

So I challenge all of you to roll out of bed Saturday morning, pop a couple of Advil, throw on your Illinois gear and head over to Memorial Stadium to see the Fighting Illini eat the Penguins for lunch.

Sam is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @sam_sherman5.