Saturday’s scrimmage was about the offense.

After struggling in last week’s scrimmages at Camp Rantoul, the offense took the return to Memorial Stadium as a chance to show the progress it has made in just seven days.

“They were much more in rhythm; they were much more in synch,” said head coach Ron Zook. “It was much smoother.”

The offense totaled over 100 yards on the ground and 400 passing, and allowed no turnovers.

One key development was quarterback Tim Brasic’s solid showing. Last week, Brasic completed 11-of-26 passes at Rantoul High School, throwing two interceptions. The junior made a more solid showing Saturday. He led the team in completions, throwing 14-of-19 with no turnovers.

“I think he improved just running the offense,” Zook said. “I think if he gains confidence and it becomes more natural, his decisions will be even quicker.”

Brasic has only played in two games for Illinois, both in 2003. But now he’s getting the nod to start, and feels the pressure. He said he is concentrating on improvement and making the most of preseason training.

“Basically what you want to do as an offense is not go out there and defeat ourselves,” Brasic said. “You don’t want to go out there and turn the ball over, fumble snaps. When you don’t do that, everything else seems to come together.”

Brasic will likely start in the season opener against Rutgers on Sept. 3, but chances are he won’t be the only quarterback to hit the field. Junior Chris Pazan was not as successful as Brasic in the scrimmage, completing just 10 of 21 passes. He did, however, turn heads when he tossed a 37-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Franklin Payne on the first drive of the game.

“Both of them were a little bit late on a few throws, but that’s a little bit because they want to be sure. So that’ll get better,” Zook said of his top quarterback candidates. “I thought they both ran the offense much better, have a much better grasp of the offense, but there’s still some things that maybe we don’t see that we’ve got to be able to handle.”

On the other side of the ball, the defense collected 13 tackles-for-loss and eight quarterback sacks. Senior Morris Virgil had five tackles, while junior linebacker J Leman made nine stops and two tackles-for-loss.

“I feel like we’re progressing, everybody got a little bit better,” Leman said. “We’re not where we need to be, but every position’s progressing and we’re going to be where we need to be in two weeks.”

Saturday’s scrimmage marked the end of Camp Rantoul and two weeks until the season opens at Memorial Stadium. Zook says he would like another two weeks of camp and three weeks of practice, but he is determined the Illini will be ready to go Sept. 3.

“We as an offense, as a football team, have got to continue to improve,” Zook said. “I can’t say enough of the way these guys have worked. We’ve pushed them as hard as we can push them, and I like how they’ve responded.”