Pretend, for a moment, that there is no quarterback controversy.

That is, after all, what the football team is doing as it prepares for the start of the Big Ten season. After a disappointing 1-2 non-conference warm-up, things will only get harder for Illinois’ core of freshmen with No. 14 Iowa coming to Champaign on Saturday.

One of those freshmen is probably losing sleep over the question of who will lead Illinois’ offense.

The rest, however, are not Juice Williams.

“We’ve got a good football team coming in here, and the only chance we’ve got is to play loose and let her go,” head coach Ron Zook said after practice Wednesday. “If we go out there and play tight, it’s gonna be a long game.”

Illinois knows it needs to catch more balls, have fewer penalties and develop its punting game if it wants to compete in the talent-heavy Big Ten. So for the last four practices, the Illini have worked on just those areas in hopes of putting up a fight against the Hawkeyes.

Last week’s game was riddled with incompletions, interceptions and open men who never got the looks they needed. Zook said this was one of the first areas the team decided to address this week, and that he thinks things are looking better in practice than they did in the game.

“We felt like we had (the tight ends) open a couple times and didn’t get the ball to them,” Zook said. “We played a little bit more four wides Saturday, which is going to take away they’re involvement.”

The Illini also know they need to clean up their penalties in order to avoid unnecessarily hurting themselves. Illinois’ 12 penalties against Syracuse cost the team a total of 106 yards.

“Penalties come out as being undisciplined and un-coached and those kind of things,” Zook said. “Coaches have a lot of pride. That’s one thing that you don’t want said about your football team is that it is undisciplined and has no pride.”

Then there’s all that rugby punting. Last week the coaches seemed to avoid talking about Illinois’ revamped punting game, which they hope will take pressure off freshman Kyle Yelton. But at practice Wednesday Zook brought up the punting as an area he’s happy to see improve – and happy to turn to when he’s tired of quarterback questions.

“I’m very happy with the way Kyle has continued to improve,” Zook said. “It’s going to be very important that we continue to work on our schemes as well this week, because they do a heck of a job in the return game.”

Iowa will have no need to worry about its quarterbacking. Drew Tate returns for the Hawkeyes, and the two-year starter has the experience that translates into confidence behind center.

But that doesn’t mean Iowa will be overlooking Illinois. After Syracuse dragged Iowa into overtime, and Iowa State put up a struggle before finally falling last weekend, the Hawkeyes know better than to assume this will be an easy victory.

“We’re not taking it for granted,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “If you go back to last year, they put close to 400 yards of offense on the board against us and moved the ball very, very well. We’re not taking them for granted, that’s for sure.”