CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – It’s just over a month until Illinois kicks off its 2007 football season and Ron Zook is sitting in his office talking about possibilities.

Since Zook arrived in Champaign in 2005, the Illini have, as Zook promised they would, improved just a little each year. A two-win season with a lot of blowouts gave way to a two-win season with a lot of narrow losses.

But on this late-July afternoon Zook isn’t talking about little steps. Leaning far forward in a lounge chair not more than 50 yards from the Memorial Stadium turf – scene of a lot of Illini infamy – Zook is talking big. Sort of.

“You know the first time Florida won the Southeastern Conference?” he asks a visitor. “1991. I was there. It ain’t been very long, 16 years.”

Since 1991, the Gators have won 157 games, lost 42 and appeared in bowl games every year. The Illini? Over that span they’ve won 63, lost 107 and tied two. And exactly four bowl games.

The way Zook tells it, things are looking up.

Memorial Stadium, built in 1923, is in the midst of a multiyear renovation. And Zook, known as a tireless recruiter, has brought some big-name talent to small-town Champaign.

Freshmen Rejus Benn, a receiver, and Martez Wilson, a defensive end, were both considered locks for more prestigious programs before committing to Illinois.

They join a team that last season struggled on offense behind quarterback Juice Williams, then a freshman, but was a respectable fifth in team defense in the Big Ten.

That, Zook figures, gives him something solid to build on.

“By the end of the year last year, for the most part we felt like we could win,” he says. “Now for us to take the next step, we gotta go win.”

He’ll quickly find out just what he’s building on. The Illini open the season Sept. 1 in St. Louis against Missouri, considered a favorite to win the Big 12 North.

Zook isn’t guaranteeing a win, only that his team won’t get blown out.

“I promise you, we’ll come out of that game feeling like we can compete against them, and we’ll learn from it,” Zook says.

But the Illini face plenty of questions, and their schedule stays tough, particularly during November, when they play road games at Michigan and Ohio State.

Zook says his young offensive line will have to grow up in a hurry if Williams is to improve on an inconsistent 2006.

And just a couple of weeks ago, defensive coordinator Vince Okruch left the team, at least temporarily, for unspecified personal reasons.

Zook says nothing will change with Okruch out. The assistants he promoted to co-coordinators – Dan Disch and Curt Mallory – know the system, he says.

After saying days ago that he was considering adding a “guest coach” to the staff, Zook on Friday hired former Florida assistant Mike Woodford.

Zook has something to prove as well.

This is, after all, someone whose first head coaching job at Florida, where he followed Steve Spurrier, ended after three eight-win seasons – not to mention the first Web site dedicated to a coach’s demise, FireRonZook.com.

Zook jokes that the Web site is his legacy to college football.

The four wins and 19 losses he’s put on the board so far at Illinois don’t yet have Illini fans calling for Zook’s head. In fact, they’ve bought 34,000 season tickets for 2007, 11,000 more that they bought last season.

Illinois Athletic Director Ron Guenther said that this season Zook needs to “convert some of those Ls into Ws.” But the AD added that Zook’s progress has been good enough so far to lead him to consider extending the coach’s five-year contract.

“If everything’s going the way it’s going, we’re gonna’ extend the relationship,” Guenther said.