CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Since Ron Zook rolled into Champaign in 2005, he’s consistently preached that a coach needs three seasons to put his stamp on a football program.

Illinois begins its third season under Zook on Sept. 1 and, true to the coach’s maxim, the team will be almost entirely a product of his famously intense recruiting.

Illinois has better athletes, greater depth and more promise than it had in either of Zook’s first two seasons, during which the Illini won four games and lost 19.

And, though many of those players are still relatively young, some of the older Illini are talking about a bowl game where the program hasn’t been since 2002.

“I expect to go to a bowl game and finish in the upper echelon in the Big Ten, and I don’t see why not,” senior linebacker J Leman said.

The biggest reason for Leman’s optimism might be the defense the All Big Ten selection anchors.

The defense, No. 3 in the Big Ten against the run last season and No. 5 against the pass, kept Illinois in games last year. Most of the starters are back.

Illinois’ offense, while young, is long on potential, too.

Starting running back Rashard Mendenhall ran for 653 yards – 8.2 a carry – as a reserve last year. And sophomore quarterback Juice Williams has a year of tough starting experience.

Working against the Illini is their schedule.

Three of Illinois’ opponents are preseason Top 25 picks – No. 5 Michigan, No. 10 Ohio State and No. 18 Penn State. And two more – Missouri and Iowa – didn’t miss the list by much.

“There’s nothing you can do about that,” Zook said. But, as he said it, he rolled his eyes and put his head in his hands in way that suggested those five games have made him wonder “why us?”

But Zook is nothing if not optimistic that the team that will open the season against Missouri is already better than its predecessor.

For one thing, Zook says, Illinois shouldn’t have to count on very young players to the degree it did in 2006. The coach acknowledged after last season that he had asked Williams, for one, to do too much.

As a freshman, Williams completed just 39 percent of his passes. He threw as many interceptions – nine – as he did touchdowns.

Williams’ cast of targets will likely be better this fall, too, particularly with the addition of freshman Rejus Benn. The Washington, D.C. product’s decision to come to Champaign left his big-name suitors – Florida State, Notre Dame and Maryland among them – scratching their heads.

The offensive line also relied heavily last year on freshmen and sophomores. Behind them, Illinois led the Big Ten in rushing. But Williams carried the ball 154 times, more than any Illini running back. Some of those carries, in Zook’s words, were the product of a freshman “running for his life.”

This year’s line should be far more experienced. Senior right tackle Akim Millington started nine games last season, and left guard Martin O’Donnell, another senior, and junior center Ryan McDonald each started all 12.

Mendenhall has the starting running back job to himself. He said he’s added about 20 pounds since last season, and now weighs about 220.

The weight, he says, should serve him well in the physical Big Ten, where he says “you’re going to run over a lot more people than run around them.”

While Williams is the face of the program, Zook says Mendenhall is the player most capable of carrying the team.

Mendenhall showed that potential last fall in his only start, a 26-12 loss to Penn State, with 161 yards on 14 carries.

“I think he’ll be as good a back as there is in this league,” Zook said. “He’s got to be durable; he has to hold onto the ball. He is capable off being all those things.”

Defensively, Illinois’ biggest question may be who calls the plays.

Defensive coordinator Vince Okruch left the team for unexplained reasons in July and isn’t expected to return. In his place, Zook made assistants Dan Disch and Curt Mallory co-coordinators.

Zook hasn’t decided who will call the defensive shots.

Most of last year’s starters are back, including Leman and fellow linebacker Antonio Steele, and defensive backs Vontae Davis, Justin Harrison and Kevin Mitchell.