After all the talk of improvement, recruits, the mind boggling amount of text messages and everything else that has taken place since the Illini took their final loss against Northwestern in November last year, the time has come to see what Ron Zook and Illinois football are capable of.

Illinois football is poised for a potentially huge season. The Illini are returning 20 starters, tied with Purdue for the most in the Big Ten. One of those returning starters is Juice Williams.

While Williams wasn’t the starter at the beginning of last season, thanks to Tim Brasic, it was quite obvious after Brasic’s first few games that there was change needed.

Juice Williams and the offensive side of the ball seem to have many more questions marks than their defensive counterparts. While Juice has an immense amount of potential, Zook will be the first to tell you that players are better as juniors and seniors than as sophomores. For the offense’s sake, I hope he is wrong.

Juice has drawn a lot of comparisons to former Florida quarterback Chris Leak. Although Juice has a few inches on Leak, they both are very mobile and can show off arm strength at times. The two played in very different situations, but Leak flourished in his sophomore season, throwing for nearly 3,200 yards and 29 touchdowns. Hopefully this is a good harbinger of things to come.

In addition, running back Rashard Mendenhall will be, obviously, a key factor in the team’s success. Although Mendenhall was out-rushed by Juice last year, he will be picking up the load of the graduated Pierre Thomas and E.B. Halsey. It remains to be seen whether or not Mendenhall has worked on fumbling problems that would creep up on him at times last year.

Although the wide receiver position is less defined than others, there is depth in the corps and that should bode well for the team. As exciting as it is to have a player like Rejus Benn available, the fact that the position is stocked well will give him a chance to work himself into the system gradually, rather than being thrown directly into the fray.

The defense has talked about how it is ready to dominate games all through the preseason and it truly appears ready to do just that. Anchored by the affable and well-coifed J Leman, it was easy to see against Ohio State last year that the defense has potential to be an authoritative power. The linebackers are as experienced as one would want with seniors Leman and Antonio Steele and junior Brit Miller.

The defensive line has the luxury of depth as well. Derek Walker, Chris Norwell and David Lindquist are all upperclassmen that are more than able to disrupt the opposing quarterback. Freshmen Josh Brent and D’Angelo McCray will have a chance to be worked in gradually, like Benn, due to the quantity at the position.

Sports Illustrated projected the team finishing with a 7-5 record, with a 4-4 record in the Big Ten. That seemed a little extravagant to me at first, but I would be surprised if the team didn’t finish at least .500.

A bowl game may be slightly out of reach, but I think (as does Sports Illustrated) that Illinois has the ability to make a lower-tier bowl appearance.

As in any sport, this is possibly the best time of the year for a team and the fans of the team. The records are clean and “everyone is in first place.” With the possibility for greatness that they are facing now, it is hard not to be excited.

Daniel Johnson is a junior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected].