Just as quickly as summer vacation has come and vanished, college football season has come to take its place.

While you may look forward to the lack of classes, going home and crappy internships of summer more, if I have to go to classes I will gladly take college football as an escape on the weekends.

College football breeds an environment in which student-athletes play with passion and don’t complain about franchise tags, thanks in part to coach Ron Zook’s torrid recruiting. The Illini legitimately have a chance to make noise in the Big Ten and make a run at a bowl game.

However, as Ron Zook said at his press conference on Tuesday, this is the most important game of the season because it is the next game.

It may not be the most challenging game of the season, with Wisconsin and Michigan looming in the background of the schedule, but the Missouri game will be far and away the most challenging non-conference game that the Illini will play this year.

The Tigers feature a dynamic offense with quarterback Chase Daniel and tight ends Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker spearheading it. Daniel has been placed on the preseason watch lists for the Walter Camp Award for nation’s top player and the Davey O’Brien Award for the nation’s top quarterback. Both Coffman and Rucker are up for the John Mackey Award for the nation’s top tight end.

The spread offense used by the Tigers is going to force the Illini out of their base defense into a lot of possible three and four defensive back sets. Although the Illini secondary is more than adequate, it will be difficult when it has to deal with the spread formation.

While the Missouri offense is extremely potent, the Illini can drastically help their cause with effective defensive line and linebacker pressure. They don’t need to come away from the game with double-digit sacks, but pressuring and forcing Daniel to make bad decisions will negate some of the Tigers’ repertoire.

Co-Defensive Coordinator Dan Disch said on Wednesday at practice that he understands that the team will have to try to contain the Tigers and avoid big plays by not getting locked into one scheme and adjusting.

“That and some prayers,” Disch said. “We’ll take whatever we can get.”

While the Illini linebackers do have good speed to oppose the Missouri offense, it will be hard for them to keep up with the spread sets, especially if they are forced into mismatches.

Although he hasn’t played a down of college football yet, Zook may be pressed to use freshman Martez Wilson more. Wilson was a defensive end in high school, but is on the depth chart at the linebacker position on defense now, for good reason. While Wilson may not be ready for the complex coverage schemes of college yet, he has shown flashes of his much-publicized potential in practice.

In addition to Wilson, as coach Zook acknowledged, all of the freshmen from his highly touted class will be getting their time in games. Some of the freshmen to watch for are wide receivers Rejus Benn and Brian Gamble and defensive tackle Josh Brent. While Brent and Benn both had their share of high expectations coming into the start of their careers, Gamble, a converted defensive back, had a strong spring and has earned some early praise from Zook.

The progress and abilities of sophomore quarterback Juice Williams and junior running back Rashard Mendenhall will be more than on display this Saturday. If Mendenhall cannot run effectively to control the clock while Illinois has the ball, the offense may have to go to a pass-heavy attack to keep pace with Missouri that would expose any flaws that remain in Juice’s game.

While it won’t be easy for the Illini this week, and throughout the season, for the first time since possibly 2002 the team has a chance to show that it is worthy of all the offseason praise it has earned.

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