The first game of any season is always crucial. With no record to prove otherwise, every team stands on an even playing field.

For Saturday’s Arch Rivalry game in St. Louis, the pressure is on No. 6 Missouri and No. 20 Illinois – two teams hoping to make a big “statement” in the national spotlight. The Tigers and the Fighting Illini found unprecedented success in the 2007 season, ending the year with top-25 rankings and bowl appearances.

“It is the way it is,” Missouri’s head coach Gary Pinkel said Monday about the Midwest matchup. “I think it’s a great; it’s going to be a great bowl game-type atmosphere against one of our rivals.”

In December, when bowl selections were announced, some experts argued Mizzou deserved to play in one of the five BCS bowl games. Two losses to Big 12 rival Oklahoma sent the Tigers to a Cotton Bowl matchup against Arkansas. The Illini, still basking in the glow from their win over then-No. 1 Ohio State, were awarded the Big Ten’s coveted spot in the Rose Bowl.

Once the Tigers cruised to a 38-7 win over the Razorbacks, and Illinois was flattened by USC 49-17, each team’s respective offseason was filled with speculation over which was the better team, whether the Big Ten or the Big 12 is the new football power conference.

Yet past victories and defeats have no bearing on the tough nonconference game at hand. Instead, the coaches and players are looking to the future, hoping that success in St. Louis will set the tone for 2008.

“We’re excited about it, the only thing: You have to be good – fast,” Pinkel said. “There’s no warm-up here, not that there are any warm-up games, but we’re playing a very high-level team early, and our goal is to try to play our best game.”

Pinkel’s best game plan will include his standout quarterback, Chase Daniel, and sophomore wide receiver, Jeremy Maclin. Already receiving preseason hype from sports analysts everywhere, Daniel was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy last year.

Pinkel describes Maclin as an impact player, believing any time the 6-foot-1 sophomore touches the ball, there’s a chance a big play can happen.

But Mizzou’s offensive threats are not distracting Illinois’ experienced defensive unit. Even though the Orange and Blue fell to Missouri 40-34 last season, the defense has matured and developed some much-needed confidence.

“This year the defense, we’ve been preparing all spring and fall,” linebacker Martez Wilson said Monday. “Missouri is a great team as a whole. We will try to play our best. We made a lot of mistakes last year that we were in control over. This year, we have to play more mistake-free.”

The task of assuring that Illinois will be mistake-free will fall largely on signal-caller Juice Williams. Entering his third year as starting quarterback, Williams has a chance to make his own statement by throwing more touchdowns and avoiding interceptions.

After losing Rashard Mendenhall to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of April’s NFL Draft, Williams has to find another go-to running back and connect more with sophomore wide receiver Arrelious Benn. Believing both the running and passing game have improved, Williams wants to show people Illinois is here to stay.

“Being able to go out there and win a game against a top-notch program like Missouri, it would mean a lot for this program and for this campus,” Williams said Monday. “It would hopefully make other guys start to believe in the Illini program that the Illini guys are back and that last year was not a fluke.”

Both teams will be trying to prove to the country why they deserve their respective preseason rankings and why they should be contenders to reach a BCS bowl.

With a sense of redemption in the air at a sold-out Edward Jones Dome, Missouri and Illinois both have a lot to gain and a lot to lose.

“It’s not going to make or break any team for a whole season, I’m sure,” linebacker Brit Miller said Monday. “But it is going to be one of those college games that I think people remember for a long time … We’re only as good as our last game. Coach Zook reminds us of that all the time. We have a lot to prove, (and) we have one of the best situations to do that in.”