Head coach Ron Zook stopped short of calling it exclusively a tuneup, but No. 24 Illinois’ matchup with Louisiana-Lafayette will be the final early-season game for an Illini team that still appears rough around the edges.

“The three games that we play here, it’s not necessarily preseason, because they’re very, very important, but we want to become a sharp team and get ready for the Big Ten run,” Zook said.

Juice Williams dazzled with a school-record 174 yards rushing in last week’s home opener, yet he showed signs of rust, throwing two early interceptions and fumbling a would-be long touchdown run at the 1-yard line. Williams said his checklist for Saturday’s game was simple.

“Take care of the ball, not commit as many turnovers offensively and make the home run when it’s available, not leaving plays on the field,” Williams said.

Meanwhile, the Illini defense has been noticeably out-of-sync. No. 6 Missouri romped for 549 offensive yards, and Eastern Illinois, a team in the Football Championship Subdivision, gained 183 yards rushing from Travorus Bess alone, a player who wasn’t on the Panthers’ two-deep depth chart.

“It’s little things really, little things we can fine-tune,” defensive lineman Will Davis said. “You can shut the run down, shut the run down and all of the sudden get a 50-yard play against you. If one person doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do, or doesn’t get their gap, it fails.”

Part of the problem may be Illinois’ motivation. After a pressure-packed, nationally televised season opener against Missouri, the schedule’s difficulty on paper has dropped significantly, and a bye week separates Saturday’s game from the start of conference play on Sept. 27 at Penn State.

“We’re going to try our best to crank it up a little bit,” Williams said. “There’s really nothing you can do, it just comes. You’ve got to be mentally into it.”

The contest will be the first-ever meeting between Illinois and Louisiana-Lafayette, but Zook and Cajuns head coach Rickey Bustle are not strangers. They were on the same coaching staff at Virginia Tech in 1976, when Zook was defensive coordinator and Bustle was a receivers and quarterbacks coach.

“We don’t call each other very much, but I consider Ron a good friend, and I’m sure he feels the same way,” Bustle said. “When we first scheduled this game, and when I saw Ron was going there I knew they would be a different football team when we got there.”

The parallels do not end with the coaching staff. Bustle said Cajuns quarterback Michael Desormeaux is a dual-threat in a similar vein to Williams. Desormeaux, a senior, racked up 1,405 yards passing and 1,141 yards on the ground last season.

“They both have athleticism and can run the ball well if called on. They’re very similar,” Bustle said.

Cajuns running back Tyrell Fenroy will complement Desormeaux in the backfield. The fellow senior has three 1,000-yard-plus seasons under his belt and is averaging 5.6 yards per carry in his career.

Zook said the Illinois defense will have its hands full, despite the game’s appearance as a throwaway.

“They’ve got a quarterback and a running back as good as any we’ve seen,” Zook said. “We’ve got to tackle better and everybody’s got to make sure to take care of their responsibility.”