Another week, another spread offense.

After falling to Penn State’s powerhouse “spread HD” offense in the Big Ten opener and soundly defeating Michigan’s fledgling offense last week, Illinois will take on Minnesota, another of the eight Big Ten schools that run some version of the spread, for Saturday’s Homecoming game.

The re-emergence of Illinois (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) can be partly attributed to the spread offense, as quarterback Juice Williams has flourished under the system. Last Saturday, Williams had what was arguably his best day in an Illini uniform, throwing for 310 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 121 yards and another pair of scores.

Williams ran the option play – a key component of the Illini’s spread offense – to near-perfection, and the performance set a Michigan Stadium record for total yards.

“Some may say it was the best, but I believe there’s room for improvement,” Williams said.

Each team has its own particular way of running the spread, and Minnesota (5-1, 1-1) is no exception. Head coach Tim Brewster has dubbed his pass-first style the “spread-coast” offense, a moniker that baffled Illinois head coach Ron Zook when asked to compare it with his team’s offense.

“I don’t know, I mean, ‘spread coast’? I don’t know, I really don’t. They’re a good football team, they’ve got a great quarterback, a great receiver,” Zook said. “Everybody’s trying to do their thing, spread people out and make you tackle them in space.”

If Williams has dazzled under center for Illinois, then Gophers quarterback Adam Weber has been equally impressive. Through six games, the redshirt sophomore has thrown for eight touchdowns and completed 67.8 percent of his passes – over 10 points higher than Williams.

“I’ve taken my lumps in learning the offense, but I’ve come a long way and I hope it has showed out there,” Weber said.

His favorite target, wideout Eric Decker, has nearly 700 yards receiving and 50 receptions, twice as many as Arrelious Benn. Against Indiana last week, Decker had 13 receptions for 190 yards.

“The pride that he takes on every possession, on every snap, is truly amazing, and I’ve been around a lot of great receivers,” Brewster said.

Unlike last year, when Illinois dominated the Gophers 44-17 during Brewster’s first year at the helm, this season’s matchup carries with it far more weight. Minnesota has already tallied five wins on the season, and Brewster collected his first Big Ten victory last week against the Hoosiers.

Zook hasn’t won on Homecoming at Illinois when playing a Big Ten team, and changing the fan environment in Champaign has been a focal point of reversing that trend. After road trips to Penn State and Michigan, where over 100,000 fans are shoehorned into both stadiums, efforts have been made to increase the crowd intensity back at Memorial Stadium.

Along with the Homecoming festivities, the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has declared this week a “Rock the House” game. The $7 “Zook Zone” towels, which have had a sparse presence in the first two games at Memorial Stadium, will now distributed for free to all students in attendance.

“Let’s show the nation something special – a game day environment it never saw coming. Let’s continue to put Illinois on the football map,” Athletic Director Ron Guenther said in a statement released by the DIA.

Reviving the long-dormant Illini fan base, which until recently had very little to cheer about, has proven to be a slow process.

“Slowly, but surely, as we have progressed as a program, our fans have progressed,” offensive coordinator Mike Locksley said. “Last year, in some of the games we’ve played at home, this place got really loud with that new student section in the north end zone.”