The loss of Rashard Mendenhall to the NFL kind of made me think “step-back” for Ron Zook and the Illini. Juice Williams is a nice quarterback, but, uh, that’s really stretching it, no? I mean, his name’s Juice. Kidding. But seriously, he made huge strides last year and still finished with just 13 touchdowns and 12 picks. For a Rose Bowl team.

Flash forward to this past Saturday, and if you find defense offensive, then you were in silly scoring heaven as Missouri outshot Illinois 52-42. (Although if you’re an Illinois fan, you might not have been in heaven, I suppose.)

Chase Daniel, predictably, lit the scoreboard up to the tune of a 26-for-45 day with 323 yards passing, three touchdowns and one pick. Yet, there was Juice … outperforming Daniels and throwing up career numbers all over the place. He was 26-for-42 with 451 yards and FIVE touchdowns (with two picks). Yes, “WTF” would be appropriate.

So is it real? Has Juice evolved into this Zook-fueled passing machine of death that will throttle the Big Ten as soon as he gets back in conference and take the Illini to the championship game? Not so fast, my friend. There’s hope for Juice’s future, but …

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