The Linking Illini is feeling a little better about itself.

Hello friends and welcome to the first Monday after a victory of the season. Drink it in, they are precious and are never guarenteed. Today we explore some of the nagging questions about the Illini football team, like "Will we ever see the entire set offensive starters on the field at once for more than one play" or "is it possible for Illinois State to play us again instead of Fresno State in December?" (Please say yes.) At least one of these questions will be answered in due time, but for the moment just take a second and appreciate that finally after all this time, we have football to watch in Champaign again....

Alright on to the links

• Zook expects Williams to play against Buckeyes- John Supinie SJR
  Some concrete answers on Williams from the coach's mouth. The consensus seems to be that Juice did not slip or trip on the turf during his would be opening touchdown run, but that he pulled his quad, causing him to come up lame and ulitmately hit the ground short of the end zone. As for Tez, the article states he will also be ready for Ohio State, hopefully to spy one Terl Pryor.

• More Zook quotes, IlliniHQ.com- Bob Asmussen
  "If you go back and you look at the first half, the secondary probably played about as well as it could," Zook said. Which may be why every one is going to be holding their breath all the way up until a week from Saturday. The secondary did play competently for most of the game, but given the circumstances gave up way too many yards in the second half than should be allowed to an FCS team. Its a bye week now, and then the team goes through what has been thought of all season long as a meat grinder.

• Illinois running attack on track -Shannon Ryan, the Trib
  He's big, he's fast, he's probably the best option at running back right now for the Illini. Granted he has gotten our hopes up before against inferior defensive fronts (Ahem, Indiana) but Jason Ford really looks like he has the best instincts with the ball. He ran for 137 yards, by far the most by any single player Saturday and ended up with 2 catches to boot. All of this while coming back from an ankle sprain last week. Dufrene for his part looked good as well. I am not one to really make excuses but maybe ,just maybe the running game they could have provided would have made some semblance of a difference against Mizzou.