When we sat down with Juice Williams back in late July, it was with bright eyes and an optimistic smile that he spoke of the Illini football season to come.

It was weeks before the start of his senior year. He was coming off a junior season in which he broke the school record for single-season total offense, threw 22 touchdown passes (third most in school history) and had six 250-yard passing games.

He'd been named second-team all-Big Ten and pro scouts sized him up as an interesting prospect who could rise up the charts with a productive senior year.

His fiancé, Chez Chambers, and young daughter, LaChez, were doing well.

It was a good time to be Juice Williams.

But athletics is an uncertain road, and the one the Illini football team has followed this fall has been filled with potholes. The team is 1-6 going into Saturday's home game against Michigan. Juice Williams has had an awful season, one in which we've only had one or two glimpses of the confident quarterback we expected to see.

Rather than the unquestioned starter, he's now one of two quarterbacks who will run the offense the rest of the way. And there's no guarantee the starter Saturday won't be a redshirt freshman who saw his first collegiate action last week.

When this season was first unraveling, Williams continued to be a standup guy who faced the media after defeat and thoughtfully addressed questions about the latest disappointment.

That can't be easy and it can't be fun.

And lately, it apparently has become intolerable.

After the last two losses - at Indiana and at Purdue - Williams did not answer the bell in postgame interview sessions. And the weekly media teleconference the last two Mondays, of which Williams had been a regular participant, was canceled altogether.

So I cannot accurately tell you whether those bright eyes have dimmed or that optimistic smile has faded.

But I can tell you that his teammates and his coach say he has handled the disappointment like a champion.

"I mean this," coach Ron Zook said Tuesday. "If I had a son, I would want my son to be on this team if for no other reason than to see how (Williams) is handling it. It's unbelievable to see how he is handling it.

"I had a long talk with Juice yesterday. He wants to win. He's pulling his hair out. It's a confidence issue and you know if you've ever had your confidence shaken in anything. He has to overcome that stuff and as coaches, we have to help him do that.

"He has done it before and he can do it again."

When Williams is in the game, he lines up behind senior center Eric Block, and on Tuesday Block said you'd never know Williams has been through such a tough season.

"Juice is a team player, first and foremost," Block said. "He'll do whatever he can to help the team. He's just that kind of guy, a class act. And he has been since the day he got here. There won't be any griping from Juice."

On Saturday, Zook said Williams and Jacob Charest will split time at quarterback. I think everyone would like to see Charest perform well, if only because it would represent a ray of hope for the future.

But I'm guessing that nothing would please Zook more than to see Williams have a performance that flashes back to what happened last season when he helped Illinois beat the Wolverines. That's when he passed for 310 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 121 yards and two more TDs. His 431 yards represented the largest total offense figure ever produced in the history of Michigan Stadium.

Seems like an awful long time ago, back when Isiah "Juice" Williams still had a smile we could remember.

Mark Tupper covers Illini football for Lee News Services. Contact him at mark.tupper@lee.net