One of the beauties of the dawn of a new football season is discovering a singular moment that lets you know when someone special has arrived. Yet the more you watch Aldon Smith, the more you realize that you can't limit him to one moment in time. It was Saturday afternoon inside the Edward Jones Dome, and the Missouri Tigers had just completed a 23-13 season-opening victory over Illinois, and defensive coordinator Dave Steckel couldn't contain his delight with the game-long domination by his sophomore defensive end.

So Steckel stood there amidst the crowd at midfield and kept giving the kid these violent, giant bear hugs. What Smith did against Illinois — 10 tackles, two sacks and three tackles for a loss — looked like a dazzling string of football pearls. It wasn't one moment that reinforced how much the 6-foot-5, 260-pounder dominated the game. There were the two sacks of Illini quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase, where Smith was on Scheelhaase so fast that it seemed like they were dancing in a phone booth. It wasn't just how quickly Smith pounces on his subjects, it's the way he tosses them to the ground like a light bag of dirty laundry.

Or maybe it was the way Smith was called on in the second half to help contain the elusive Illinois quarterback (85 yards rushing in the first half). How often do you see a big defensive end being asked to play the role of the most athletic guy on the field as Steckel requested, asking Smith to be Scheelhaase's shadow all over the field in the second half?

With Smith as the 'spy," Scheelhaase gained five more yards the rest of the game.

Or perhaps it was the sight of Smith lined up as a defensive tackle, going nose to nose against interior linemen who spent the first half mauling the larger MU starting tackles, but couldn't lay a glove on the freak of nature named Aldon Smith.

After watching the rather pedestrian showing of the offense in this season opener, it looks like a change is in the offing for Mizzou. Long considered a dominant and exciting offensive team — and with that the stars of the show coming consistently from the offensive side of the ball — this could be the year that Missouri is carried by its defense. And if it is the defense that will be counted on, then bet that Smith will emerge as MU's most captivating star.

Just outside the Missouri locker room shortly after the game, former Tiger and current Atlanta Falcons rookie linebacker Sean Weatherspoon was fairly gushing about his former protege, debating on which play was his best of the afternoon.

"Oh yeah, it's at tackle for sure," Spoon said. "Did you see that swim move he did? Oooooh, that was sweet."

For the record, that sweet swim Weatherspoon recalled came in the second half when the Tigers decided to go with four defensive ends across the board and it resulted in a complete shutdown of any Illinois running game (minus seven yards on seven carries in the third quarter). After giving up 157 yards rushing in the first half with the conventional lineup, MU's four-DE alignment was dominant, particularly because of Smith.

On the play, Weatherspoon recalled, Smith lined up in front of Illinois right guard Hugh Thornton, who outweighed him by 50 pounds, and in the blink of an eye, Smith had raised his left arm high over his head in a swimming motion that allowed him to cut inside of Thornton on a pass rush.

But it got so much better than that.

We already knew that Smith was a cat-quick pure athlete. But now he's showing some frightening power to go along with it. The speed burst was followed by a thunderous swipe of his right hand that whacked Thornton's left shoulder violently, tilting the 6-5, 310-pound guard off balance like he was some flimsy bantamweight.

Smith grinned when asked if he remembered the play. Of course he did. He remembered every thing spectacular he did and relished every demanding assignment put in front of him.

When asked what he liked best, Smith grinned again. "You know, I'm not really sure," he said. "I like to get after the quarterback, but I also like going at it inside a lot. I'm smaller than those big guys, but I'm also quicker."

Across the hallway, Weatherspoon was laughing at the notion of just how much better Smith could get.

"Don't tell him I said this, but it's scary how good he can be, because he hasn't even begun to scrap his potential yet," Spoon said. "And don't tell him this either: I already have (the Falcons) player personnel guys asking me questions about him."