COLUMBIA, MO. • A year ago, Blaine Gabbert stood nervously in the tunnel at the Edward Jones Dome, butterflies churning in his stomach. He was waiting to take the field for his first game as Missouri's starting quarterback, in his hometown, against rival Illinois. By the time the game was done, Gabbert had thrown for 319 yards and three touchdowns in an easy Mizzou victory, and whatever fears Tigers fans may have had about life after Chase Daniel were gone.

Gabbert's season lived up to that early promise as he threw for 3,593 yards and 24 touchdowns with only nine interceptions.

He ranked 29th nationally in passing efficiency and was 11th in total offense, averaging 292.1 yards a game. On Saturday morning, the Parkway West High grad will again stand in the tunnel at the Dome as the Tigers close out their series with Illinois, a year older, a year wiser, a year more confident in his knowledge of the offense.

And just as nervous as he was the first time.

OK, so not everything gets easier once you've done it.

Gabbert may be on the preseason watch lists for a parade of awards — the O'Brien, the Manning and the Maxwell, for starters — and he may be expected to keep the Tigers in a battle to get back to the top of the Big 12 North Division, but that doesn't mean the fluttering that he finds in his stomach before games is gone.

Gabbert shrugs off the butterflies and accepts them as part of the game, just as he does most everything else (including suspended teammates). "If you don't have nerves going into a college football game," he said, "it's not worth playing. That means you don't care about it. Every game, week in and week out, people are going to have butterflies, and that's good. It makes you play even harder."

So same butterflies as last season, slightly different Gabbert. Blaine Gabbert 2.0 is, by most accounts, smarter and sharper than last year's version. He spent the summer outdoors passing in seven-on-seven drills with his teammates and indoors looking at tape of every game from last season, picking apart what he did, looking for things he did right and did wrong, for audibles called and uncalled, for reads made successfully and unsuccessfully. "Being in this offense for 2½ years, I (now) know every little piece of it," he said. "I know where to go with the football on every single play."

"I think things slow down and continuously slow down as you mature," coach Gary Pinkel said. "You can see different coverage and go completely away from that and throw to the other side of the field just because of your knowledge base. Plus he's more mature and his leadership is a lot different. He's a very talented guy and he's worked tremendously hard to up his game to a different level."

"I think Blaine has progressed to be the best quarterback in the country," said receiver T.J. Moe, casting his vote for the O'Brien and the Manning in August. "You're not going to find a guy who can make the throws he can make. Yesterday, he threw a 40-yard dart downfield at me and there are just not that many guys who can do that. He's got incredible arm strength and he's a really smart guy."

"He's definitely taken his game to a new level," said backup quarterback James Franklin, a true freshman who went through spring drills with the Tigers. "His sophomore level, it took him a little bit to adjust but now he's there and a fulltime leader, telling everyone what to do, where to go, how to act, what kind of practice we need. He's definitely stepped up."

On a team that has just eight seniors among the 44 players in the first two spots on the depth chart (and just one senior, center Tim Barnes, on the offense), there is also a need for Gabbert to be more of a leader this year, both on and off the field, and he readily realizes and accepts that. "I have to lead this team where we want it to go," he said.

And to make it harder, with Danario Alexander, Jared Perry and, for the time being, Derrick Washington gone, the only person on the offense at a feature position who made a significant contribution last year is Gabbert. Almost everyone else is learning their way. At the start of the season, there's no way for Gabbert to avoid being The Guy Everyone Counts On. Which is fine with Gabbert, but slightly less so with Pinkel.

"I don't want him to feel like he has to do a lot more," Pinkel said. "He's got a job to do and he has to trust the people around him."

Right now at Mizzou, everyone is putting their trust in Gabbert.

"He's using his options," receiver Jerrell Jackson said. "He's throwing the ball to everyone on offense. He's finding the perfect spot for the ball. He's making great decisions. I think he's going to be a great player this season."