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Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Illinois: Zook A Genius?

Ron Zook has long been regarded as one of the premier recruiters in college football. But, he has also been labelled as a guy who can assemble talent, but not coach and develop it.

Well, with Illinois' fast start to this season and big win over Penn St. this Saturday past; Zook may be serving notice that all his detractors may well need to reevaluate their criticism of his coaching ability.

Certainly, the improved level of talent that Zook has brokered to Champaign-Urbana is in large part responsible for the on field improvement.

But, just as significant, has been Zook's game management strategy.

"The football was in the hands of Illinois backup quarterback Eddie McGee when the clock expired on the Illini's victory over Penn State. And it wasn't in a mop-up role for starter Juice Williams. McGee came off the bench to help seal the biggest win of the season in the fourth quarter Saturday and took a knee to end the game. Although coach Ron Zook said Williams remains the team's starter for Saturday's showdown with No. 5 Wisconsin, Zook said McGee could soon see more playing time.''

Certainly, Zook took notes on the two QB rotation used by Florida last year. And, he is probably watching closely what LSU is doing with their two talented QB's (although, admittedly, much of LSU's system is out of necessity because of injury).

But, while Zook certainly can't be given credit for coming up with the idea itself, he has taken it to the next level.

Florida and LSU both reached the top of the poll using one Negro QB in the rotation.

Zook, in his burgeoning genius, is using two Negro QB's.

There is no doubt that something special is brewing in Illini country. And, there is no doubt that Zook may finally have found the strategy to win with all that talent he is assembling.

#5 Wisconsin falls this week.

Mark it down.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

ron zook will screw this up...and someone else will ride the Illini to a Big Ten champ in a few years.

Andrew said...

Sir, as a Badger fan, I must repsectfully disagree with the closing sentences.

If the Fighting Illini can win this week, it is not an upset. The Juice is favored.

Unknown said...

Sir, while I applaud and whole heartedly agree with your assessment of my program and brothers Williams and McGee, we would be remiss if he did not also mention the outstanding play of brother Arrelious Benn, a truly righteous WR with some sick hands.

Now, if only Coach Zook can help recruiting our basketball players so that we can finally take down coach KKK and his white devils...

lgf said...

No, no, no.

Not this time, NOIS.

Your picks last week were undoubtedly impressive, but the true litmus of your college football savant rests upon your ability to not only pick the winner, but also the score.

You took the easy way out last week.

This week lets see some scores. 3 scoring thresholds:

1] Visitor or Home team wins by 11 or more.
2] Visitor or Home team wins by 6 or more.
3] Final score within 5 points or less.

Sir?

nation_of_islam_sportsblog said...

"This week lets see some scores. 3 scoring thresholds:

1] Visitor or Home team wins by 11 or more.
2] Visitor or Home team wins by 6 or more.
3] Final score within 5 points or less."

Sir, fair enough.

It's Wednesday. We have a few more days to pray on this.

Sebastian said...

lgf,

If they could pick the score with regularity, they wouldn't have a blog. They'd be too busy counting money.

Go Illini, let's shake up the Big Ten. Then go beat Notre Dame to make Weis's failure complete....

lgf said...

Well done, Sir.

You forgot the scores, however, since Cleveland won again last night, you are forgiven.