Saturday, October 20, 2007

Illinois vs. Michigan Live Blog

7:55
Saturday night, Network Television, an opponent that is a historical power. All of the makings of a meltdown of Zookian proportions. Then again Zook has in the past pulled rabbits out of his hat so beating the Wolverines and losing to Ball State is not beyond the realm of possibility.

8:34
A good special teams play and a bad special teams play by the Illini so far. No Zookian mistakes yet. 7-0, Illinois.

8:45
Michigan has to settle for a FG. Chad Henne who had left the game with an injury walks back into the stadium. Probably not a good development for the Wolverines as Mallet looked confident leading the team on the scoring drive. 7-3, Illinois.

8:48
Another dumb penalty for Illinois on special teams. Starting their drive deep in their own territory. I love it when the camera focuses on Zook pacing or talking into that headset microphone that it seems like he wants to eat. End of the 1st qtr.

10:12
Had run out to pick dinner for me and Mrs. Not Baghead but listened the game on XM. Another special teams brain fart (roughing the punter) leads to a Michigan TD. Henne is out of the game again. 17-14, Michigan.

10:20
Michigan fumbles in Illini territory and the musical chairs game at QB has begun with McGee entering the game. The folks at Illiniboard are questioning why they went away from Juice who was playing pretty well. Big run from McGee. Illini driving.

10:50
The wheels seem to be falling off for Illinois. Two personal fouls on plays in this drive. Zook is trying to "calm" the sideline down. Sideline warning. I always thought that Zook missed his calling which is to be the "get back" coach on the sideline. Excitable meathead. 17-17

10:53
Man, Michigan's offense blows.

10:58
Zook's stellar special teams are on display tonight. Muffed punt. Michigan knocking on the door.

10:59
Gadget play TD by Michigan. 24-17, Michigan

11:07
The Zookheads at Illiniboard are conceding defeat.

11:20
Illinois turns the ball over on downs. Game is iced. The natives are restless and divided at Illiniboard. Some see problems with the play calling and personnel decisions, others blame poor execution on the part of the players. The truth is that both contributed to this loss. As some IB members note, some of the problems that Illinois has are chronic problems that have existed over the last 3 seasons and haven't been corrected like the poor punting. One poster said "This will be Illinois football under Zook"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should probably keep him another year or so. You won't see much/any improvement, but let him bring in some more talent, so the job is more appealing to a good coach. And do what it takes to keep Locksley on the new staff.

Anonymous said...

Do NOT keep Locksley on the new staff. Jesus Christ, that guy is the worst offensive coordinator I have ever seen. Virtually all of our offensive problems the last two games go back to his shoddy playcalling, idiotic gameplans, and bizarre decisions.

Yuck.

Anonymous said...

Ah, he was upgraded to OC? That's unfortunate, he probably wouldn't accept a demotion to just handling recruiting. Clean house it is.

Anonymous said...

Yes, he was promoted to OC when Fedora abandoned Zook before the staff even signed its contracts. Zook lost several assistants in the first year. All afraid that his stench would stick to them.