Lack of experience?

or lack of brain matter?

Apologists for Ron Zook have said that his troubles at Florida came from lack of experience. In fact that's exactly what one commenter said here just a few days ago:

Illinois is Zook's second time as a head coach. Isn't it fair to say that his trouble at Florida stemmed more from inexperience than him being a bad coach?

I explained that a guy who's in his fifties and that has been around the sport he coaches for over a quarter century shouldn't be making bonehead decisions in routine situations.

Well, well, well, today the real Zook reared his ugly muscled head. Twice he accepted penalties which gave Iowa opportunities to replay 3rd down when declining the penalty would have resulted in a 4th down for the Hawkeyes. The first situation resulted in Iowa scoring a touchdown. The second one would have been just as disastrous if not for a subsequent Iowa fumble deep in Illinois territory.

Hey I may a Florida Gator with a grudge but let's see what the Illini faithful had to say. The following were all taken from the illiniboard.com game thread:

Why did Zook accept the penalty. It would be 6-6 instead.

What the hell was the point of accepting that penalty?

You decline the penalty the game is tied and you don't give them a chance to go up You decline the penalty you get the ball back. The guy is a friggen moron.

DECLINE THIS

DECLINE

why are we accepting that penalty?????????

Zook are you fucking kidding me?

why did we take that penalty!??!?!

terrible, terrible coaching

Final Score: 10-6, Iowa. More from Illiniboard.com

I'm late to the game thread but I thought I'd say Zook lost this game by twice accepting penalties rather than put Iowa in 4th down. Absolutely, without question, the 2 dumbest moves I've ever seen a coach make. I can forgive McGee for that pass, but a coach with 5 + years of experience should not be doing that. And I'm not exagerrating about those decisions. The 2 dumbest decisions ever.

Zook can recruit players. But he has proven time and again that when the opponent has talent that is close to the talent of his team that he can't be counted on to make the right decisions. Even if you delegate all the play calling to the coordinators are you going to delegate the responsibility for accepting penalties?

I look forward a robust readership this week.