What they are saying

Some feedback about last night's game from around the internets. First up DJ Magnificent gives a great wrap up:

Poor old Zook may be the worst head coach in the history of Big Ten football. The poor bastard has no control over his players and as a game manager he is simply horrible.

For a man who was a special teams coach in the NFL and at Florida, Illinois' special teams were horrendous tonight, as well as every other game. Their punter averaged about 37 yards per punt, their punt return man muffed a routine catch in the fourth quarter that proved to be the critical play in the game and they missed a short field goal. The only bright spot was a 63 yard kick-off return to start the game.

Amazingly, the special teams are not the worst component of the team. Without a doubt, Zook's QB shuffling has limited the development of both Juice Williams and Eddie McGee. Poor Juice has superior talent but has no chance of going to the NFL as a QB because of his atrocious coaching. They claim he has all of the physical tools but lacks confidence. Really? How confident would you be if you were routinely pulled from the game for your backup and given only 14 pass attempts. Navy's QB passes more than that per game! Zook's offense is a hybrid piece of shit. Either commit to the spread, commit to the option, or commit to an I-form running attack. When you run the douche offense that Zook runs, Juice gets 14 pass attempts, McGee get 12 pass attempts and the team's best player, Rashard Mendenhall only gets 18 carries. The guy was averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Perhaps he should have had 30-35 carries. But you can't do that with your shit offense.

Then there's Chicago Sun Times Columnist, Greg Couch's opinion:

Youth, or just stupidity?

But you have to wonder if this was more than just a young team playing green. I mean, this was a game defined by Illinois' stupidity in Football 101. The Illini beat Wisconsin this year when the Badgers were ranked No. 5 in the nation. And now they don't know any better than this?

These are things you should have ironed out in practice by now.

''You don't teach facemask and holding penalties,'' Zook said. ''But when you teach guys to be aggressive, it is going to happen.''

It didn't happen to Michigan.

This is the burden for Zook, isn't it? Illinois was awful three years ago, when he arrived. And already it is having big games. That's all because of him.

Yet, he came here from Florida known as the guy who can outrecruit anyone but can't outcoach a paper bag.

So we look for evidence.

Last week's loss at Iowa sure looked like a victory for the paper bag. And while it didn't show up in strategy this time, it showed up in preparation, smarts.

Sean at Michigan Sports Center shows his gratitude:

*Thank you, Chad Henne, for going out there and playing great despite being injured in one form or another
*Thank you, Mike DeBord, for calling that trick play to score the go-ahead touchdown
*Thank you, Adrian Arrington, for being able to receive and throw touchdowns
*Thank you, Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor, for filling in for Mike Hart and doing a solid job
*Thank you, K.C. Lopata, for being able to kick field goals
*Thank you, Illinois punt returner, for muffing that punt to allow Michigan to score the go-ahead touchdown
*And finally, thank you, Ron Zook, for being Ron Zook

And last but not least, Orson Swindle from the wildly popular Every Day Should be Saturday says:

The UCLA of the Big Ten called Michigan, who was losing to lesser competition before it was even cool, poseurs, is also undefeated in conference after stubborn met dumb in the Michigan/Illinois game. The Illini committed several very, very ill-advised penalties and miscues including a roughing the kicker, an interference penalty, and a dropped punt giving Michigan another chance to score. Oh, and Michigan scored on a trick play, proving someone put acid in Lloyd Carr’s Metamucil Saturday morning. Debord! In my office now! Get that octopus in a top hat off my wall NOW!

For a Florida fan, it was like being a Frenchman watching the last chopper flying off the roof of the U.S. Embassy. “Well, monsieur, we have zeen zis kind of thing happen before…”