Sunday, October 21, 2007

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…”

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I've said this since Day 1, but the fact that this offensive "scheme" (I lose the term loosely since it's more like randomly calling plays by pulling them from a hat) was not created by anybody currently on our coaching staff bothers the hell out of me.

We need a new coordinator and a new QB coach, stat.

Anonymous said...

man this site makes me laugh, i just wonder, if zook is such a horrible coach...then how is he taking a team like illinois and starting to create a force in the big ten? and y are all the experts calling him a recruiting genius? and didnt he recruit 22 of the 24 starters for the gators national championship team??? wow i guess he is the worst coach ever hmm

Anonymous said...

Idiot, maybe you should read what is written here before opening your pie hole.

How many people talk about Cooper recruiting all the players that Tressel won with? Nobody. That's because coaches have to coach. Jackass.

A force within the Big 10. Hardly. Who has Illinois beaten? A weak Penn State squad. A Wisconsin squad that was ranked 5th based on what? Illinois is not a contender in the Big 10, even as down as it is right now.

Anonymous said...

haha how can you say the Big 10 is down? Look how they compare to the SEC

Big 10 Bowl Eligble Teams:
Ohio St.
Michigan
Purdue
Penn St.
Wisconsin

Teams needing one win:
Illinois
Northwestern
Indiana
Michigan St.

SEC Bowl Eligible teams:
South Carolina
Kentucky
LSU
Alabama

Needing one win:
Auburn
Flordia
Georgia

So in the SEC, a league with one more team there are 4 bowl eligbile teams, compared to 5 in the big 10. 3 teams in the SEC need one win, while 4 need one win in the big 10.

Why don't you look at the standing before mouthing off about the big 10

Anonymous said...

Oh and by the way, Illinois lost to a Michigan team that took it on the chin from a 1AA school. And Michigan is tied for first in your "strong" conference.

Anonymous said...

waaaaaaaa strength of schedule wahhhah, all SEC fans do is whine about how good there teams are beacuse of SOS. Utter bullshit. Just win baby!

you SEC fans crack me up. Man Flordia must have a really tought time beating the likes of Western Kentucky, Troy and Flordia Atlantic. hahaha nice non-confernece schedule. Oh and yes you play Flordia St., but they aren't very good this year.

Michigan played Appalachian St, the defending I-AA champions, Oregon a team ranked 5th right now, Notre Dame and Eastern Michigan, I'd say they have a better non-con schedule than Flordia.