Tuesday, November 18, 2008

How to recruit...

Just win baby.

Remember in 2006 when all of the fucking apologists for moRon in the sports media couldn't stop mentioning how many of Florida's starters were recruited by Zook?

Where are all those assholes today? As I mentioned about last year's Illini squad, more than a few of the key players weren't recruited by Zook but instead by his much-maligned predecessor, Ron Turner.

Now we see that Zook, when left to his own devices and his own players, sucks ass.

Meanwhile take a look at the Gators, folks. Do you think a recruit is more impressed with a motormouthed coach who can lift 225 lbs 25 times or a coach that gives that recruit an opportunity to play in front of national audiences on a week-in/week-out basis and a chance to play for a conference championship and maybe more?

Dear Illini fans. Please don't fall into the trap. You don't need the moRon to recruit. You need a coach that can coach. Recruits are attracted to good programs.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lest the Zook apologists forget, 43 of the players on Urbna Meyer's 2006 Gator team that won the NC were either recruited by Meyer himself or Steve Spurrier. And now Meyer's winning with his own players - OK, who's the "master recruiter" now?

Ron Zook blows it out both sides of his ass. What's tragic is that too many recruits fail to see that he's a snake-oil salesman and a charlatan, and fall for his pitch - and if they possessed talent in high school with huge potential in college, ir goes to waste if Zook gets his grubby mitts on them.

Like I've said before, Zook is the antithesis of Midas. Whatever he touches doesn't turn to gold; instead it turns to crap.

Anonymous said...

This says alot
Illini football might soon need a bailout
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Mike Nadel


By MIKE NADEL
of GateHouse News Service
Posted Nov 17, 2008 @ 10:36 PM

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Illinois football fan Ben Lenkart of Springfield read last week's column about Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis and couldn't resist e-mailing me:

"Mike, I thought you might have mixed up your column notes when I read, 'He's either a poor evaluator of talent, an ineffective developer of players, an inadequate game-planner, a feeble motivator, a bad game coach ... or all of the above.' I was sure you were talking about Ron Zook, because those were the same words my Florida friends used when he took the Illinois job.

"If (Illinois athletics director) Ron Guenther wants to change his reputation of hiring mediocre - or worse - football coaches, he'd better give Zook the hook now. There are deserving, competent coaches available to fix a faltering program."

Yes, just one year after mentions in national-coach-of-the-year conversations, Zook is receiving a different kind of "recognition" now.

He's all recruiting, no coaching. He's not a long-term solution. He's not a program-builder. How long before ESPN yakkers and other national pundits start putting Zook "on the hot seat"? Justifying Saturday's loss to Ohio State by saying "Fifty percent of the teams lost today" certainly won't win him any wide-reaching support.

Hey, coach: Fifty percent of the teams are eligible for one of the 873 bowl games ... and yours isn't one of them. Illinois was unwatchable in Zook's first two seasons (fairly understandable, as he was cleaning up Ron Turner's mess) and has been one of the nation's biggest disappointments this year.

By now, does anyone outside of Zook's family believe the 2007 run to the Rose Bowl wasn't a fluke?

As was the case at Florida, Zook has been heralded for bringing outstanding players to campus. And as was the case in Gainesville - where he lasted only three seasons between the wildly successful Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer eras - there are legitimate questions regarding his ability to "coach 'em up."

Zook benefits from the fact Illinois isn't Florida. There's not a soul who expects the Illini to contend for a national title ANY year, let alone every year.

Still, while we try to figure out exactly what constitutes a "good year" for Fighting Illini football, we can be pretty certain 2008 doesn't qualify. Even if they close the season Saturday with a victory at Northwestern to finish 6-6 and become bowl eligible, this will have been an abject failure.

Illinois fans have the right to expect more. At the least, the team should win more games than it loses, especially when the Big Ten is in a down cycle.

A good program makes steady progress. It doesn't lurch violently as the Dow Jones Industrial Average has this fall. For two years, Illinois stock wallowed near its all-time low. In 2007, it almost reached its zenith. This year, it has failed to meet analysts' estimates.

When it comes to CEO Ron Zook, many Illini "shareholders" are clamoring for new direction. He needs to restore their faith. Winning more than 50 percent of his games next season would be a nice start.

Anonymous said...

"He's all recruiting, no coaching. He's not a long-term solution. He's not a program-builder. How long before ESPN yakkers and other national pundits start putting Zook "on the hot seat"? Justifying Saturday's loss to Ohio State by saying "Fifty percent of the teams lost today" certainly won't win him any wide-reaching support."

This writer got it exactly right. Zook is a piss-poor gameday strategist and problem solver; he can't seem to have any team he coaches ready to play a full 4 quarters of football. At Florida, he also failed to properly delegate responsibility to his assistants and didn't allow them to make adjustments during the game - Zook insisted on doing everything himself and bit off more than he could chew every time.

That one comment "fifty percent of the teams lost today" is idiotic, lame and clueless on Zook's part - and shows that he still can't take accountability for his team's lack of performance.

If Zook's MO is recruiting, he'd be better off back in the NFL as a talent scout. He's not coaching material at ANY level - as a head coach OR as an assistant.

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