Schadenfreude courtesy of Illiniboard.com

A few items lifted from my favorite Illini forum in thread entitled Iowa's sideline has a laugh on Zook:

To be honest, I think Zook has trouble figuring out nuanced decisions on the spot. It is almost like he needs an Angel saying, "Ron, you really don't want to to that in this situation." Regardless, at the rate he is bringing talent in, before long the team will be able to succeed in spite of bonker game day decisions.

The word nuanced and Zook have never appeared on the same page anywhere before, of that I can assure you loyal readers. And yes what you need to hope for is that he can recruit players that will overcome stupid decisions. I foresee many "player only" meetings in Illinois' future, where it is decided that occasionally the game plan will have to be ripped out of the hands of the staff. You will also end up beating some teams you shouldn't but the flip side is losses like Saturday's to teams with inferior talent. In response to the above another smart poster says:

If you think talent is a panacea for bonker game time decisions I give you Lloyd Carr, the man who has done less with more than anyone.

Yes indeed. Here's the thing, 3 years ago Illini fans would have killed to be in the position they are in now. They said as much. It didn't matter that Zook couldn't coach lick. He would bring in talent and talent is what the doctor ordered. But it's a double edged sword and while being 5-2 is nice, it's not as nice as being 6-1 or 7-0, both of which were within the realm of possibility for this team. The point is that a coach needs to coach, not just recruit. Losing this type of game will get old pretty quick. Florida fans just weren't used to it. Illinois fans will have a little more patience, hell they have already exhibited it. But how much more remains to be seen.

Message board Nazis

The message board Nazi's are on patrol at illiniboard.com. They don't like "negative" comments particularly about the coaching staff. Already there are two locked threads. One is entitled "Loss is on the staff"

Play calling and decisions cost us this game. We should have rode Rashard a lot mor, especially near the goal line. Does the staff watch tapes of him wanting to score down there? Bad, bad play calling.

and

Agreed, terrible play calling around the goal line. And even worse on those two penalties.

That's all that illiniboard.com readers could get in before the thread was locked.

On another thread that hasn't been locked yet and astute reader posts:

1) RZ twice accepts penalties instead of forcing iowa into a 4th down situation, iowa gets first downs anyhow, including touchdowns.

2) ball is at 10, you have two time outs. why not run the ball? it was only 2d down on McGee's INT.

3) Illinois D Line gave Christensen all day to throw against a OL that is decimated with injuries.

4) Ignore Rashard when the game is on the line.

Games like these got RZ fired at Florida.

Astute indeed.

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.