Mendenhall trashes moRon Zook

RASHARD MENDENHALL RIPS RON ZOOK
Rahula Strohl at 4:36 p.m.
The Champaign News-Gazette reports, via Deadspin and Foul Balls, that Rashard Mendenhall is not the biggest fan of Ron Zook.

The silver bullet quote: "To tell you the truth, as long as Ron Zook is there it will be hard for me to support the University of Illinois football team."

Mendenhall said that it had less to do with his brother, Walter, transferring from Illinois to Illinois State and more to do with how the program is run overall.

The folks at Foul Balls seem to think that with Mendenhall a first-round pick and the Illinois program turning around, it's time for Mendenhall to move past it. He will, after all, make quite a handy sum of money after playing a college career with Ron Zook.

Zook seems to feel the same: "You hate to see players who are disgruntled… We were obviously fair with Rashard and we tried to make him the best player he could possibly be. To me, he was a pretty good player and it paid off that he's going to have an opportunity to be a heckuva pro football player as well."

I think this quote from Mendenhall fails to inspire me to do the proper research: "When you find things that were said, you can kind of read between the lines and see that everything wasn't as it appeared to be."

So there you have it. I'm sure one could extrapolate any different kind of wild accusations on either Zook and the Illini program or the Mendenhall brothers, but I don't think this goes beyond two guys who just don't see eye-to-eye.

First of all this isn't just a case of two guys who don't see eye to eye. It's the case of a coach who talks a good game about caring for his players but has demonstrated time and again that he only cares about himself. He's the kind of coach who gave up on Jarvis Moss.

Man I can't wait for football season to start. An easy schedule for the Illini means high expectations and watching the inevitable meltdown is going to be fun.

More typical Zook bullshit

Use them and dispose of them:

No. 1 pick unhappy
Rookie halfback Rashard Mendenhall expressed some dismay over what happened to his brother, Walter, who left the University of Illinois football team recently.

Walter Mendenhall got a scholarship to Illinois in 2004 in what was regarded at the time as a package deal to get his younger brother the following year, and it worked.

"Yeah, they did not want him to return," Rashard said yesterday.

"He would have been a fifth-year senior but he is graduating from Illinois and then he will be at Illinois State, getting his one-year master's."

Mendenhall did not seem happy with Illinois nor head coach Ron Zook over the situation.

"Yeah it upset me. But to tell you the truth, with how things were, it didn't surprise me too much because it just wasn't in our favor over there."

Your best player talking trash about you on his way out the door. Way to win friends and influence people Zook. I can't wait to watch the wheels fall off.

The natives are getting restless

Daily Illini columnist Kevin Olsen explains why coaching has been the reason the Illini aren't better than their 5-3 record.

Some excerpts:

Poor decisions seal Illini fate against Big Ten opponents

...I can't help but wonder what may have happened if Ron Zook and his coaching staff knew how to coach a college football game. And it didn't help that there were obvious breakdowns by players on key plays.

I'm not saying we should have or would have beat Michigan, but the sloppy play and coaching did not help us and Zook single-handedly lost the game for us at Iowa...

I know Illinois did not play a lot of great football that game, capped off by Eddie McGee's inexplicable interception in the end zone at the end of the game, but Zook is the head coach and is not supposed to make those mistakes.

Yet, one week later versus Michigan I found myself questioning the great recruiter once again....

I am not losing the faith by any means, but it makes it that much harder when Illinois beats itself, and Zook continues to convince me he is no more than a recruiting coach.

Wet Paper Bag: 1, Ron Zook: 0