Indiana 27, Illinois 14 and Thoughts on the Ron Zook Era

With yet another baffling and embarrassing loss, it's safe to say that Ron Zook is on the hot seat.  I watched this game from start to finish, and it is clear that Illinois is the worst team in the Big 10.  The final game statistics give some false signs of hope, but 148 of Illinois' 443 yards of offense came in the fourth quarter, after they had already fallen behind 27-7 (and even then it took the Illini 29 plays to get those yards).  Sure, Illinois had a chance to go ahead 14-13 before the critical Juice fumble on the 5, but only because Indiana had gone into the red zone three times and come out with just three points.  And it's hard to even give much credit to the Illini for stopping Indiana in the red zone given that the Hoosiers missed two field goals and had their running back fall down on 4th and 1 when he probably would have scored a touchdown.

The Illini offense was average, with a solid touchdown drive in the first half, but simply could not put anything together consistently until it was too late.  But after a nice performance in the second half against Michigan State, the defense was lost yet again, surrendering 482 yards of offense on 6.8 yards per snap.  Most galling, Indiana QB Ben Chappell threw for a career high 333 yards and 3 touchdowns.  I know the defense is young, and has only gotten younger due to a wave of injuries (LB Martez Wilson, CB Miami Thomas, and now, S Donsay Hardeman).  But it would be nice if the coaching staff would put them in a position to try and make plays.  Instead, they run the same vanilla 4-3 scheme every week with the corners 10 yards off the receivers and almost no blitzing.  Predictably, there is no pass rush and the team gets picked apart with short passes.   The other huge negative about the 'bend but don't break' style of defense is that the Illini seemingly never force turnovers.  Illinois is a remarkably bad -38 in turnover margin during the Ron Zook era and has NEVER had a positive turnover margin on the season.  This is incredible given that turnover margin is notoriously inconsistent from year to year.

I appreciate Zook's enthusiasm but it's time for me to admit that my optimism has blinded me.  Admittedly, there are more problems with this team than just coaching.  After all, Zook did coach a team to the Rose Bowl just two years ago - so it's not true that he is totally incompetent.  But what is true, both at Florida and at Illinois, is that Zook's teams consistently underachieve.  And for all his vaunted recruiting, the product on the field this year simply isn't all that talented.  The defense is young and thanks to injuries, has gotten even younger.  The offense has failed to gel.  Zook brings the players in but hasn't shown an ability to keep those players on the team or to help them develop their potential.

The root of the problem  is that Zook thinks that everything will be solved if the team just plays harder.  I have collected a series of quotations from Zook this year, which are rather damning.

"This is going to end when we decide it's going to end" - Ron Zook after the Indiana loss
"I don't think we're as far away as everyone thinks" - Ron Zook after the Michigan State loss
"I'm not sure this is the right thing to do, but it'll give us a change and we'll see" - Ron Zook after announcing that Eddie McGee would start against Michigan State
"Obviously, again, we didn't play the way we are capable of playing" - Zook after the Penn State loss
"We're in a little slump now for whatever reason and we're going to have to play our way out of it" - Zook after the Ohio State loss
"We didn't play the way we've practiced" - Zook after the Missouri loss

What's terrifying is that Ron Zook is apparently unable to see or admit that this team just isn't very good.  He still thinks that the problem is just that they aren't playing hard enough or putting it all together.  If they were playing well some weeks and not others, I could see his point, but that isn't the case.  They have been consistently outclassed by all of their opponents apart from Illinois State.  This is not a team that isn't playing hard.  This is a team that isn't very good.  That alone is a huge knock on Zook, but the biggest red flag is when the head coach can't recognize that he doesn't have a very good team.  Ron Zook is unwilling or incapable of properly analyzing the players around him.  He thinks that everything is a matter of motivation, which it isn't.  Is it a wonder that his recruits haven't developed when all Zook apparently does is tell them to play harder?  Sorry, Ron, but this season should be your last.