Monday, December 14, 2009

New Football Hires

I have never been a member of the Fire Ron Guenther bandwagon because Illinois athletics has flourished as a whole under his tenure. The basketball team has capitalized on the groundwork laid by Lou Henson; Illinois has risen as a power in sports like wrestling, gymnastics and tennis; and Guenther upgraded the school's facilities and renovated Memorial Stadium. Nonetheless, he is closing in on retirement and still seeking his great white whale - turning around the Illini football team. Thus, Guenther is being criticized by a lot of Illini fans for not firing Ron Zook this year

That said, the quotations from Guenther in Loren Tate's Sunday football article were quite reassuring to me. A sampling:

"He [Ron Zook] knows and understands the culture of Illinois – the administration, philosophy, compliance and academics – and he could be effective if surrounded by stronger people... Ron Zook needs to be the CEO who solves problems and serves as the heartbeat of the program, and let his coaches coach. He is an energetic worker and an effective recruiter."

I have joked in the past that Ron Zook should be kept on the Illinois staff, but as a recruiting coordinator. Interestingly, if Ron Guenther's above comments are taken at face value, this may not be so far from the truth next year. Guenther's approach is a novel and clever one. He is well aware of Zook's weaknesses but is also careful to note that Zook has a lot of strengths, most notably his work ethic and passion for Illinois football. The head coach does not have to do everything. If Zook is truly willing to admit his weaknesses and delegate more authority to his coordinators, as Guenther suggests, then there is great potential to turn this coaching situation around.

Now the idea of putting more responsibility in the hands of Ron Zook's assistants only works with good coordinators, and he hasn't always had good coordinators, particularly on the defensive end. Fortunately, Ron Guenther spared no expense and brought in two of the best available coordinators out there in Paul Petrino and Vic Koenning. Petrino's Arkansas offense was #5 in the country at 6.8 yards per play this year and he has learned from one of the best offensive minds in college football in his brother Bobby. Similarly, Koenning's record the last few years as a defensive coordinator has been spectacular. His Clemson defenses never gave up more than 4.7 yards per play, which made them a top 10-15 defense every single year, and in his first season at Kansas State in 2009, the defense improved from allowing 6.2 yards per play to 5.4.

Ron Zook's performance as a whole has been poor enough to warrant his firing, yet firing a coach does not solve all of a program's problems. Fans across the country clamoring to get rid of their school's head coach tend to offer no suggestions as to who their team should hire instead, besides fantasy choices like Urban Meyer. With Brian Kelly off the market and Chris Pedersen unlikely to leave Boise State, I don't see there being any slam dunk head coach choices out there. Zook is not incapable of success at Illinois as witnessed by his 9-4 season in 2007. Both Paul Petrino and Vic Koenning have had great success at other programs, so there will be no more excuses for Zook if these staff shake-ups don't result in winning football in 2010.





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