Monday, November 14, 2011

Urge to Fire Ron Zook...Rising!

When the Bears signed Todd Collins last year, I went out of my way to praise the move.  My reward for standing up for Collins?  In a start against Carolina (the worst team in the NFL in 2010), Collins produced one of the most inept performances by a Bears QB that I've ever seen (and that includes performances by Rusty Lisch, Rick Mirer, and Henry Burris).

So what does Todd Collins have to do with Ron Zook?  Well, during the Illini's bye week, I did my best to defend Ron Zook's record as Illinois head coach, and asked my fellow Illini fans to be patient despite our team's three-game skid.  My reward?  With two weeks to prepare for Michigan, we got another completely listless offensive performance, more crappiness from our "special" teams, and the Wolverines kicking the snot out of the Illini in Champaign last Saturday in a game that wasn't as close as the 31-14 final score indicated, extending the losing streak to four games.  Making matters worse, there were two separate off-field incidents involving Illini players over the weekend, so while we're slipping in the Big Ten standings, we're moving up in the Fulmer Cup standings.  And the topper - during the last two weeks, both Northwestern and Purdue scored big upset victories (over Nebraska and Ohio State, respectively).  With those results, it's almost certain that ten of the Big Ten's twelve schools will be bowl-eligible by season's end, meaning that if the Illini do end the season 6-6, there may not be a bowl bid for them as I thought two weeks ago.

The promise and progress the Illini showed early this season has completely disintegrated, and unless the team can bounce back and post an upset win against Wisconsin (unlikely, given the state of our offense and the top-ten-in-the-nation scoring defense of the Badgers), I'm guessing that not even a win at Minnesota in the season finale will be enough to convince Mike Thomas to keep Zook around for 2012.  So thanks, Ron Zook, for taking what was shaping up to be a fantastic year and dragging it into the gutter, and for making me look really bad.  Go find another blogger to stand up for you - I'm done.

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