Just saw this ad. It's a direct counterpoint to NU's "Chicago's Big Ten Team" marketing campaign. I guess the Illini wants Chicagoans to pick their college team.

That's the picture of Zook someone decided to go with? Yikes

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Team Cutler.

Slightly better than this one??

or maybe this:

And finally

http://chicago.sbnation.com/northwester ... gley-field

Just in case it was forgotten.....

I got another scoreboard for you...

Illinois was the sixth-losingest program in the nation from 2000-10 from the Big Six Conferences. What's amazing is that the Illini went to two BCS bowls in that time but were bad enough in the rest of the seasons to get on the list. Here are the bottom 10:

Duke 22-106 .172
Vanderbilt 36-93 .279
Baylor 41-88 .318
Indiana 44-85 .341
Mississippi State 51-80 .389
Illinois 52-79 .397
Syracuse 54-78 .409
Washington 56-77 .421
Kentucky 56-77 .421
Arizona 56-75 .427

But otherwise I agree... Go Illini! Extend Zook!

Refs screwed us.

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You know me like that.

Over the past four seasons, Illinois is 15-17 in Big Ten play. They have two bowl appearances, including one BCS bowl appearance, and one bowl win. Over that same stretch, Northwestern is 16-16, with three bowl appearances, and zero bowl wins. The teams are 2-2 against each other. Their combined placings in the Big Ten is 21 for Illinois (2nd, 6th, 9th, and 4th) and 22 for Northwestern (7th, 4th, 4th, 7th). For better or worse, the two teams have been pretty much the same thing.

One of the coaches is perpetually on the hot seat and could be fired next year. The other one just got extended for 27 extra years with a buyout that the athletic department can't afford because, you know, fans. I'll let you decide which position is more comfortable.

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Fire Phil Emery

Ha. Nice try. Illini does less with more talent year in and year out. Our bowl losses were arguably some of the most exciting bowl games of their respective years. Double overtime losses to Jeremy Maclin, Chase Daniel, and Chase Coffman. As well as double overtime to Auburn, the year before they won the national championship. And let's not forget what shape the team was in when Fitzgerald "inherited" it. No, my friend. There is a reason why you hear about Fitzgerald for the Michigan, Penn State and ND jobs and you hear about Zook doing backroom deals to get top players. I know which coach I'd want to support (and that's without my purple colored glasses).

Ron Zook is a boob.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

At some point, "does more with less" becomes Fitzgerald's fault. Recruit some damn players. Speaking of which, what does Fitzgerald do, exactly? He's not responsible for the defense or the offense. Recruiting hasn't improved under him. At best, Fitzgerald is a cheerleader, designed to help promote the I'm OK, You're OK mentality of the Northwestern athletic department.

Exhibit 1 of that mentality: Boasting about exciting bowl games against mid-tier teams that you lose. Exhibit 2: scheduling the following teams OOC over the past four years: Northeastern, Duke, Nevada (bad Nevada, not death ray Nevada), Eastern Michigan, Syracuse, Duke again, Southern Illinois, Ohio, Towson, Eastern Michigan again, Syracuse again, Vanderbilt, Rice, Illinois State, Central Michigan. Combined records of the D-I teams? 38-107. Northwestern's BCS conference opponents (Duke, Syracuse, and Vanderbilt): 14-44! (And Fitzgerald managed to lose one of those games, at home, to a 1-11 Duke team.) Without patsy scheduling, Northwestern doesn't make the fantastically exciting bowl games they invariably lose.

That's been the difference between Illinois and Northwestern between the past four years. In all other in-conference respects they've been essentially the same team. If equality with Northwestern is an indictment of Zook, fine, though in fairness to Zook Illinois has sucked long before he arrived and will likely such long after. Fitzgerald took over a Northwestern program that went 17-23 in the five years in the Big Ten before him (when the conference was better, honestly) and went 18-22 since.

If Penn State wants that, cool; they're in Illinois's division. I encourage it. But I think that contract is going to look an awful lot like an albatross around the neck of the athletic department in a couple of years.

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Fire Phil Emery

Sorry, IB. I just don't agree with your thesis. Fitzgerald is doing a tremendous job of competing given that he has a much smaller pool of athletes to draw from. And many of those choose to go to a school that is going to pack the stands. Fitz is doing an amazing job with what he's got. Limited resources, academic restrictions and a small fanbase. and he doesn't make excuses for any of it. So if that means competing effectively against good competition is an "I'm OK, You're OK" situation, then I guess I'm ok. If all I cared about was national championships, then I'd be better off being a NFL fan. College football is more about development in my book. We all have our reasons for watching college ball. I'd take bowl win every decade if when we won it, we did it the right way

Northwestern can not go after the same players Illinois does or at least not nearly as many. Who does better? Zook with NW roster or Fitzgerald with Ill roster?

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