I have to say that there are either a lot of new Chevy Blazers cruising down Kirby Ave. again or Ron Zook has to be the best recruiter of all time. He's got 17 recruits that are 3, 4, or 5 star guys (I understand those rankings are crap quite often but it's about the only way to grade the recruiting as of today).

I've seen that team the past 2 years and how he can get any recruits is a miracle. I'm half believing that he has intentionally lost all these close games last year as recruiting tool to show these kids how they can play right away and put Illinois over the top.

He better become a much better coach next year and win some games or he will be watching somebody else coach this team to respectability.

http://rivals100.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?Year=2007&School=29

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Didn't he do this in Florida too? Or was the knock on him that he wasn't able to recruit well at Florida? It seems Urban Meyer has done a nice job with the sophs and seniors that Zook recruited.

Question about the stats.. why would they even bother listing the OL 40 times? It's just embarrassing to see that a guy finished the 40 in just under an hour. One of the OLmen is coming out of high school at 6-6 and 312 pounds.. and two others are 6-6 and 6-5, the running game could be good for a while at Illinois.

His reputation has always been as a "great recruiter, bad coach" but it's one thing to bring guys in at Florida and something else what he is doing in Champaign in my opinion.

Illinois showed flashes this year of being very good and less brief flashes of not knowing what the hell they were doing.

The recruiting job he is doing with his Illini track record and status of the program is mind blowing to me. But I'm happy about it.

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I know we've had this discussion before but whoever gets to coach after Zook will hit it big. Zook just isnt a good coach at all. He probably has 2 more years before the people are calling for his job.

We did have this discussion in the Sweet Sioux thread H.Vince.

I hope you are wrong, but I suspect you are not. These recruiting classes are great for Zook's PR. However, they are a double-edged sword as they are raising expectations in the Illini world more quickly than their progression on the field would warrant.

Illini fans are going to want to see all these great recruits have an impact in the W column quickly. Zook better at least be in the upper half of the Big 10 next year or he may not get another year.

My thought is to just give the guy a couple years. If he can continue to bring in top notch classes, the program will succeed despite his coaching ability. They may lose a stupid game or two every year but if they consistently win 8+ games every year, I, as a fan, would be satisfied.

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Hey jerky . . . maybe next time you can post a link that actually works? Makes me sick.

Whomever wrote this post for Dr. Ken was right, though....Illinois was pretty good the next season. (And then not good for a long stretch.)

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WINT

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I actually thought this was a new thread for a moment and was wondering why the f**k Dr. Ken was posting about Ron Zook. Tommy, what prompted you to resurrect this tiny 17 year old thread?

Just waiting for my medicine to kick in . . .

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I was right. They launched him and went into a decade-long malaise.

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NIU is so similar. Dave D left and they skated by with a few of his classes but it's been curtains since. Hiring Carey was a massive mistake.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Beckman (was that his name?) just crippled the program. Groce just brought the hoops down to stubborn mediocrity, but Beckman was death and then a stay in hell.

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I dunno . . . I mean, Novak built that program and Kill did a decent job, too. Doeren had their players and did quite well, but Carey had a couple good seasons with Doeren's players but kept the program winning.

Then again, he also had Jordan Lynch, who was clearly the MVP in college football for two years (by the strict definition of what an MVP is). I will say that they seemed to blow a few winnable games with Carey at the helm.

Tell ya what: I'd like to have had Carey's record at U of I at the same time

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He had a name.....hmmmmmm.....

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Every MAC school is screwed now. Stipends hurt a little as players were getting a few thousand extra the MAC couldn't afford. Transfer portal hurt more as a lot of talent moved up without having to sit a year. NIL has destroyed any chance they have. Why not make $50k a year extra playing for Purdue, and Purdue is on the low end of NIL payments, instead of going to Ball State? Playing time isn't worth that much to most players.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!