Losing at home to the Gophers! ZOOK BLOWS

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

I'm not sure what exactly the loss had to do with Zook. Statistically the Illini dominated. They missed a FG, got stood up at the 1 yard line, and had a fumble returned for a TD. Field position sucked all game too. I had no trouble pinning the Iowa game last year on Zook. This one I can't do that. Every flukish break seemed to go Minnesota's way, and you combine that with bad special teams, and there you go.

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Fire Phil Emery

This is going to sound like a familiar refrain but you pay Ron Zook to bring in the best players - you don't pay him to do alot for on the field performance. He was 23-14 at Florida with some of the best athletes in the nation. I could go 23-14 at Florida by playing sandlot football with those players.

That's not entirely true. Spurrier had left the cupboard relatively bare. But even if I were to accept all that, I dont't think today's game would be a great example of that. Illinois outperformed Minnesota completely and thoroughly. Ron Zook can't glue the ball into Daniel Dufrene's or Juice Williams's hands, can't keep the kicker from kicking off out of bounds repeatedly and thereby screwing the team over field-position wise, and I don't think he really made any mistakes tactically today. None of those things really gets to coaching.

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Fire Phil Emery

Illinois fans should not waste time comparing this team to last year's team. This Illinois team is not as good and the defense looks pretty horrendous. Illinois barely beat a bad UL-Lafayette team at home. Also, this isn't last year's Minnesota team. Brewster has clearly done a good job with them and they are now bowl eligible with their one and only loss to Ohio State. Though, they should have two losses, the other being against us.

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Forward, Together Forward

Go Huskies!!!

Er, OK, except for I don't think I did compare it to last years team anywhere, and the defense actually played very well today and very well for 3 quarters against Michigan (which I know isn't saying much, but still.) The defense, for all intents and purposes, gave up 14 points, since 7 were scored directly on a fumble and 7 more were scored after Minnesota recovered a fumble inside the ten. One other touchdown came after Minnesota got the ball on their own forty, then the Illini had a face mask penalty, so they only had to drive 45 yards (which they did.)

That's why I'm not that upset about this game, especially compared to, say, last years Iowa game or even the ULL game this year. The offense dominated all game and the defense played absolutely fine. Special teams suck, and a couple of fumbles didn't bounce the right way. That's going to happen on occasion, and half the time it swings the other way too (see the Penn State and Wisconsin games last year.)

I think (and here I am making a comparison) that last years team was a solid 8-4 type team that got a few breaks, and this year's team is probably a 7-5 team ability-wise. We'll see whether or not they actually achieve that.

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Fire Phil Emery

I think on the 2007 Iowa Hawkeye highlights, they put the whole game on there.

Recruiting advantage finally revealed!

Looks like you were right about Zook and the Illini.

Wisconsin on the other hand...

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You know me like that.