Ron Zook firing at Illinois revisited

[uihawk82]

With all the fire KF threads it is interesting to note what the TV guys just said about the Zooker. Zook has the only 3 winning seasons in the last 16 years at Illinois. In 2007 he beat two top 10 teams including #1 OSU at Columbus. And as the announcers noted the Illini have been 'crap' since which is what the annoucer said.

So again watch out what you wish for. My main complaint with KF's coaching is the predictability which leads to boring and not trying more exciting plays more on offense but also including defense some. The Iowa offense was exciting in 2008-10 as they threw the deep ball, the deep seam to the TEs, and the deep out past the corner and in front of the safety. 2004-6 the offense was fun to watch.

 

[hawkeyes87]

Well, 2 of those "winning seasons" were 6-6, beat another mediocre team in a minor bowl to end 7-6 jobs. And he had 4 losing seasons (including the 2 following that '07 season).

His biggest problem was he was a much better recruiter than coach, so expectations were always pretty high.

 

[tksirius]

With all the fire KF threads it is interesting to note what the TV guys just said about the Zooker. Zook has the only 3 winning seasons in the last 16 years at Illinois. In 2007 he beat two top 10 teams including #1 OSU at Columbus. And as the announcers noted the Illini have been 'crap' since which is what the annoucer said.

So again watch out what you wish for. My main complaint with KF's coaching is the predictability which leads to boring and not trying more exciting plays more on offense but also including defense some. The Iowa offense was exciting in 2008-10 as they threw the deep ball, the deep seam to the TEs, and the deep out past the corner and in front of the safety. 2004-6 the offense was fun to watch.

Another lame attempt to prop up KF.

 

[uihawk82]

Another lame attempt to prop up KF.

Haha, no, I have posted many times on here over the years about how maddening KF is with being conservative, losing to too many underdogs, letting inferior teams stay close and it all stems from what I said in the first post, conservative, predictable, nothing exciting. I have not been a big fan of bend but dont break on 3rd and long as again predictability and base defense covering speedy receivers with lbkrs is crazy bad.

I have actually been very anti-KF in the playcalling and how they never can run counter plays to fool an opponent. I dont think KF is very good at risk-reward analysis, he was bad at one time at clock mgmt but getting better by using his timeouts on defense. There are many things to complain about with KF.

But overall his record is almost good enough for me. I have said for 15 years he probably loses the team 1.5 games a year on avg. Instead of avging 7.5 wins a year his record could be avging 9 wins a year.

His Iowa State record is maddeningly bad as with jNW record

 

[OkstHawk]

Yeah Iowa state should have kept their coach...didn't they know they could have gotten much worse.

 

[socalhawk]

Hey boss was that "almost good enough for you". It was almost good enough for me. Can I keep my job.

 

[ArvadaHawk]

With all the fire KF threads it is interesting to note what the TV guys just said about the Zooker. Zook has the only 3 winning seasons in the last 16 years at Illinois. In 2007 he beat two top 10 teams including #1 OSU at Columbus. And as the announcers noted the Illini have been 'crap' since which is what the annoucer said.

So again watch out what you wish for. My main complaint with KF's coaching is the predictability which leads to boring and not trying more exciting plays more on offense but also including defense some. The Iowa offense was exciting in 2008-10 as they threw the deep ball, the deep seam to the TEs, and the deep out past the corner and in front of the safety. 2004-6 the offense was fun to watch.

Illanoy has had like 4 above avg seasons in the last 40 years.

 

[HawkGold]

With all the fire KF threads it is interesting to note what the TV guys just said about the Zooker. Zook has the only 3 winning seasons in the last 16 years at Illinois. In 2007 he beat two top 10 teams including #1 OSU at Columbus. And as the announcers noted the Illini have been 'crap' since which is what the annoucer said.

So again watch out what you wish for. My main complaint with KF's coaching is the predictability which leads to boring and not trying more exciting plays more on offense but also including defense some. The Iowa offense was exciting in 2008-10 as they threw the deep ball, the deep seam to the TEs, and the deep out past the corner and in front of the safety. 2004-6 the offense was fun to watch.

Zooks recruiting had way dropped off after Locksley left. Beckman was like hiring Lick. Admin did not do their due diligence. Illinois had for many years had trouble with football players and the law. It was quite serious. The locals didn't want to go back to that. They also didn't want probation again.

IL showed what not to do if you fire the coach.

 

[HawkGold]

With all the fire KF threads it is interesting to note what the TV guys just said about the Zooker. Zook has the only 3 winning seasons in the last 16 years at Illinois. In 2007 he beat two top 10 teams including #1 OSU at Columbus. And as the announcers noted the Illini have been 'crap' since which is what the annoucer said.

So again watch out what you wish for. My main complaint with KF's coaching is the predictability which leads to boring and not trying more exciting plays more on offense but also including defense some. The Iowa offense was exciting in 2008-10 as they threw the deep ball, the deep seam to the TEs, and the deep out past the corner and in front of the safety. 2004-6 the offense was fun to watch.

What's kinda funny is that Matt Campbell was the Reason Tim Beckman was successful.

 

[MursenarySkum]

With all the fire KF threads it is interesting to note what the TV guys just said about the Zooker. Zook has the only 3 winning seasons in the last 16 years at Illinois. In 2007 he beat two top 10 teams including #1 OSU at Columbus. And as the announcers noted the Illini have been 'crap' since which is what the annoucer said.

So again watch out what you wish for. My main complaint with KF's coaching is the predictability which leads to boring and not trying more exciting plays more on offense but also including defense some. The Iowa offense was exciting in 2008-10 as they threw the deep ball, the deep seam to the TEs, and the deep out past the corner and in front of the safety. 2004-6 the offense was fun to watch.

I would be willing to suffer through some crap years if it was because we took a chance on something new. Being mediocre and winning 6-7 games just isn't that much better than winning 3 to me.

 

[Seth53]

I think the fact Zook could out bench-press his team got him canned.

 

[HawkGold]

I would be willing to suffer through some crap years if it was because we took a chance on something new. Being mediocre and winning 6-7 games just isn't that much better than winning 3 to me.

What I think most people miss pro or con KF is that in alost every year he is close to having a top 10 team. There is most always a huge glaring weakness that seems relatively easy to correct but isnt corrected simingly due to stubborness.