Tuesday, October 13, 2009 11:49 AM CDT
Illini football program has fallen hard
By Mark Tupper, Staff Writer
New Year’s Day, 2008.
There were sorrow and tears in the Illini football locker room after the sun had set at the Rose Bowl, sadness at not being able to win a revered bowl game in a beautiful college setting.
But as I walked from the locker room back up to the press box to write, I remember feeling a sense of optimism and hope. Illinois football, I reasoned, had climbed up off the mat, had staged one heck of an exciting season, and now, after this unexpected visit to the Rose Bowl, was ahead of the curve on its resurgence back into the land of college football relevance.
Ron Zook and his crew were rounding up talented players and maybe the best was yet to come.
And yet now, a little more than 21 months later, we find ourselves wondering how in the world did this Illini football program swerve so completely into the ditch? How can a team that had developed a brash swagger back in 2007 look so starved for confidence now?
How did individual players like quarterback Juice Williams regress?
What happened to the promise of magic from wide receiver Arrelious Benn, who hasn’t caught a touchdown pass in almost a year now?
How did a team that looked like it might join the upper crust of the Big Ten become the last place team in the league?
When – and how – did Ron Zook have this team he has worked so hard to build slip through his fingers?
And, perhaps most important, what happens now?
It’s a 1-4 Illini football team that prepares for Saturday night’s road game at Indiana and there are far more questions than answers at this point.
I won’t dance around the toughest questions:
Can Zook, who in July received a one-year, $1.5 million extension that keeps him under contract until January, 2014, survive beyond this season?
Does his boss, Ron Guenther, who will make that decision, see Zook as capable of engineering the far-reaching fix it will take to get this back on track?
Or does Guenther conclude it is broken beyond internal repair?
Do donors who might help pay for a buyout trust Guenther to hire another football coach? Many tell me they don’t. He’s done a great job with facilities and fund-raising, but his formula for hiring a football coach hasn’t worked the way he’d like.
And what will Guenther’s new bosses (a new president, a new board of trustees) have to say about the next hiring process? In the past, they allowed him to be a one-man search committee. Will they demand a different approach? Should they?
Until now, Guenther has not wanted to wade in on what could appear to be a “vote of confidence” for Zook. That’s messy business if it can be avoided and I’m told he feels it’s still too early for such a public discussion.
But if Illinois loses at Indiana on Saturday, and at Purdue the following weekend, the time for such a discussion will be at hand. A 1-6 Illini team could pretty much close the curtain on this season.
And there are financial variables to consider, beyond a buyout.
Now that Memorial Stadium has been renovated, the athletic department depends a great deal on those luxury suit leases. No one feels good about paying high rent to watch low quality football. Fans want to win, but at the least they want to have hope.
Each week, things are feeling more and more hopeless.
The students exited Memorial Stadium early last week against Michigan State and more and more season ticket owners are willing to hand them off to anyone who wants a first-hand peek at an inferior product.
Answers to the biggest questions will depend almost entirely on Guenther’s assessment, and he meets regularly with Zook to take a hard look at the issues. Guenther has always been supportive of his coaches, but he fired Lou Tepper, he fired Ron Turner and if he sees ruin beyond repair, he’ll fire Ron Zook, too.
For me, the wild card is that there’s enough talent on board (I know, it’s hard to see lately), that I can imagine Illinois beating Indiana, and then Purdue, and undergoing an confidence makeover just in time to salvage something from the remaining seven games.
I’m not predicting it. I’m saying it’s within the realm of possibility.
But would that just be postponing the inevitable?
Still, I’m waiting two more games to see if there are any signs of improvement.
And, really, that’s been the most disturbing thing to watch.
Even if you accept the fact that Illinois was somehow unprepared for the opener against Missouri and you acknowledge that as a starting point, five weeks have gone by during which time we should have seen some improvement.
Having seen none – and in some cases having seen regression – is the worst indictment of all.
Two weeks. Then I’d hope Ron Guenther will comment on some of those honest, difficult decisions.
Many fans have already made them.
Contact Mark Tupper at mtupper@herald-review.com|421-7983
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
|
|
