Let’s just be thankful Pat Fitzgerald is Northwestern’s head coach. In his fourth season at the helm, he has NU heading to two-straight bowl games for only the second time in program history. No small feat at Northwestern. He’s changed the culture. Now, winning is expected, not dreamed about.
Downstate though, its another story. The Orange and Blue have big issues on their hands, much to the joy of many NU fans, particularly Illini-hater and co-editor of The Post, Kevin Fishbain. As Aaron Morse wrote last Friday, Illinois is a bad football team, and Ron Zook is an even worse coach.
On the Illinois scout.com football message boards a seven-page thread, at least as of Monday at 12:01 AM, entitled “Zook needs to go thread” ripped Zook and called for his firing. Honestly, there are so many ridiculous posts in this thread (justified or not), that it was hard to pick out the best of the bunch. I did my best. Enjoy.
DEEFOR33333, the poster who started the thread, only minutes after the game ended, at 2:49, posted,
“I just dont want to be Zooked anymore 
. ”
I think its safe to say that when your coach’s nickname is used as an insult against his own team and their fanbase, his time with the program has likely run its course.
RoundLakeIllini rattles off a bunch of reasons as to why Zook is a bad coach in an epic rant at 8:11 Saturday night.
“There are so many reasons why Zook must go – lets just mention a few from today alone:
- starting the 2nd half on offense with McGee at QB and Dufrene at RB. Charest needs experience and is just plain better than McGee. McGee does 3 things well – run fast, fumble, and throw picks; he accomplished 2 of 3 today. Dufrene is the 4th best RB on the roster and should not see any time on offense.
- down 21-9 with 10 minutes left Zook goes for 2. DUMB! Kick the extra point and keep the FG option open for later.
- after missing the 2 pt conversion, doing an onside kick. 5 STAR DUMB! He was only bailed out by Fitzgerald making a bad decision to kick on 4th and 1 from the 14 instead of going for it to ice the game.
- the constant and never-ending player replacements. This isn’t Pop Warner football where every kid on the team should play. At this level players should earn playing time by playing well and not just because they have a uniform on. Play the best players and stick with them!
- Zook’s actions after the game were classless and embarassing. Anyone else notice that he was keeping everyone behind him on the sideline until the clock hit 0:00? It sure looked like he did this so he could do a pass-by handshake with Fitzgerald and chase after the refs without anyone getting in his way. The INT call was a bad call in my opinion, but that is no reason to not only disrespect the team that just got done kicking your butts but also run like a petulent child after the refs and yell at them.
I’m sure there’s more but I’m getting upset the more I think about it.”
Sadly, everyone sitting in the stands on Saturday was saying the same things. Why would you pull your quarterback to start the second half on Saturday to play someone who was so bad that you benched him thirty minutes into his first collegiate start (in favor of the man whose benching sparked the start), after he went 2-11 in the first half? Also, how could you go for two with 10:11 to go in the game? And that handshake after the game, I know it was a questionable call, but still…
Finally, the best (or most troubling) post comes from IlliniSchmitty at 4:21 on Saturday afternoon.
“this team is loaded with talent, and much of it is very young.
All we need is the coaching. Just ask Urban Meyer how nice it can be to follow Ron Zook.”
Yeah… Let’s hope Zook sticks around Champaign.
