How did the wheels come off this train? They haven’t been the same since the Rose Bowl.I turn on the radio for a minute to hear how bad they are getting beaten and turn it off again. I would listen if they had a hope of winning, but there ain’t no hope.

and I have to say that this is quite a switch from my baseball sites where you get 300-400 comments in an off day.

and 1-5 football seasons don’t do alot to drum up interest. I am hopeful things pick up once basketball gets into full gear

I have relatives who attend Iowa State, who in turn hate . . . the U of Iowa.

Goddamnit it never ends.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Illini since Zook arrived in C-U perhaps a bit more closely than most of my fellow Hawkeye fans, as all of my in-laws are from Champaign-Urbana and are fans/grads of the U of I. That said, when I compare the two football programs, a few things really jump out at me as to why Iowa under Kirk Ferentz has had the (relatively) sustained success it does, and the Illini under Zook does/has not:

1. Recruiting. Yes, Zook can bring in some top-notch recruits, but is he really a great recruiter? Semantics, I know. Bear with me here. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but much of his recruiting seems to be awfully heavily-focused on skill-position players, especially WRs, RBs and QBs. That’s all well and good, but does he pull in (or even go after) the same caliber of recruits at all other positions, specifically OL and DL? LBs? Punters? Again, please correct me here if necessary, but his recruiting seems… unbalanced. He definitely wows fans & the media with the Benns, the Fords, the Wilsons and the Scheelhases (sp?), but who does he get to block for those guys? Or to absorb blocks to free up LBs? Further (and I don’t know how much truth there may be to this, but it is a perception that’s out there), it seems like Zook tends to kind of befriend (for lack of a better word) players sometimes, which can blur the line of authority and create discension among the players as “favorites” are singled out, treated differently, held to different standards, etc. Again (again!), this might not be the case at all, so correct that too if need be.

2. Player Development. This, in my mind, is without question the key element as to why the Ron Zook Era has been, for the most part, a failure. Have any of those 4 & 5 star recruits really gotten any better since arriving in the 217? As juniors & seniors in high school, men amongst boys they may have been. However, all the boys who went on to play for other schools grew to become men (and much better football players) in the meantime. It’s a bit of a “Tortoise and the Hare” story, but with helmets & nutcups. Look at Juice: has he gotten better or worse over time? What about Benn? Any real improvement? Jason Ford? Tez (injuries aside)? Juice’s stat line may have improved from year 1 to year 2, but did he really get any better?

3. Continuity. This goes hand-in-hand with #2 in a big way. How many OCs & DCs have worked under Zook at the U of I? What about other assistant coaches (position coaches, special teams, S&C, etc)? The more turnover, the more schemes/plays players have to learn, the more varied the emphases from year to year, the more variations in coaching personalities & philosophies there are to deal with, and so on. I think this continuity could serve as a larger overall theme that encompasses some of the things mentioned by Joe above – discipline, decision-making, handling pressure & adversity… it all kind of coalesces under the same umbrella, really.

Anyway, that’s been my perception over the years. Lots and lots of potential… and lots of disappointment. Even as a non-fan/rival, it’s frustrating to watch. An Illinois resurgence would be good for the conference as a whole, which would only be beneficial to the Hawkeyes.

Also, why the fuck is Iowa-Illinois not a protected rivalry? That’s retarded. We should be playing each other every year.

Also, also, on a completely unrelated note, I love Bruce Weber. Class act all the way around, and a great coach.

Good luck against Purdue.

I got an idea. Not to be disrespectful of the football team, but can we just start talking about basketball. Or maybe some of the other fall sporting events. Are there any? I am only saying this in the way that a coach in a blow-out starts coaching for the next game because this one is a lost cause. Or we could beat our fingers to death talking about how to make next season better. Not sure how that would be yet. We need to do something. There’s a reason Zook was let go from Florida, but at the same time he was also the one who built their National Championship football team. Meyer just rode it on in.

This is more like it, when does basketball season start boys?