There are certainly a lot of questions rolling around everyone's head right now, and like most of you, its still very shocking. Zook, for better or for worse has always been known as a players coach, who will stick behind his guy well past when others might have. To bench the 4 year starting QB two days after he broke the all time offensive yards record at Illinois, is quite possibly the least Zook like move there could have been. Zook gives his players alot of second chances, trusting that they can get things turned around. Sometimes they don't, and some times they do. But if there was one player I honestly thought would never run out of chances with Zook, it was Juice.

You have to understand what Juice means to Zook. He was the first true blue chip recruit to choose Ron Zook and Illinois, in the middle of the worst 3 seasons the Illini have ever had. The Illini were being blown out by Penn State and Ohio State, and losing to teams like Ohio University. In spite of the struggles Juice decided to come to Illinois, and it was only after he committed that the famously stellar 2007 and 2008 recruits would come in.

Juice led this team to its first Rose Bowl since the 80's and its first winning season since 2001. Juice beat Ohio State practically by himself, and has been the face of this football team his entire career.

All of this should let you know just how serious a decision this was for Zook. With all of these factors suggesting he would stick with Juice, Zook must know that unless this season is turned around there could be consequences that most Illini fans would have thought unthinkable just a short time ago.

This decision means Zook knows his job is probably on the line with this season, and that even the past success and friendship of Juice were not worth risking his job. I don't believe there is any precedence for this, even going back to his Florida days. He has always stayed loyal, perhaps to a fault, to his players.You can call it desperate, or you can call it overdue, but I assure you Zook would not have made this decision lightly. If you want to know how out of hand this season has gotten, this is exhibit #1.