The Linking Illini respects Mr. Butkus and his views (for fear of violent reprisal)

Hey its a late start today, but unless you are up for 9am, most of my college aged peers aren't even up yet anyway. Its another day of anger and disappointment  out there on the news front, and we probably won't be seeing too much good news until we beat Illinois State on Saturday.  Oh well just have to slog through it. To the Links!

• Illinois receiver Benn returned to practice on Tuesday - ESPN
  Well it was good to see him back in practice, even though Zook readily admits that Benn is pretty much day to day. I honestly believe that this team should have no trouble beating ISU, with our with out the best player that either team could possibly hope to field. So if he is held out Saturday, I am fine with that. What I am more concerned about is him coming back for the 3 game stretch on murderers row. Without him, given our game against Mizzou, how much of a chance to we stand against them?

• Zook doesn't need Dick Butkus to tell him Illinois is against a wall - Dr. Saturday -
  Sweet lord of mercy, Dick Butkus even at age 66 is not a man I would like to have as an enemy. Sure he doesn't outright say that its all Zook's fault but he does make an odd math reference "I'm three times seven" which apparently means he thinks its all Zook's fault. More to the point though yes, this team looked very unprepared for Saturday's game, and that is ultimately Zook's fault. But I think the real evaluation of him will be the entire season. If he can keep this team from falling apart over these next few games long enough to beat the easier team that Illinois has no business losing too. Its going to take the whole season to really assess Zook's performance.

• The Quad " Red Grange Honors & Statue Installation
  On a much lighter note this weekends game will feature the commemoration and honoring of the greatest football of the 20's and 30's Red Grange. The statue itself is already up outside of the West wall of Memorial Stadium. The statue stands 12 feet tall, which amazingly is only slightly taller than life size. Grange was known to be able to step over would be tacklers and for his ability to eat entire barrels of sausage in a sitting.