ESPN front page: "You've Been Zookered!"

So this is the great cosmic joke the game has played upon the populace as we careen into the second half of the 2011 season:

Ron Zook (2) is a factor. A major factor.

Who else feels like we're starring in an episode of "Punk'd"? This is a guy with a 34-45 record as coach at Illinois ... a guy who would have been fired at least twice by now in Champaign by most fully functioning athletic directors ... a guy who was fired at Florida, where he's remembered as the 37-game mistake between Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer ... a guy who is 0-4 against border rival Missouri, 0-2 against Fresno State and needed a fourth-quarter field goal last month to avoid going 0-2 against Western Michigan ...

... That guy now has Illinois 6-0 for the first time in 60 years and in charge of its own destiny in the Big Ten.

Pat Forde