P.S. From what I recall of the 2008 class, everyone made it to campus, and the majority played out their eligibility, but 3 or 4 pretty highly regarded kids transferred fairly early in their careers after not getting much playing time as freshman or sophs (Cordale Scott, Hubie Graham, Reggie Ellis, maybe a couple more).
I'll doubt that I'll ever really understand how the Illini managed to go just 3-9 in 2009 despite being led by a senior QB and 16 guys on the roster who eventually would play on Sundays.
The number one thing I have noticed, after having been on the staff there during the Zook years, is how the quality of coaches was not very good. Now, one could argue that those same coaches led the Illini to a Rose Bowl, which is true for almost that entire staff in 2009. But look at where some of those coaches are now:
1) Jim Pry--offensive coordinator at Bethune-Cookman
2) Kurt Beathard--offensive coordinator at Illinois State
3) Dan Disch--head coach for a German football team
4) Mike Schultz--head coach at Lamar University
5) Reggie Mitchell--running backs at UTEP (Bottom 10 dweller the entire year)
6) Mike Woodford--special teams at Akron
While this is just a portion of the staff, this shows that many of these coaches may not have been cut out for Power 5 jobs (or it could also indicate a lack of connections to coaches at that level). Some of them were also not strong recruiters. However, it all falls back to the fact that Ron Zook was not cut out to be the head coach of a Power 5 football team.
