My hands are down on both. With Zook I was long aware of the irrelevance of Illinois football and we weren’t going to get the total package in a coach. I was happy with Zooks recruiting and would have been happy to have him stay but spend his fall saturdays skiing at lake Shelbyville and leaving the play calls to staff. I was initially mystified with Underwood’s defense and how he stuck with it but was impressed with his competitive fire and toughness~ great qualities for the big 10 and missing in Bruce and John. For the record~ both of my hands are up for Lovie moving on. At the least he should lose control of hiring assistants and triple his recruiting efforts if allowed to stay.
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Hindsight being 20/20 we should of stayed with the Zooker because he was a tireless relentless recruiter. Just the opposite of Lovie
illini80
- Forgottonia
I certainly wasn’t calling for Underwoods head even last year after the poor start. I will admit by the end of Zook I was ready to move on. Mistake? Maybe, but there were issues building and a lot of coaching errors that were wearing on people. He had a lot of great recruits, but that too was on the decline. Had he stayed I have doubts about the trajectory of the program. Just my opinion. The Mike Thomas solution was a complete disaster that there is no excuse for.
Hands are definitely down. I give BBall coaches at least 3 years and he turned it around in year 3.
Regardless, it was still way better basketball than we’d seen under Groce. And I gave Groce all the way to a 5th year before I finally gave in.
The idea that we as fans aren’t being patient enough is false. We have spent half a decade seeing what Lovie can get us, and it’s just not what it should be.
Caveat: If he beats NW his job is safe. If he wins the game after as well I’d say he actually got pretty close to what we needed to see this year.
You’re kidding, right? He is on Year 5. So I know you’re kidding. You almost had me there for a minute.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
The romance of that magical 2007 season is strong enough on some folks to forget how recruiting completely fell off at the end. Zook has serious issues with game management and discipline. When the recruiting fell off, it was destined to end (quickly).
Zook's recruiting rankings at Illinois:
2005: 51 (Zook hired a little before signing day)
2006: 30
2007: 20
2008: 23
2009: 35
2010: 70
2011: 42 (Beckman ended up getting 14 of the 27 commits for this class)
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
Show of hands please for anyone who thinks we could make better coaching decisions if we could see into the future.
Everyone in the program knew he was getting canned no matter what.....Thomas had the papers ready before the season even started.
Zook was dead man walking....his only value was as a recruiter and since our recruiting had tailed off badly there was no good reason to hang on to him
Except when you have an AD who had no one even close to being lined up to be the next coach.....had all year ro figure out and gauge interest and you end up with Beckman after 1 skype interview...Thomas is the worst thing to happen to Illinois athletics.
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
OK, I initially agreed, but the slush fund tops it. Can I put him even with Pearl? Pearl only ruined 1 sport (that could have kept building) for a decade. Thomas ruined the 2 major sports for a decade.
Hands are down. That was his second year with a young team. FYI we beat UNLV. Coaches get at least two years no questions asked unless there are glaring mistakes. BU had a great turnaround in the third year and his program is ranked in The top ten.
I was tired of Zook and losing games we should have won. When he was fired, the expectation was that we would hire someone to get us to the next level and not just scraping out six wins a year. Zook had seven years. That didn’t happen so we hired Lovie to come in and clean up the mess. Lovie has had five and there is zero sign that he’s the guy that’s going to get us to 8 wins a year. The team is poorly coached and recruiting is dead. It’s time.
Deleted member 747671
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I understand that by the time it ended, replacing zook was the right idea at the time. But before and during the start of the season, why was Thomas/administration so eager to get rid of zook? Going into that season you had the new coordinators with 1 year under their belt, coming off a bowl win over Baylor. There was more legitimate reason to be supportive of zook and the program at that time than damn near anytime during this Lovie era.
Because Thomas is spiteful, wanted it to be HIS guy and not RG.....even though he got lucky at Cincy.
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
In some ways, I suppose we should be glad that Thomas got his wish because it seems like in the end, it hastened his own departure. If we want to play the "go back in time and change decisions" game, deciding not to hire Mike Thomas would be a good place to start.
Deleted member 747671
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That's what makes that coaching search even more embarrassing. He had all year to figure out which of "his guys" he could get to take the job and somehow lands on Beckman. I feel like both his coaching searches went the same way: get public rumors going about talking to the top guys (Sumlin, Stevens) and end up falling back on the lower tier MAC guys (Beckman, Groce). The one thing Thomas seemed to be good at was hiring coaches and he failed miserably here.
Sumlin's agent laughed when Thomas called.....that speaks volumes
Could Jeff Monken or his brother be what we need to succeed recruiting wise? I find myself hung up on recruiting when talking about Jeff to anyone. *Assuming he doesn’t run the triple option, recruiting is my biggest question mark on Jeff.
I don't think Todd would want to take this job at this stage in his career, as for Jeff I think he would recruit a very specific type of player that fits what he wants for his system/program, my question with him is if he sticks with the triple option could it sustain success in the B1G or would he adjust the offense if he came here.
Deleted member 747671
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With Todd, do you think he's trying to get back into the NFL? If not, I'd guess Illinois is about as high up of a program that he could get unless he's fine waiting a few years and is able turn Georgia into an offensive juggernaut.
I don't know enough about Jeff's history, but hiring a guy who runs a pretty specific system and then having him completely change it seems pretty darn risky. In that case, is he seen more as a great leader and less as a great systems guy?
I am not sure about Todd, think he just think he is looking for the right fit at this stage of hiss career whether NFL or college. Jeff is a great leader and I think he is a good system guy with his system but do think he could tweak it.
TMC999
- Not Iowa
That's quite a statement.
Slush fund was certainly worse, but I get your point. Lovie is rapidly climbing the charts in this category
I agree, I would assume itd be a modern qb run/spread option type offense but recruiting was my concern. So we want a guy to mend the relationships with instate coaches, is he the right guy? I dont know just throwing stuff out there
Not too many football coaches belong to Mensa. Herman does.
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