To the point of "do we want 8-4 and a game at the Citrus Bowl" or "9-3 and get destroyed by OSU and likely destroyed in the Rose bowl", I'm torn...
You can definitely grow too fast for your own good, and I fully believe that's what happened to Zook in '07. I often wonder if going to the Rose Bowl was a detriment to the program. If he gets Illinois to the two bowls first, THEN the Rose Bowl, it's seen as growth. I think that the fact we got to the Rose Bowl was seen as more of a "flash in the pan" that got exposed by USC, and no recruits really got on the hype-train. Zook certainly could have been a part of that. Regardless, I do think about it often about what would have been had we done a couple lower bowls first, then the Rose Bowl.
The biggest difference this time around are the NIL and transfer rules. A trip to the B1G West followed by a slaughtering by the Buckeyes probably turns more eyes than it did in '07. Maybe...