Should Zook be let go?

I missed the game this weekend thank god, but that doesn't mean that I didn't watch the game again. People tried to talk me out of it, but I wouldn't listen, I had to see the carnage with my own 2 eyes. To be honest I have never seen a team like this Illini team. It is a horrible combination of bad coaching, bad decisions, and terrible luck. Usually during a loss of any team that I follow, I have a couple of questions that I want answered (none of them can be of course).

1) How is it possible to let Indiana score 10 points in 55 seconds without there being a turnover involved?
2) How can you score a touchdown, and then get a fumble on the kickoff to get the ball back, and not score in the red zone?
3) How can you be a fourth year starter at QB in a spread offense and fumble at the 5 yard line?
4) How do you get a stop on 3rd down and then have a 5 yard punt hit your defensive tackle for a fumble?
5) How do you go down 20 points with 10 minutes left, and then have a drive that eats up 6 minutes to cut the lead to 13?
6) How do you finally make a good catch this season and then get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to take you out of field goal range?
7) How do you get the ball back into the Red Zone with about 1 minute left, and not try to score or use the 2 timeouts left so that maybe you can try an onside kick and maybe salvage your team's season, and also your career?
8) How do you actually allow your defense to finally play tight on receivers, and then drop 2 easy interceptions?

I have never in my long life of watching sports seen a coach literally give up on his team like Zook and company did with the Illini on Saturday. It was absolutely disgusting. I can handle the losing, I really can. I have witnessed so many Illinois Football losses since 1999 when I first attended an Illini game, that I have become numb to the disappointment. Getting excited about Illini basketball in the middle October is just like getting excited about Christmas after Thanksgiving for an Illini fan. We are all used to it. However I have never in the last 10 years witnessed a coach give up during a game. I hope all of you realize that this is what happened. There is no other explanation for what happened at the end of the game. Ron Zook took off his headset with over 30 seconds left, when the team that he is the leader of was still trying to score. You could tell that Zook realized at that moment that it was all over for him. Here is what killed me about this:

Jack Ramsey caught a ball at the 4 yard line with 20 seconds left. Instead of using one of the 2 timeouts left to stop the clock and throw in the end zone a couple of times, Illinois walks up to the line of scrimmage and then runs a zone read option, and Juice gets tackled outside of the end zone.

I understand that the odds of Illinois scoring a touchdown, getting the on-side kick, and then completing a hail mary to win the game are about 1 in a 1,000,000,000,000, but to not even try is absolutely disgusting!!! Every person who is attached to the Illini, whether they are players, fans, alumni, parents, whatever, deserve better.

There are a lot of programs out there that have fans and alumni who have this unwarranted sense of entitlement. For some reason, they feel that they are owed a winning program because they spent 4 years drinking beer and occasionally going to class at that institution. They feel that because they donate a few hundred or few thousand dollars to the athletic department, that they should win a national championship every year, and if that does not happen, they should be allowed to scream at the top of their lungs to get the coach fired. Illini Nation is not this type of fanbase. The delusional idiots that propagate these other rabid fanbases are the exception at Illinois, not the rule.

This is why I am so disheartened with what occurred Saturday night in Bloomington. All that I ask as an Illini fan is that we compete for 60 minutes. I want a team that no matter how bleak the outcome might seem, they will not give up. That is what I feel entitled to. That is why I chose to watch the game after I already knew we just lost probably the worst game in the Ron Zook era. So what happens now? I really am not interested to see how the players respond to this loss, or the last 4 losses for that matter. I really want to see how Zook responds.

I know pretty much everyone wants Ron Zook fired at this point, and I can only come up with one argument as to why he shouldn't be fired. Ron Zook is the best recruiter in the nation. Now follow along here because this is not an idea that can be easily accepted.

Illinois is a horrible program. It has been for as long as anyone can remember. No one can come in here and recruit players like Ron Zook can. Why do you think there was such an uproar when Arrelious Benn and Martez Wilson committed to the Illini? Everyone in the country accused Zook of paying off his recruits. How else could he land 2 Blue Chip recruits at Illinois? Illinois is not USC, Notre Dame, or Florida. Hell we aren't even Iowa. High School kids do not want to come here to play. Rashard Mendenhall was the best recruit that Ron Turner ever got, the list that Zook has gotten is star studded. If we lose Ron Zook, then we lose the pipelines to Florida, Washington D.C., and also even Ohio. Sure he had a great recruiter in Mike Locksley, and has a great recruiter in Reggie Mitchell, but make no mistake, Ron Zook is the Mariano Rivera of recruiting, he is a hall of fame closer.

What needs to happen at Illinois is all of the assistant coaches accept for Mitchell need to go. The two headed monster of Dan Disch and Curt Mallory at defensive coordinator is a bad experiment that keeps getting worse. I have already voiced my opinion on Schultz at offensive coordinator, and it is safe to say that the only coach who has done a worse job than Schultz is the offensive line coach.

Now getting rid of the assistants is only the first step. The most important thing to understand about Zook is that from all reports, he is a micro-manager. He needs to be told that if he wants to still be a coach, he needs to change his system, and allow his coordinators to have room to operate their system. What is more important than getting rid of the assistants is to hire a defensive coordinator who is accustomed to game planning against spread offenses. 3 years ago, there were only a handful of teams in the Big Ten who ran a spread offense. Now the only teams that don't run some type of spread are Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan State. It has been said that Mallory and Disch are running the system that Ron wants, Zook needs to step back and realize that his philosophy on defense is completely flawed. How else do you explain how many quarterbacks and receivers have career bests against Illinois? If he hires an aggressive coordinator and accepts the fact that you need to put pressure on receivers and QB's to force them to make mistakes, then the defense can be salvaged.

If he wants to keep Schultz, that is fine, but he needs to realize in a god damn hurry that the Big Ten is not the Mountain West. Sure every year you might have a good team like Utah, but every week is a dog fight in the Big Ten. There aren't too many Wyomings, San Diego States, or New Mexicos on your conference schedule. And obviously 6 months was not enough time for him to learn what his offensive personnel was good at, so hopefully another year might help. Schultz was made for the Big Ten 10 years ago. 3 yards and a cloud of dust is over, and the sooner that Schultz realizes that, the better.

The only problem I see with firing Zook now is that there aren't too many people who will want this job. Sure Illinois just built a great new weight room and the facilities and resources are good, but with all of the jobs that open up in the SEC, ACC and Big 12 every year, I don't think Illinois is as attractive as most people believe. Coaches like Brian Kelly, and Mike Peterson aren't about to leave Cincinnati or Boise State for the likes of Illinois. For better, or more than likely worse, I think Illinois is stuck with Ron Zook.