Illinois/Zook Recruiting

[LordJeffBuck]

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

I've about had it with your paranoia. Illinois has 26 commits, with no 5-stars, two 4-stars, and twelve 3-stars...they also have the lowest star average in the top 25.

...Not to mention several players with borderline academics. Count the stars when school starts next fall, not in February.

[osugrad21]

Canton Rep

4/25

Zook builds in Stark
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 By Todd Porter REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER
<table style="margin: 10px -3px 15px 5px; position: relative;" align="right" border="0" width="300"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td>

Ron Zook told the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club on Monday that he is committed to restoring University of Illinois football to a top program.

<center style="color: black; font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Advertisement</center></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> CANTON TWP. - On the first day Ron Zook could leave the beautiful 1,400-acre University of Illinois campus, he was 500 miles away.
The second-year Illini football coach was planting seeds in the heart of high school football. Zook made the journey to Stark County and spent 90 minutes with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Luncheon Club.
He exuded excitement for one of the Big Ten’s struggling programs. A pin on his lapel turned “Illinois” into “I believe in Illinois.”
Now Zook is trying to build a football team that does.
“This is my first day out, and where am I?” Zook said. “This is a hotbed for high school football. I don’t look at today as establishing a presence. This is just a great football area. There are great high school coaches ... they’re great people and they’re great students. All those are the things we’re looking for.”
Zook nabbed three Stark County recruits in February. McKinley wide receiver Joe Morgan, Massillon defensive lineman Antonio James and GlenOak offensive lineman Ryan Palmer signed with Illinois. No one should be surprised if any of them play early.
Zook is trying to breathe life into a moribund program. After two turbulent seasons at Florida, Zook was hired by the Illini to rebuild a football program that hasn’t had a winning season since it won the Big Ten in 2001. The last time Illinois had back-to-back winning seasons was 1989-90. The Illini’s record the last three seasons is 6-28 with just one Big Ten victory in 24 games.
“We have to change attitudes,” said Zook, a Loudonville native whose first head coaching job was at Orrville High School. “The attitude is slow, but surely, beginning to change. You change attitudes by bringing in new attitudes, and you keep pounding it on the guys who are already there. ... We’ve cut some fat from the program.”
When Zook begins fall practice, he will have 49 new faces, more than any Big Ten team in terms of percentage of new players. And he is in just his second season.
Illinois was the second youngest team in the country a year ago. He predicts 2006 will be better, but there still are growing pains as inexperienced players get indoctrinated to the Big Ten. The answer, he said, is to continue to recruit Ohio.
“... We’re making progress and taking the program in the direction it’s supposed to be in,” Zook said. “You can only do it so fast. You can’t buy experience. We’re recruiting the same athletes Ohio State is, and there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to.”
Zook made five stops at Stark County high schools, including Canton South, Massillon and McKinley. Massillon’s Brian Gamble and Andrew Dailey, South’s Devon Torrence and McKinley Morgan Williams are the county’s “Big Four” recruits for the 2007 class.
Zook is recruiting each of them.
“I don’t know in terms of a number we’re recruiting from here,” Zook said. “But if they can play, I’m looking at them.
“No school is for everybody. It’s important the guys we have coming in (from Stark County) are successful and love living there. ... We’re also selling something you can’t see. It’s important these guys coming in have success in all walks.”
Zook is trying to involve Illinois’ legendary player base. At last weekend’s spring game, more than 200 former Illini players came out, including Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus.
“He said, ‘You have a tough job,’ ” Zook said of Butkus. “I told him this is better than it was a year ago.”
n
Next week’s speaker is Joe Tait, the radio voice of the Cleveland Cavs. Ohio State men’s basketball coach Thad Matta will be the final speaker of the season May 10. The annual golf outing will be held May 15 at Tam ’O Shanter Golf Course.

[daddyphatsacs]

Zook just seems like a Big Ten kind of coach. He's got the right idea, and he's in a talent rich area. I think he'll start to snag away talent from Minnesota and Wisconsin.

[BuckTwenty]

I'd love to actually rekindle the football rivalry with those guys, because it's not much to talk about these days. Illibuck hasn't moved in quite a few years. I remember not too fondly the days when Illinois pwned our asses there for a good while.

I like Zooker. I encourage him to steal ALL the talent he can away from those two, as well as keep some of that Chicago-area talent home and out of the grasps of scUM and Iowa. With the talent he's starting to bring in, he'll have them outta the cellar here sooner rather than later.

[buckeye247]

Originally Posted by BuckTwenty

I'd love to actually rekindle the football rivalry with those guys, because it's not much to talk about these days. Illibuck hasn't moved in quite a few years. I remember not too fondly the days when Illinois pwned our asses there for a good while.

I like Zooker. I encourage him to steal ALL the talent he can away from those two, as well as keep some of that Chicago-area talent home and out of the grasps of scUM and Iowa. With the talent he's starting to bring in, he'll have them outta the cellar here sooner rather than later.

Thats the main reason why i wouldnt mind seeing illinois get better. They could steal some of that talent away from scum.

[MightbeaBuck]

Originally Posted by daddyphatsacs

Zook just seems like a Big Ten kind of coach. He's got the right idea, and he's in a talent rich area. I think he'll start to snag away talent from Minnesota and Wisconsin.

If he going to snag all the talent from that hot-bed of football: Minnesota; then the Buckeyes may as well forfeit all the games against the Illini during Zook's tenure.

[MililaniBuckeye]

[censored] Illinois. I vividly remember their beating us five straight and six of seven years in the late '80s and early '90s. In fact, aside from Michigan, no other Big Ten team has ever beaten us five straight. It wouldn't bother me if they never got better.