Arrelious Benn is no longer part of Fighting Illini Football.
The junior WR decided yesterday to make the leap to the NFL.
This is the third straight year that an Illini junior is leaving
the team early (Mendenhall, Davis) to cash in on the big bucks
and get away from the Zooker. Benn is projected to be a
mid-first round draft pick.
It will be interesting to see what Benn
has to say about his now former program. When Mendenhall
left after the Illini had a great season and made it to the Rose
Bowl, the Pittsburgh Steeler standout was less than enthused
when talking about his former coach.
As Deadspin reported in 2008,
"To tell you the truth, as long as Ron Zook is there it will be
hard for me to support the University of Illinois football
team," Mendenhall said.
I really have to wonder if Benn will say anything like this.
Mendenhall left strictly because he didn't like Zook.
Vontae Davis left after last season because of a 5-7 campaign
after his leadership and work ethic were questioned by the
Zooker. His draft stock was pretty high as well.
So why is Benn leaving? I think it could be a number of
things. Internal rift with the coaching staff? The
team coming off a 3-win season? Doesn't want to hurt draft
stock any more with the chance of getting hurt next year?
Whatever it is, I look forward to hearing from him.
Whatever the reason, this will be a big blow to the Illini.
Sohpomore WRs A.J. Jenkins and Cordale Scott, along with TE
Hubie Graham have already decided to transfer. Charest may
also leave the offense with rumors that he may transfer.
The departure of Benn could mean the loss on more recruits.
The Illini are shorthanded in recruiting with only 9 commits
(according to Rivals) as of right now. DB Corey Cooper is
considering withdrawing his commitment for Notre Dame as well.
There is only one offensive commit (QB Chandler Whitmer) and one
athlete (Daniel Easterly) who seems to project better as a DB.
I feel this is unacceptable. 9 recruits? I thought
the Zooker was supposed to be a good recruiter. Well,
where are the recruits? He's loading up on 3 star players
which is fine, but there aren't very many of them. Every
other school in the Big Ten has at least 15 and Illinois has a
low 9. How are we supposed to fill the holes on offense
when there are no offensive players on the team?
Well, it looks like we're close to getting Trulon Henry, Benn's
25-year-old brother as well. Great, another defensive back
with off the field issues. He'll fit right in...
Nice job Zooker!
The BCS SUX
Posted By: Alan W. Boswell 12/15/09
Found this video and really liked it-- we hope you will too
Fire Turner Gill
Posted By: Gary Zeeman 12/14/09
So there is a website getting some publicity from SI and it's
about a head football coach of a Power 6 Conference School.
No, it isn't this one, sadly, It's
Fire Turner
Gill. We just want to say that
this new site is crap and that they need to shape up.
It's obvious they copied our general
layout, especially the banner with the "FireTurnerGill, Why Fire
Turner, and Who Else" across the top of the screen.
In addition, spring for a better
hosting service. Pay the extra money to remove the GoDaddy
stuff from the top of the screen.
What's up with the color scheme?
Doesn't Kansas have blue and red, not gray and red?
I don't even want to hear how Turner
Gill sucks, nobody is worse than the Zooker. And how about
you actually tell us why Gill is bad besides two small
paragraphs? Publish some content!
Career Statistics: Way to use
your web space wisely.
Your "who else?" section is awful.
You want Jim Harbaugh? Why would he leave Stanford (when
they are the best they've been in a while) to go to a mediocre
program. That's like saying Harbaugh would come here after
Notre Dame turned him down...
Fire Turner Gill, your site is bad.
I hope it gets better. I'm not saying this site is
perfect, but I'm just a kid that knows very basic HTML and puts
hard work into it. Your site lacks commitment at this
point.
Shape up.
Laughter is the Very Best Medicine
Posted By: Gary Zeeman 12/13/09
Somebody made a hilarious video about the
Rons. It wasn't us, but we like it a lot, and yes, it's
one of the infamous "Hitler videos."
Better Luck Next Year
Posted By: Gary Zeeman 12/11/09
Well, ESPN is reporting that Ron Zook is coming back next year.
4 assistant coaches were fired
including OC Schultz.
Not sure if this is enough to appease
the boosters in the long run but you better believe that the
Zooker is going to have a giant bulls eye on his back next year
and will be on the hot seat.
And we will be watching. You
better believe it.
Getting Closer
Posted By: Gary Zeeman 12/11/09
Ladies and gentlemen, we're getting closer to firing Ron Zook!
Although it hasn't happened yet, the heat is on AD Ron Guenther
and I'm sure we'll get something certain within the next 48
hours on whether he is staying or going.
The latest news is this-- The State
Journal- Register is reporting that boosters aren't too happy
with Zook and they want him gone.
Here is the link. I'd like to put this into context.
Think of this like a college student
getting an apartment on campus.
The student has a certain amount of money that they have from
their job or what they've saved over the years to buy whatever
they want much like the Illinois football program is allotted a
certain amount of money from the university.
However, few students can live on their
own. They rely on their parents to pay for tuition, rent,
utilities, and food. Well, the boosters are like the
parents; you NEED them if the program is going to survive.
If a student makes his parents mad, well, you better believe
that the parents won't be quite as enthused to pay the electric
bill next month.
Many people keep wondering if it would
be in the best financial interest to buy out $5 million on his
contract. Well, Illinois is expected to lose thousands of
season ticket holders which will cost the university a
considerable amount. It's not 5 mil, but depending on the
number that it actually is, it could easily be a couple million.
And others aren't so inclined to donate money to the program
anymore. It is with these losses that I believe the 5 mil
to be irrelevant. Even if the losses don't add up to it
this year, they will next.
Until then, we have to keep on
believing people. BELIEVE!
Change Imminent?
Posted By: Alan W. Boswell 12/10/09
We all know about Ron Guenther’s public show of support for Zook
when at the Purdue game, saying there would be changes made but
not at the top. Well, there’s some really interesting
developments going on in just the past day that are making it
look like that support may be gone and just maybe Zook won’t
survive ‘til next season.
I think all this is
compounded by the news coming out today that Hubie Graham and
A.J. Jenkins will be transferring, and there are reports that
Cordale Scott might too (St. Louis Today). Another post said
that Hawthorne may have requested permission to talk to
Missouri, which would be a huge blow to the team. Coming on the
heels of C.J. Fiedorowicz’s
withdrawing his commitment and choosing Iowa instead, all these
player moves don’t help Zook’s case at all.
We must remember
that even with the sources, until it is made official all this
is just rumors. Whatever the case, stay alert for the next day
or so for what may be some great news to wrap up the semester.
Fixing the BCS
Posted By: Gary Zeeman 12/6/09
The only thing we can count on in today's current College
Football postseason is for there to be controversy. There
may not be as much as there was last year, but there still is
some.
Well, today I propose to you the use of
a 8-team plus-one system format that would remedy the solution.
In my format I would have the top 8 BCS Standings teams play in
4 bowls (Fiesta, Rose, Sugar, Orange) The #1 would play the #8.
#2 v. #7 and so on. The games would be played on Jan 1st
and 2nd.
This season, it would look something
like:
#1 Alabama v. #8 Ohio St.
#2 Texas v. #7 Oregon
#3 Cincinnati v. #6 Boise St.
#4 TCU v. #5 Florida
These four matchups would provide for
great excitement and close games. In no matchup (except
maybe Alabama v. OSU) would a team have a significant upper
hand. No matter what, one of the undefeated teams is going
down in the Cincy/BSU game.
After this round of games is played
out, the voters of the Coaches Poll should be able to chose the
top two teams which would play in the National Championship a
week later. Think of all the possible scenarios.
Under this format, if there happens to be an uneven matchup
(perhaps TCU is much better than Florida), voters can chose to
put TCU in the NC.
If Alabama loses and Texas wins, Texas
would likely play Cincy, TCU, or BSU, depending if they win and
how well they play
If Florida, Oregon, BSU or even OSU win their game by a
significant amount, they could play in the NC.
The point is that the voters get
to decide once again. Determining the first 8 teams will
be decided partly by computers, but the last won't. If a
team stands out in the final week, they will get another shot to
stand out once again.
For instance, if we had this system in
2007, BSU would likely have played for a National Championship
because of the popularity they received among voters.
In this example, Georgia Tech would be
left out but I would argue that they are not worthy of a spot.
The at-large teams (Florida [12-1] BSU [13-0] TCU [12-0]) all
have better records than Georgia Tech. Tech does not make
it because of the Harris/Coaches/Computer poll composites do not
rank them high enough.
The system I propose would only extend
the season by a single game. An 8 team playoff would
extend it by two weeks which is simply too long. A 4 team
playoff would not be fair in this season as there are 5
undefeated teams. A 16 team playoff is simply mad.
Just think about it, a plus one works
because it gives the voters the opportunity to see how these top
8 teams do against each other. In the end, it may turn out
that Alabama plays Florida in the NC, but at least at that point
we know they are worthy after playing a top 8 team respectively.
LIVE Twitter v. Fresno St.
Posted By: Gary Zeeman 12/5/09
Hey everybody, sorry for the lack of posts again-- busy week.
However, we will be live Tweeting during the game today from
Memorial Stadium. Be sure to follow us at
Twitter.com/givezookthehook (@givezookthehook)
Copyright
givezookthehook.com.
All Rights Reserved.
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