The University of Illinois football program has undergone an amazing rebuilding process since Ron Zook took over. There are lots of possible parallels between Washington and Illinois.
A few experts feel that UW has the potential to be the surprise team of 2008 despite a murderous schedule. It only took Zook three years to get the Illlini back in a BCS bowl which is the kind of performance that Washington fans expect out of their coaching staff.
Willingham in year four has the talent on the squad to make a run, it is just a matter of getting that talent to mature and perform as a team. In 2005, the University of Illinois hired Zook to replace Ron Turner as the head coach. Zook inherited a program which had become a disaster since winning the Big Ten championship in 2001, finishing 1-11 in 2003 and 3-8 in 2004, including Big Ten records of 0-8 and 1-7, respectively.
In Zook's inaugural season of 2005, Illinois finished with an overall record of 2-9, and a record of 0-8 in Big Ten games. Despite his team's past struggles, Zook has improved the ability of Illinois to recruit top football talent. According to one source, the 2006 recruiting class was one of the 30 best in college football. Despite this, they finished the 2006 season 1-7 in the conference and 2-10 overall. While the record did not improve, the play on the field did, as the Illini nearly upset top ranked Ohio State in Champaign before losing 17-10.
Additionally, the Illini played well against Iowa, Wisconsin, and Penn State (they lost 63-10 the year before; Penn State led 56-3 at halftime) but ended up losing close games (they were down 15-12 at Penn State until Penn State broke open the close game to make it 26-12). The 2006 recruiting class included Isiah "Juice" Williams of Chicago Vocational High School, considered to be one of the top quarterback recruits in the country. They also signed Arrelious Benn, one of the top wide receiver prospects in the 2007 class.
More recently, Zook has also won over Simeon High School standout Martez Wilson, along with Florida prospect D'Angelo McCray. This class is one of Illinois' best in recent memory, being rated within the top 25 nationally by some experts. The Chicago area is a high school football hotbed, and there is no reason that the Illini shouldn't have great talent every year, but so much of it bleeds out to Notre Dame and the rest of the Big Ten. Zook is the first Illinois head coach in years who is starting to keep that talent home.
Part of the problem at Illinois is that every time they do well, they get caught cheating. That sends the program back into a dark hole for a decade.
The same sort of rumors started flowing again during Zook's tenure, but nothing substantial has come out as of this time. Most feel the rumors are sour grapes from South Bend and Ann Arbor. Zook's recruiting success finally began to pay dividends during the 2007 season. After losing a close game on neutral turf to a Missouri squad which would go on to be ranked as high as No. 1, the Illini ran off five straight wins, including back-to-back home wins over Penn State and Wisconsin.
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