Illinois Football: Is Ron Zook Back On Hot Seat After Minnesota Loss?

After Saturday’s loss to Minnesota, everything that Ron Zook has accomplished during the 2010 season to keep his job at Illinois has been wasted and he is indeed back on the hot seat.

What happened to the dominant defense that Illinois showed through the first nine weeks of the season?  Why didn’t Mikel Leshoure, arguably the Fighting Illini’s best player, get more touches in the first half against Minnesota?  How does Illinois blow a 10-point lead with eight minutes remaining in the game?

Illinois football fans wish they could not only answers these questions, but somehow prevent them from even being asked.

After Saturday’s loss, which was Senior Day and the last home game of the year, it feels like Illinois finished the season without making a bowl game yet again.

The reality of the situation is that the Fighting Illini have two chances left to become bowl-eligible. Unfortunately, both games are anything but a lock for Ron Zook and company.

This week they travel to the North Side of Chicago to play the Northwestern Wildcats at Wrigley Field.  Not only is Northwestern 7-3 on the season, they are coming off a big victory against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Although the Fighting Illini are more talented than Northwestern, head coach Pat Fitzgerald has done for the Wildcats what Ron Zook has not been able to do during his tenure at Illinois, prepare his team for big games.

Northwestern suffered a big blow when it lost starting quarterback Dan Persa to a ruptured Achilles tendon against Iowa, but Illinois’ play the last two weeks shows that the Fighting Illini are unpredictable during their recent bout of inconsistency.

Win or lose, Illinois will travel to the West Coast in the final week of the season to play Fresno State looking to avenge their heartbreaking loss on a two-point conversion with two seconds left.

Fresno State is no slouch, posting a 6-3 record through the first 10 weeks.  Throw in the 2,000 miles that Illinois has to travel and the harsh atmosphere they will be playing in on the road, and it adds up to a tough away game for the Fighting Illini.

It doesn’t bode well for Ron Zook, up until the Minnesota game Illinois had basically won the games they were supposed to win (except the Penn State game) and lost the games they were supposed to lose.

Minnesota was the first game this season where Illinois lost a game they were supposed to win.

That poses the question: Are the Fighting Illini as good as they seemed?

Based on their play the last two weeks along with showing signs of blowing a chance to play in a bowl game for the first time since their Rose Bowl appearance in the 2007-08 season, Zook could be sent packing this offseason.

Although he had turned skeptics into believers and temporarily won over a fan base that is very critical of its head coach, the Zooker needs to meet with coordinators Vic Koenning and Paul Petrino and develop a game plan to somehow finish the season 7-5 if he wants to be assured he will be coaching in Champaign come 2011.

While Illinois has the potential to go bowling with a 6-6 record, considering one of their victories was over FCS opponent Southern Illinois and the loss at home to lowly Minnesota, the Fighting Illini may need to go 7-5 to play in a bowl game this season.

There are already seven Big Ten teams that have become bowl-eligible. 

The Big Ten currently has eight bowl bids.

If Illinois can win one of the next two games, they will more than likely be that final bowl bid.

At this point, if Zook can get his team to regroup and claim their sixth victory of the season, he should return to the Illinois sidelines in 2011, but will be skating on very thin ice.

BOWLED PREDICTION: TicketCity Bowl