CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -It didn’t take long last Saturday for the calls to start rolling in to local radio shows.
Illinois football fans, normally a polite bunch, were clearly irked by the 30-0 loss to Ohio State. Said one: “Those of us who watch the games realize why Florida got rid of Ron Zook.”
Three games, two losses and one, big ongoing headache into a season that was supposed to be better than this and the Illini coach says that sort of reaction is expected.
“They are passionate about their football team. It’s kind of the society we live in now – everybody wants to be undefeated,” he said. “You just have to accept that as part of the business.”
be a cool, rainy Saturday.
“You can’t panic. If you panic, you’re done,” he said.
Joe Paterno, in his 44th season at Penn State, knows about job security. But if the questions he faced after Penn State’s 21-10 upset loss to Iowa are to believed, Paterno is feeling a little fan pressure of his own.
“The season’s a huge disappointment now because it’s 23 years now since you’ve been able to win a national title? I would tell them that I can’t do anything about that,” he said at a news conference. “I think people that have those kinds of expectations every year, obviously, have to be ready for some disappointments.”
It’s unlikely the pressure on Paterno is anything like that on Zook.
Three months after he received a contract extension stretching his deal with the university into 2014, Illinois’ slow start has led to questions about the direction of the program. Zook himself relayed an anecdote from an assistant coach’s wife.
“I guess there was an older lady in her 70s who couldn’t understand why I would get another year,” Zook said. “That’s part of the business.”
The Illini are less than two years removed from a 9-3 season that was good enough to get them a trip to the 2008 Rose Bowl and included a milestone upset of then-undefeated Ohio State in Columbus.
r just outside the Top 25.
Zook is counting on his team’s high level of experience.
“If we were all young like we were four years ago, then it’s a little bit more of a concern,” he said. “But we have guys who have been through the fire.”
That experience, and in particular a pair of players in their third full seasons as starters, fueled high expectations and is now helping drive fan discontent.
Quarterback Juice Williams, a senior who led the Big Ten in passing last season, is averaging 85 passing yards a game and hasn’t thrown a touchdown while tossing three interceptions.
The man who was supposed to be his top target, preseason All America wide receiver Arrelious Benn, has five catches for 42 yards and hasn’t caught a TD pass in almost a year.
Benn said he’s frustrated by his own drought but more concerned about the losses. The team hasn’t seen any sign that Zook is feeling the pressure.
“You would never hear Zook talk about those type of things,” said Benn, a junior who some say might skip his senior year for the NFL draft, and one of Zook’s biggest recruiting prizes. “Zook, you know, is focused on winning ball games. He’s a football guy.”
Penn State linebacker Sean Lee, who may miss the game with a sprained knee he’s been nursing since the Sept. 19 win over Temple, said he surprised by Illinois’ struggles.
track because of all the talent they have,” the team captain said. “We know we’re in for a big test.”
While much of the scrutiny at Illinois has focused on its offense, the Illini defense – playing without starting middle linebacker Martez Wilson, who’s out for the season – hopes it found a blueprint for handling Penn State’s offense in the Iowa win last week.
The Hawkeyes intercepted Nittany Lion quarterback Darryl Clark three times, sacked him twice had limited him to 12 completions in 32 attempts and 198 yards.
“They put a lot of pressure on Darryl Clark and hit him a couple of times,” Illinois defensive lineman Josh Brent said. “Not necessarily sacked him (a lot), but hit him and gave him happy feet a little bit.”
Paterno chalked up much of Clark’s bad day to the pressure and drops by receivers, adding that a rainy day might have played a role, too.
“We threw it pretty well, we didn’t catch it,” he said.
Paterno talked this week about his team being angry and upset after the loss to Iowa as they head to Illinois, a team that’s only beaten Penn State (3-1, 0-1) three times in 16 tries.
“If you really put the effort into it that these guys have put into it, and you lose, it hurts,” Paterno said, adding that it seems like a good time for the first road trip of the season. “We may need to just get away; get in a good, tough football game before a hostile crowd and go at it.”
A bunch of angry, wounded Lions might not be what Illinois needs right now.
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