[Oskee] Juice benched

Tue Oct 6 14:07:53 EDT 2009

Man, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm really beginning to wonder if in fact that's not the real problem (that Zook has no idea what he's doing).  As all Illini fans are painfully aware after the Turner era, some coaches - no matter how nice they are or how good they are at strategy or how hard they work - are simply not head coaching material.  Because of their ability in a particular area, they end up getting promoted beyond their level of competence (the Peter Principle?).  I just don't get a sense of confidence when I hear Ron speak.  I feel like he's just trying things scattershot to see what might work rather than having a plan.  If the players see that as well, I can't imagine it does much to inspire confidence in them either.  He's clearly a tireless worker, and seems to know a lot about defense.  But that doesn't make him a great leader.

All that said, Todd has made some excellent points about Juice.  Every game I've watched has been on Tivo, scanning through huddles and commercials, just trying to watch in whatever time I have, which usually leads to me being less than observant, so I've missed a lot of that.  Also as much as I hate it, I'm no longer emotionally invested in this team.  I watch all the games I can get on TV, which is most all of them thanks to the Big Ten Network, and probably always will, but I don't find myself cheering the good plays and bemoaning the bad plays like I do when I watch the Bears.  I just don't even care enough to analyze what they're doing anymore.  I've become resigned to the fact that if we're playing a better team, we will lose, and if we're playing a worse team, we've got a decent but not certain chance to win, and it just takes all the fun out of it for me.

But yeah, it's great to have some discussion going on here again -- keep it coming!  I just don't have time to follow high-volume online forums, so this is my place for talking over the Illini, aside from the very occasional trip out to join the local Illini club watching a game.

-- robert

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From: John Livengood <jdlive at yahoo.com>
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 10:00:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched

Like I said, why not make the change earlier in that case? Maybe Coach Zook doesn't have any idea what he's doing and is simply grasping at straws. Certainly he's got to realize he needs to get things turned around soon or he's going to be feeling the heat with only 1 winning season at Illinois in 5 years.

Also, I don't think Juice is the reason we rank dead last in the Big Ten in rush defense, 10th in pass defense, last in total defense and last in scoring defense.

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From: Michael Korst <illinir1 at comcast.net>
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 10:48:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched

Perhaps Coach Zook watched the game film and saw the terrible performance that we all saw live.  In fact, maybe he watched Juice's game film from his last 5 games.....all losses.

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Livengood" <jdlive at yahoo.com>
To: "Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List" <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 9:30:02 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched

Right, but supposedly Zook left Juice in against PSU so he could "play through it", i.e. find his game on the field. So he does that, even though some of it's in garbage time, and NOW you bench him? Doesn't make any sense to me. If you're going to make that change, should have been done long ago. ________________________________ From: Todd Sweet Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 9:52:26 PM Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched Well, that’s true, he did have a few good passes downfield (which I agree is one of his strengths). But without putting points on the board, those yards are almost as meaningless as the 2 TDs were at the end of the game. Which brings me to another issue this team clearly has…and this has nothing to do with Juice. But the stupid penalties are driving me nuts. And to me, that gets back to the coaching issues. TS ON a sidenote…it’s nice to see some chatter on the list again!!!! ________________________________
 From:oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] On Behalf Of John Livengood Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 8:39 PM To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched Actually, more than half of Juice's yardage came in the first half, and much of that in the 2nd quarter when they actually had him throwing the ball down field! I agree his TDs were meaningless, but disagree that he didn't play well. When he was given opportunities to utilize his abilities, he did well. ________________________________ From:Todd Sweet To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 9:13:19 PM Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched I agree with you, JL, that Eddie (like Juice) shows flashes of greatness, and then makes stupid turnovers. I’m not sure he’s the answer either. What I disagree with is you comment that Juice had a somewhat good game. Many of his throws were behind the receivers. And most of his
 production came in the 4th quarter. If McGee had come and scored 2 tds late in that game, everyone would have discounted them saying he got them during trash time. That’s when Juice got his as well. PSU playing soft to run out the clock and probably with 2nd and 3rd stringers. I do agree that Juice has had to deal with the toughest part of the schedule. Maybe it isn’t fair to pull him now. But he doesn’t look like someone ready to confidently lead this offense at this time, so maybe this will shake things up. All I know is I’ve watched way too many football debacles since Macovic left town. It’s embarrassing that a school with some very rich football history can’t at least muster up a mid level bowl game every couple of years. And let’s not forget who is responsible for putting this brutal schedule together this season. Cincy may turn out to be the best team we play all year. TS ________________________________ From:oskee-bounces at heins.net
 [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] On Behalf Of John Livengood Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 7:59 PM To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List Subject: Re: [Oskee] Juice benched Also meant to add, I think the real problem has been not using Juice's strengths, which are running the option and throwing more down field. I realize teams are taking away the long passes by sitting back in deep zones, but the option's been working yet we don't run it much. Run that until they stop it, then see if the safeties might be vulnerable to some passes. But to keep trying to make Juice into a ball control, short passing QB wasn't going to work out. ________________________________ From:Robert Mingee To: oskee at heins.net Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 5:31:10 PM Subject: [Oskee] Juice benched I'm sure you've all seen the story by now that Juice has been benched (though curiously it is not reported on fightingillini.com). Opinions? Personally, I don't see how you can
 possibly pin the losses on him entirely, but as the team leader, he's ultimately responsible, and I can't really blame Zook for wanting to shake things up. As with last year, consistency continues to be his biggest problem -- he's either really on or really off. I was really shocked to read how bad his stats are, though -- it didn't seem that bad from watching. >From a purely pragmatic perspective, this season is over before it even really started -- I don't see any way for this team to make a bowl. Yes, they have faced tough competition, but it's not really going to get much easier, and I just don't see any spark on this team. It's like they're going through the motions. There just doesn't seem to be any hope of them beating a team that's better than they are, because they are so lacking in intangibles. The defense can be exciting at times, but it's so inexperienced. And the offense continues to be so much less than the sum of its parts, for whatever
 reason. So I guess there's really nothing much to lose, except further demoralizing Juice, which really is regrettable. He seems like a decent kid, and he's done some amazing work in his career, but he's just not getting it done. If there's any hope for next year, it's getting Eddie some solid experience in this offense. Sigh. When does basketball season start again? -- robert 
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