[Oskee] Juice benched

Wed Oct 7 10:37:17 EDT 2009

I have chosen to detach myself emotionally from the football team.  I record
the game on the DVR and check on the results before hitting play.  No more
allowing a poor performance to ruin the rest of my day/weekend/week...

I hate being a fair weather fan, but I can't take it anymore.  I reserve my
blind allegiance for the Illini mens basketball team and the St. Louis
Cardinals.

Chad

On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 7:32 AM, Arbuckle, Jeanne <jarbuck at ilstu.edu> wrote:

>  I appreciate the conversation here, as well. If you put it in my mailbox,
> I will take time to read it, but I don’t have time to go looking for it!
>
>
>
> I, too, am starting to question Zook’s ability as a head coach. I wanted it
> to work out because on paper, he recruits great players. Better than we’ve
> ever had before. But now I’m starting to question whether they really are
> better than we’ve ever had. Maybe we are getting them because they have
> flaws we don’t realize at the time.
>
>
>
> *From:* oskee-bounces at heins.net [mailto:oskee-bounces at heins.net] *On
> Behalf Of *Robert Mingee
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:08 PM
> *To:* Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List
> *Subject:* Re: [Oskee] Juice benched
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *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.
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *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 <From%3Aoskee-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 <From%3Aoskee-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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