Ron Zook

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Ron Zook

Image:Zook.jpg
Date of birth	April 28, 1954
Place of birth	Loudonville, Ohio
Sport	Football
College	Illinois
Title	Head Coach
Record with Team	4-19
Overall Record	27-33
Coaching Stats	College Football DataWarehouse
School as a player
1973-75	Miami University
Position	Defensive back
Coaching positions
2002-04 2005-Present	Florida Illinois

Ron Zook (born April 28, 1954 in Loudonville, Ohio) is an American football coach and the current head coach at the University of Illinois.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Head coach at the University of Florida 3 Head coach at the University of Illinois 4 Trivia 5 Head coaching record 6 External links

[edit] Early career

Ron Zook played college football as a defensive back for Miami University, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1976. Zook immediately began coaching football, beginning at Orrville High School in Orrville, Ohio in 1976. In 1978, Zook moved to coaching collegiately, beginning at Murray State University. Through the 1980s, Zook held coaching positions at a number of schools, including Cincinnati, Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, and Ohio State University.

Beginning in 1991, Zook served as defensive coordinator for three seasons at the University of Florida under head coach Steve Spurrier. After the 1993 season, Spurrier reassigned Zook to be the special teams coordinator, a move considered by many to be a demotion. Nonetheless, in 1995, Spurrier added the title of associate head coach to Zook's position.

In 1996, Zook left Florida to coach in the NFL. Zook served three seasons as special teams coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and was the defensive backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1999. In the 2000 and 2001 seasons, Zook was the defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints.

[edit] Head coach at the University of Florida

In 2002, Spurrier resigned his position with Florida to become the head coach of the Washington Redskins of the NFL, and Florida hired Zook as his replacement. Spurrier had coached twelve seasons at Florida, and had taken a school with historically limited success on the football field to the position of a national power. Expectations at Florida were high, and Zook's hiring was not considered a popular one by followers of Florida football--Florida fans wanted the success of Spurrier, without the time required for building. In fact, one fan started a website, fireronzook.com, within a day of Zook's hiring, and the web site gained national media attention. Many fraternity houses even hung banners from week to week either praising Zook or calling for Zook's firing. He was well known for his quirky expressions ("If you sleep five hours really fast it feels like eight"), hard, honest work, and the various sayings which evolved from his name ("Zook 'em" or "The Zooker").

Zook was the head coach at Florida for three seasons. In those three seasons, the Gators compiled records of 8-5 (2002), 8-5 (2003) and 7-5 (2004). While achieving some modest success, Zook's record fell well short of the expectations at Florida. In his three years, the Gators lost more games in their home stadium (Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) than in the 12 seasons under Spurrier. Many of his losses were fourth quarter comebacks, causing many fans to question the prevent defense which Charlie Strong tended to call, also causing speculation of why Strong was demoted from defensive coordinator to co-defense coordinator upon Urban Meyer's arrival. Zook ultimately took the blame for the record, and was fired before the end of the 2004 season after a loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs, who had a 1-5 record prior to the game, including a loss to Division I-AA Maine. The game was lost on a 37 yard touchdown run by Jerious Norwood in the final minute of the game. Zook finished the regular season, but declined to coach the Gators in their bowl game, having already accepted the Illinois position. After the 2004 season, Zook was replaced as Florida's head coach by Urban Meyer.

Though not highly regarded by many Gator fans, Zook did have some achievements over his 3 seasons at Florida. He bested the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee on their newly-christened "Bobby Bowden Field" in his final game as head coach, something Steve Spurrier could never do. Also, he had winning records against many SEC foes such as Georgia (2-1) and Auburn (1-0). In addition, Zook would be responsible for the prevention of two undefeated seasons, with victories over the 2002 SEC Champion Georgia (13-1, losing 13-20 to Florida), and the 2003 SEC and National Champions LSU (also 13-1, while losing to Florida 7-19 in Baton Rouge). Zook was also a tireless recruiter, who brought a great deal of talent to Florida during his tenure as head coach. Following the Gators victory over Ohio State in the 2006 BCS Championship game, Urban Meyer gave credit to Zook for recruiting the large class of seniors who played the game.

[edit] Head coach at the University of Illinois

In 2005, the University of Illinois hired Zook to replace Ron Turner as the head coach of the Illinois Fighting Illini football team. 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 struggles thus far in his tenure, 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 [1]. Despite this, they finished the 2006 season 1-7 in the conference and 2-10 overall.

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.^[1] In late 2006, Zook signed Arrelious Benn, one of the top wide receiver prospects in the 2007 class.^{[2] [3]}. More recently, Zook has also won over Simeon High School standout Martez Wilson ^[4][5] along with Florida prospect D'Angelo McCray.^[6] This class is one of Illinois' best in recent memory, being rated within the top 25 nationally by some experts.^[7]

[edit] Trivia

• The television media, notably commentators on ESPN's SportsCenter and College Football GameDay, often refer to Ron Zook's teams as the "Zookers".
• Zook won his final game as Florida's coach at the newly named "Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium". As a result, many Gator fans jokingly refer to the stadium as "Ron Zook Field."^{[citation needed]}
• At the press conference announcing his new position, Zook mispronounced the name of the school by accenting the silent "s" in Illinois.^{[citation needed]}
• Was the only Big Ten coach to vote Florida as the number 2 team over the University of Michigan in the final USA Today Coaches poll of the 2006 season.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Head coaching record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl Game	Bowl Opponent	Outcome	Rank#
Florida Gators (Southeastern Conference) (2002 — 2004)
2002	Florida	8-5	6-2	2 - East	Outback Bowl	Michigan	L 30-38
2003	Florida	8-5	6-2	1 - East - T	Outback Bowl	Iowa	L 17-37
2004	Florida	7-4 (*)	4-4	3 - East - T	(*)	(*)	(*)
At Florida:		23-14	16-8
FIllinois Fighting Illini (Big Ten Conference) (2005 — present)
2005	Illinois	2-9	0-8	11
2006	Illinois	2-10	1-7	10 - T
At Illinois:		4-19	1-15
Career:		27-33
National Championship          Conference Title
†Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season.

(*) The 2004 Florida team finished 7-5 after losing the Peach Bowl to Miami. However, Ron Zook had already accepted the Illinois job and declined to coach the bowl game.

Preceded by Ron Turner	University of Illinois Football Head Coaches 2005–	Succeeded by Current
Preceded by Steve Spurrier	University of Florida Head Football Coach 2001–2004	Succeeded by Charlie Strong (interim)

[edit] External links

• Ron Zook bio at fightingillini.com