ESPN's Mark Schlabach is the recipient of only the 2nd ever Blind Squirrels/Big Nuts award for this piece about Ron Zook's recruiting success despite a miserable career of actual coaching. I've pasted some of the highlights below:
...Illinois football coach Ron Zook ... could sell you a used car, but might not be able to teach you to drive it. Zook could sell you swamp land in Arizona, but couldn't find the state on a map.
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...a masterful recruiter but a lousy coach.
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The Illini, perhaps best known for producing rough-and-tough linebackers such as Dick Butkus, Dana Howard and Kevin Hardy, needed a salesman as much as a coach, because after struggling as one of college football's worst teams for more than a decade, there wasn't much about Illinois to sell.
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Zook hasn't changed the Illini's fortunes on the field...
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His teams went 4-19 the past two seasons, including a woeful 1-15 against Big Ten Conference opponents.
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"A coach once told me it's better to be a bad coach with good players than a good coach with bad players."
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Illinois' football program has had only minor success -- the Illini have won only four Big Ten titles in the last 43 seasons -- despite being located in a heavily populated state with no powerful in-state rival.
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"...it's kind of like selling Mary Kay."
