Rashard Mendenhall, the University of Illinois’ All-time Everything Running Back from 2007, and now a Pittsburgh Steeler, nearly left the team before the start of the 2007 season.

How close did he come to leaving?

“There was a point where we were at the stadium and I was ready to start walking out and my brother stopped me,” Mendenhall said. “I wasn’t walking out like I was playing around for the day. I don’t play around with stuff like that.”

And why was he so close to leaving? Apparently because of Ron Zook.

“Everything always looks good on the outside,” Mendenhall said. “Nobody really knows except for the people who are there and involved with it. The only thing being on the outside that you can know is what people allow you to know from talking to me or from talking to (Ron) Zook or anybody within the organization.”

Bottom line for Mendenhall was that he didn’t enjoy the season the way you think he might have.

“When you find things that were said, you can kind of read between the lines and see that everything wasn’t as it appeared to be,” Mendenhall said.

Mendenhall’s current relationship with the Illinois football program can best be described as strained. You won’t see him on the sidelines of Illinois games during the upcoming season. Or in future years either.

“To tell you the truth, as long as Ron Zook is there it will be hard for me to support the University of Illinois football team,” Mendenhall said.

Let’s be clear, every team has transfers. Every team has a few players that are “disgruntled.” But it’s pretty freaking unusual for the star of the show to talk like this after the fact. You don’t see Brady Quinn lamenting the involvement of Weis at ND. How often do you hear about Reggie Bush making disparaging remarks about Pete Carroll?

I’m predicting at least a 50% drop in wins this season for the Illini coupled with reports of Ron Zook showing up at a frat house, fighting with frat boys, and trying to keep his players out of jail. Unsuccessfully, of course. Bob Davie, beware. Competition for those Wednesday night color commentary gigs is a’comin’.

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