Last week the Illini football team imploded and lost at home to the Minnesota Golden Gophers, one of the worst teams in recent Big Ten football history.
Words can’t really express a college football let-down of this proportion, although we tried to do so here.
Now a really promising 5-3 team that many pundits believed would finish 8-4 or even 9-3 doesn’t even look like a bowl team. Yes, they could very easily not get that critical sixth win to earn a postseason game and 15 extra practices.
A question from a reporter about the “b word” prompted Illini Head Coach Ron Zook to deliver this Jim Moraesque “PLAYOFFS???!!! YOU’RE TALKING PLAYOFFS?!” rant.
Thanks to The Last Angry Fan for the photo.
It’s actually very common for football coaches to often repeat the same word in their press conferences. MUCH more so than in other sports. You’ll often hear “they’re a good football team. They run the football well, it’ll be a good football game.” etc. You never hear that “staying on message” pattern in the other sports, or if you do, it’s nowhere near as much.
The other takeaway from this is noticing how The Zooker refers to his players as “they’re grown men.” I find that funny because he’ll often refer to his players as “kids” on numerous other occasions. It’s interesting to hear him shift between referring to his players as “kids” or “grown men,” depending on the situation and the context.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest webzine. He’s also a regular contributor to the Tribune’s Chicago Now network, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
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