RANTOUL – If you were looking for a gladiator to battle the toughest, meanest, nastiest son-of-a-gun on earth and had the entire University of Illinois athletic kingdom to choose from, the best choice might not be an athlete.
It might be a coach.
Mark Johnson is part pit bull, part chainsaw and all guts and grizzle. He’d take out Bad, Bad Leroy Brown with the back of his hand just for the stretching exercise.
Most people think it’s an exaggeration, but the Illini wrestling coach can still step onto the mat and whip any of his wrestlers, heavyweights included. That’s no small task considering that Johnson is now closing in on 50 and Illinois has produced seven individual national champions under his watch.
A former member of the U.S. Olympic team, Johnson is still in tip-top shape, and as he scours the nation for the best recruits, and it goes without saying he has an eye trained to spot athletic prowess and athletic imposters.
So while in Decatur the other night helping to raise money for Project Success, Johnson’s honest thoughts on the state of the Illini football program were heard with keen interest.
“You can see the difference right away, “he said. “There’s a different kind of athlete over there now. They’re bigger, they’re faster. He’s getting people we weren’t getting in the past.”
He, of course, is head football coach Ron Zook, who has undertaken the task of reshaping Illinois’ sagging football fortunes. Zook was hired in large part because he had a reputation as a coach who knew how to recruit. He had a thirst for recruiting, contacts in talent-rich places and an effective sincerity that seemed to work when making his sales pitch.
That was paramount to any turnaround.
During the decline following Ron Turner’s 2001 Big Ten championship, recruiting mistakes were made. Turner’s staff settled for players a cut below when what was needed were players a cut above.
Maybe Turner rationalized that he could “coach ’em up, “but he quickly found out that all the coaching in the world can’t make mediocre players big enough, strong enough and fast enough.
Ideally, you recruit great athletes who can run, then “coach ’em up, “and that’s what Zook and his staff are beginning to do.
Scan the current Illini football roster and you can see that Zook has not forgotten where he is. He still pays premium attention to the state of Illinois, but his radar doesn’t stop at the state line.
That’s what is becoming clear. Zook and his staff can to go the Washington, D.C.-metro area, or dip into Florida or muscle into Ohio to find prospects the past staff could not pry free.
There are nine Zook recruits from the Washington, D.C.-Virginia-Maryland area, and every one of them has the potential to make an impact.
Offensive coordinator Mike Locksley has great contacts there, and Zook is a familiar face in the region from his days at Florida. “Coach Zook walks into the high schools there, and people know him, “Locksley said.
Zook, offensive line coach Ed Warinner and receivers coach Dino Dawson have strong ties in Ohio – a state they have cultivated five recruits from.
And Zook, Locksley, Dawson and linebackers coach Dan Disch are known commodities in Florida.
What many of us, including Mark Johnson, are seeing is an increase in talent that should, in time, get Illinois pointed in a more favorable direction.
The question becomes how we define “in time. “How long before these talented newcomers can turn losses into victories, boost Illinois in the Big Ten standings and land the program back in the bowl hunt?
My answer to that question is that we’ll begin seeing results this season. How directly they will impact the win-loss record is difficult to predict, but we will see a more competitive Illini football team this fall.
“In the end I realize we’re going to be judged on wins and losses, but I want to be able to take the field knowing we’ll be in the game, “Zook said, citing that “competitive “factor as how he’ll evaluate the season. Naturally, he wants victories, too.
“We’re starting to get some athletes in here, “he said. “The key is to stack one good recruiting class on top of another on top of another. When you do that, that’s when you’ll become a winning program.”
That’s what I’m seeing. That’s what Mark Johnson is seeing. And there’s every indication that Zook and his staff already are assembling another strong recruiting class for next year.
Here’s a prediction: At the latest, Zook will have Illinois in a bowl game next season. More important, however, is that he maintains a winning level of success.
Turner’s undisputed 2001 Big Ten title was a great achievement, but no one is satisfied with dizzying one-year wonders. People want consistency. Fans are signing leases for preferred seating in the new Memorial Stadium, and those are not one-year leases. They are for five years, seven years, 10 years.
The university wants fans to buy in for the long haul, and that’s fine. But fans want something for the long haul, too. They want a product they can enjoy, that they believe in and that once and for all hoists Illinois far out of the Big Ten cellar.
Mark Tupper can be reached at [email protected] or 421-7983.
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