Tate: Now's not the time to relax

CHAMPAIGN – Back in the seasons of 2002-03 at Florida, the losses to rivals Miami and Florida State were not exactly acceptable, but they didn't evoke the groundswell of grumbling and doubt that followed two unexpected three-point losses to Ole Miss.

Ron Zook won some big SEC games at Florida but faltering against the league's non-elites unleashed the crazies. And when the Gators fell to Mississippi State in 2004, athletic director Jeremy Foley started scanning for a replacement.

Four years later, a re-situated Zook is the driving force in a remarkable Illini football turnaround. A program that won two of 32 Big Ten games now has won seven of 10, with cherished triumphs against Michigan and Ohio State. And they're an 11-point favorite in Saturday's homecoming date against Minnesota.

But that's exactly what influenced a nervous Zook to come out swinging Tuesday, revving up the squad, firing up the fans and calling for every man, woman and child to come to the rescue. You'd think Osama bin Laden was on the way with an Al-Qaeda entourage.

"We need the 12th man in the stands," said Zook, acting as though his emotional cry could even influence the ever-lethargic media.

"We'd better be ready or this won't be fun," he said.

Know what? Zook has a point. A college football team is never so vulnerable as when it is coming off a prized triumph. Two years ago, Illinois rallied late to edge Michigan State 23-20, only to return home for consecutive losses to Indiana's Hoosiers and Ohio's Bobcats. Last year, inspirational home wins against Penn State and Wisconsin led to a 10-6 washout against struggling Iowa, this by an Illini team that averaged 27.8 points in a 9-4 campaign.

Two weeks ago, roughly one-third of the Top 25 fell in a rash of upsets. Then Saturday was relatively quiet. That's an alert signal. It means you better look out.

Making my point

On Sept. 13, critics were decrying the fact that Illinois scored 20 points against Louisiana-Lafayette. Then on Saturday, Illinois scored more points (45) against Michigan than ever on a day when no other Big Ten school scored more than 20.

How do you explain the scores of 16-7, 16-13, 20-6 and 20-17? Sounds like the old days, doesn't it?

Folks in the SEC and Big 12 would view it as mediocrity. Within the Big Ten, it is called familiarity. Everyone knows how to game-plan for everyone else. Except, maybe, the new guy, Rich Rodriguez. He's still getting the hang of things at Michigan, and he didn't take the Wolverine loss lightly or politely. It was, in truth, one of the few collapses by the Men of Michigan in a half-century.

The last game coached by Bump Elliott was a 50-14 loss to Ohio State in 1968. In the next 21 seasons, only Missouri (a 40-17 winner in 1969) reached 40 against a Bo Schembechler team, and it happened only four times under Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr. Michigan, you see, always has been renowned for its defense. They talk with pride about Schembechler's stern practices with helmets and pads every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Now in what some call the spread-formation, touch-football era, Michigan donned the pads on Tuesday only, and the team doesn't even come to the stadium Friday.

How long can we expect the Wolverines to struggle? Some say the talent will take over as soon as Rodriguez finds a quarterback. But there are those among us who wonder how the Michigan defense will stack up next season when six senior starters are gone. Michigan coaches, asked to name their best five players, tabbed only members of the defense.

Challenges await

Though Zook is challenging Orange Nation to rest up Friday and come out as towel-waving, ear-splitting fanatics Saturday, he isn't overlooking the players. Just as he called out Rashard Mendenhall last year, he is using that strategy with Juice Williams and other team leaders this time around.

"They want to be challenged," he said. "They want to be good."

Count Jeff Cumberland in that group. Cumberland has one catch this season, a 77-yarder at Michigan, and all eyes are on him as the Illini search for someone to support Arrelious Benn.

With his strength and athleticism, Benn is moving toward the NFL at a faster rate than previous Illini pass-catching greats Brandon Lloyd and David Williams. But Lloyd was surrounded by talented wideouts, and David Williams had the UI's best-ever pass- catching tight end in Tim Brewster.

In five games, diminutive Will Judson has 11 catches and continues to make himself a factor. However, Chris Duvalt, who speared two TD bombs against Missouri, shows only two short catches in the last three games. Freshmen have moved ahead of Chris James and Marques Wilkins. And tight end Michael Hoomanawanui, who started fast, had no catches Saturday.

Cumberland showed late flashes last season, particularly with four grabs for 131 yards against Northwestern. And he's big enough (6-foot-5, 251) to give Illinois some needed blocking on the perimeter although it was blocking, or lack of it, that brought about his conversion from tight end.

Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached via e-mail at ltate@news-gazette.com.

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