[Lefty Noob]

Illinois head coach Ron Zook brought in the greatest recruiting class in the history of Illini football this year, but not everyone believes he did it on the up-and-up. According to an Associated Press article, John L. Smith is among those who think that Zook may have violated NCAA rules to secure his awesome corps of recruits. Of course, there is no proof... it could just be that Zook really is that good of a recruiter. What do you guys think?

It's on the up and up. Looking at his past, Zook recruited for Miami as an assistant coach to Steve Spurrier, helping to get the title in 1996. Urban Meyer gave Zook the credit with Miami's championship win last year-- Zook recruited all but one of Miami's starters on that team.

John L. Smith asked, "What are they selling?" He acts like Illinois has nothing to brag about! It has a proud football and sports history, beginning with Red Grange and George Halas, who started the Chicago Bears. The Chicago Bears even played at Memorial Stadium for a season a few years back when Soldier Field was being worked on. Yes, it's great enough to be used for the pros. It has loyal, loyal alumni and fans. Illinois is in the top 25 of world universities and has everything going for it academically (ranked even above Northwestern, whose assistant coach insulted Illini academics in the NY Times article). A few years ago, the football team won the Big Ten championship and played in the Sugar Bowl, and some of the teams whose coaches spoke up haven't won a Big Ten championship since then. It's a huge, beautiful campus, two hours away from one of the best cities in the world. It has everything to sell to these kids.

Since Smith spoke up, let's compare the Illini to the Spartans. When was the last time MSU won a Big Ten championship? They last won it in 1990 (tied with Illinois, natch) and they've won 6 in all. Illinois has won 15, third most of any Big Ten team, and the last was in 2001.

Hopefully, Zook can coach these players as well as he recruits them.