FB | No dirty tricks

Once accused of shady recruiting tactics, Ron Zook is seen by coaches and players as a talented, but clean recruiter

By: Joel Godett

Posted: 9/13/07

Ron Zook's not a dirty recruiter. The Illinois football head coach just works harder than everybody else.

"The first thing he's going to tell (an assistant) is that he's going to work just as hard as you are at recruiting," said Reggie Mitchell, Illinois' assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator. "For him, recruiting is seven days a week, 24 hours a day."

That effort has become evident during Zook's career. It was he who recruited much of Florida's 2006 national championship team, including quarterback Chris Leak and All-American safety Reggie Nelson. It was he who picked up the 20th-ranked recruiting class with Illinois in 2007 by Scout.com, including more five-star prospects than national powers Notre Dame, Ohio State and West Virginia.

But with that success, Zook has had his recruiting ability questioned since he arrived on Urbana-Champaign's campus in 2005. Some, like former Michigan State coach John L. Smith, were critical of how an unproven head coach could lure top prospects to an Illini team with just two bowl berths in the past 12 years.

Earlier this year, Smith told The New York Times, "If they had a winning program and all of that, it would be a different deal. If they had the greatest facilities in the world, then maybe they could sell them. But what are they selling? Where there's smoke, there's probably fire."

But what if there's no smoke to begin with?

"(Zook) seemed to me like somebody who was keenly aware of the rules and was not going to break them," said Scott Niedzwicki, head coach at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio. Niedzwicki coaches receiver Justin Staples, a senior and verbal commitment to the Illini for next fall.

"I'm not going to close my eyes if I'd have seen it," Chicago Vocational High School coach Charles Chambers said. Illini quarterback Juice Williams came from Chicago Vocational as a four-star recruit in 2006. "If I'd have seen (violations), I'd have spoken up about it. … Some weird things happen on college campuses, and I'm not gonna let Juice get caught up in all of that."

In fact, Craig Jefferies thinks Zook is the last person to look at when it comes to recruiting violations. Jefferies coached Illinois' five-star freshman receiver Arrelious Benn at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.

"If you look at the programs that get upset when they lose kids, then those are the ones that are probably doing stuff because they have something more to lose," Jeffries said. "Ron Zook hasn't gotten all the kids he's recruited. You look at the other programs that complain and cry when they lose a player. Why take shots at Illinois because you didn't get him?"

All of those sentiments appear to be the case with Zook and his program. Mitchell went as far as recalling what his boss said when he was first hired. The assistant said Zook told his new staff there's one way to lose your job - cheating in recruiting.

So if Zook is clean, how is it that some of the best in the country spurn offers from the likes of Ohio State, Penn State, Southern California and Notre Dame to play at Illinois? Once again, it comes down to hard work, but also personality.

"When I talk to Coach Zook we rarely talk football," said Jeffries, who has sent three players to Zook at Illinois. "We rarely talk about the individual players. We talk about conversations about how my wife's doing and how the little things are going on. He's trying to have a relationship with you where you feel he's sincere about the questions.

"One question all coaches will ask me after they do all the 'busy' questions is how do they stand with the kid? Zook has never asked me that. That lets me know that he's really sincere about all the other things he's asking about."

Offensive lineman Graham Pocic noticed that same quality when Zook came to recruit him from Lemont Township High School in suburban Chicago. The three-star verbal commitment said the Illinois coach stood out because he never asked the same question twice - because Zook remembered the answer from last time.

Pocic also said Zook wasn't like most head coaches in that he didn't come off as so "high profile."

"A lot of other coaches…just don't like to deal with you," Pocic said. "Recruiting is always the assistant coaches dealing with it."

As Illini recruiting coordinator, Mitchell understands why prospects don't get that feeling from his boss. He said that when it comes to recruiting, Zook still sees himself as an assistant, working not just the high-profile prospects and the ones close to committing, but every target nationwide. And it's not just an act for the job - that's how the coach really is.

"I've learned early in coaching that I have to coach who I am and recruit who I am," Zook said. "…You learn from successful people, but in the same token, you have to take your own personality into that. I just try to be me."

In addition to personality, proximity is another big recruiting tool. Niedzwicki said that's what got Staples to commit to Illinois. The wideout's family lives in both Chicago and St. Louis, and with the campus about halfway between the two, Illinois made a perfect fit.

That said, Staples isn't an in-state prospect. It's those players that Zook targeted from day one on the job. He told Mitchell and his other assistants that recruiting starts in Illinois. If the team can't find what it needs there, the search works it way outward. Zook's goal is to make Illinois the best recruiter of in-state talent.

So far, that initiative has been successful, luring the likes of Juice Williams and five-star defensive end Martez Wilson.

Now what remains to be seen is whether Zook can finish at Illinois what he couldn't at Florida: win a national championship himself - not his recruits - under a new head coach.

One thing, however, is for sure.

"It's my opinion that (Zook's) in the top two (recruiters)," Jefferies said.