CHAMPAIGN – It's been a rough autumn for Ron Zook and the Illini. The team has fallen drastically short of expectations.

But regardless of what happens at Northwestern in Saturday's chilly finale – whether or not Illinois gains bowl eligibility – the time has come to sit back and let Zook work through the difficulties. He wasn't perfect when Ron Guenther hired him. That coach doesn't exist. But he is the primary workhorse who has lifted Illinois from the football dregs.

News you can't leave work without:
Northwestern is headed to another bowl game. Former coach Gary Barnett
wonders why some of us are surprised.
"For some reason, people don't remember that Northwestern has had three
Big Ten titles in the last 13 years," he told HQ on Wednesday

Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald didn't know his team was an underdog for Saturday's game. Until a reporter told him Tuesday.

He didn't argue about it. And you don't get a sense he will worry much about it.

EVANSTON (AP) – In the three years that Pat Fitzgerald has been the head football coach at Northwestern, the Wildcats have steadily improved.

After going 4-8 in his first year, Fitzgerald led the Wildcats to a 6-6 mark last season. This year, with only one game left in the regular season, Northwestern sits at 8-3 with a bowl game guaranteed.

INSIGHT BOWL
Illinois vs. Kansas
This is assuming an Illinois win against Northwestern on Saturday, which is anything but a sure thing. If the Illini win, and if Ohio State lands a second BCS spot for the Big Ten, all league teams will be accounted for. And that means more flexibility for the bowls, with the folks in Tempe grabbing the Illini over seven-win Minnesota or seven-win Wisconsin. The Jayhawks have taken a fall similar to Illinois this season.

Illinois football fan Ben Lenkart of Springfield read last week's column about Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis and couldn't resist e-mailing me:

"Mike, I thought you might have mixed up your column notes when I read, 'He's either a poor evaluator of talent, an ineffective developer of players, an inadequate game-planner, a feeble motivator, a bad game coach ... or all of the above.'

EACH WEEK, WE'LL TAKE A LOOK BACK AT A MEMORABLE MOMENT IN ILLINI HISTORY, THANKS TO THE WORDS OF LOREN TATE AND THE MEMORIES OF JIM TURPIN.

This week: A look back at the UI's win against Northwestern that capped off a 9-0 run and a Big Ten football title in 1983

CHAMPAIGN – Illinois coach Ron Zook won't spend a second thinking about his team's bowl scenarios this week.

"It doesn't make any difference to worry about them," Zook said. "Unless you win, it makes no difference. The only thing we can do is win, and then there's no guarantee. That's the only thing we can do to help that scenario."