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EACH WEEK, WE'LL TAKE A LOOK BACK AT A MEMORABLE MOMENT IN ILLINI HISTORY, THANKS TO THE WORDS OF THE NEWS-GAZETTE

Today: With the 2009 season opener less than a week away, we'll revisit Ron Zook's first game as Illinois coach. At halftime it looked bad; afterward it looked like bedlam, the Illini rallying for a 33-30 win against Rutgers.

Headline: Crowd pleaser — Zook's debut has Illini fans on their feet

Date: Sept. 23, 2005

By BOB ASMUSSEN

CHAMPAIGN – The crowd chanted its new hero's name, "Zook. Zook. Zook." And the first-year coach sprinted over like a high schooler, pumping his fists in the air and shouting, "Thank you. Thank you."

"I wanted them to understand that we appreciate them, that we need them," Ron Zook said.

He didn't think about jumping in, Lambeau Field style.

"I'm so tired, I'd probably have fallen down," Zook said.

Moments earlier, Zook was at midfield, surrounded by cameras and well-wishers. Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman gave him a hug, shouting, 'I love it!' over the cheers from the field and stands. There was pandemonium at an Illinois athletic event. And no basketball in sight.

The scoreboard showed Illinois 33, Rutgers 30. It could as just as easily have said "Zook 1, Critics 0."

But Zook didn't jump at a chance to fire back at the people who wanted him out at Florida.

"I'm happy for these players and proud of them," Zook said. "I want to enjoy this thing and probably go home and root the Gators on."

Ten months after being fired at Florida, Zook is 1-0 in his new job. With one of the most stirring comebacks in Illinois history. He became the first coach at Illinois to open his career with a win since Mike White in 1980.

For Zook bashers, Saturday's comeback had to be hard to swallow. The coach kept his team pumped up the entire time, speed-walking on the sideline and telling his players to believe.

Maybe, just maybe, Zook knows what he is doing.

"This shows that Ron Zook is a helluva football coach and that he can prepare guys," UI offensive coordinator Mike Locksley said. "Given a chance, Coach Zook shows and will show he's always been a fighter. He's always been a guy who has had to work and scrap for everything he's gotten. That's how our team plays."

"I think it is redemption day," Illinois linebacker J Leman said. "The funny thing is, it just didn't start in the middle of that third quarter when we started coming back. It started a long time ago when Coach Zook was hired."

Zook wasn't the only Illini who proved himself Saturday. Consider the following:

The quarterback who can't play at the Big Ten level?

Tim Brasic shot his mouth off in mid-July and got it benched. But he didn't follow his tongue to the sideline. After a dreadful first half that included three turnovers, the never-used junior played 30 minutes that will go down in Illinois lore. He ran. He threw. He ran some more. He had 233 yards in the air and another 77 on the ground. And afterward, he didn't predict another victory.

Zook didn't spend halftime pondering a quarterback switch. On Friday, Zook, Locksley and quarterbacks coach Ed Zaunbrecher talked about what it would take to force a change.

"As we said (Friday) night, it would really, really, really have to get bad," Zook said. "I told Ed at halftime, 'It's not bad enough yet.' "

After leading the team to the win, Brasic ran over with his teammates to the Illinois student section. On the way, backup Chris Pazan grabbed Brasic and lifted him into the air.

"It was unreal," Brasic said. "Chris knows so much about the game. I've learned so much from him. Before the game he told me, 'If it was anybody to play over me, I wouldn't have it be anybody but you.' He's just my guy, and it's a great feeling."

Brasic wasn't feeling so hot at halftime. So he had a little chat with himself.

"We worked too hard for me to go out there and mess it up," Brasic said.

The trouble-finding tailback?

E.B. Halsey's Illinois career was delayed a semester by an off-the-field incident. Earlier this year, he was arrested for unlawful possession of a vehicle on his return trip from New Jersey.

Neither Ron Turner nor Zook gave up on Halsey. Zook talked earlier in the week about Halsey's love for the school. Saturday, Halsey showed how much.

Without his 50 rushing yards, 60 receiving yards and 23 return yards, Illinois doesn't win Saturday. He scored the tying touchdown with 1:13 left in the game, leaping the final few yards after catching Brasic's swing pass.

"That's E.B," Zook said. "He's a winner. He's a competitor. He's a player. He's one of our leaders."

The leader had one more critical play in overtime, taking another pass, juking a Rutgers defender or two and sprinting back across the field for a 20-yard gain. The next play, Pierre Thomas plowed in for the game-winner.

The kicker who can't kick straight?

Thrown in as a starter as a freshman in 2004, Jason Reda had his troubles. He missed 5 of 12 field goals, including a 31-yarder in the closing seconds that would have beaten Northwestern. He also missed a pair of 28-yarders.

But Zook has shown nothing but confidence in the Rock Island native. And Reda came through Saturday. He hit a pair of field goals to help his team come back and just missed a 52-yarder at the end of regulation.

"The kid has taken so much criticism, probably from everybody," UI defensive tackle Ryan Matha said. "Coach Zook has really made it a point to work with him real hard. He had a great camp. You can't really ask a kicker to make a 52-yarder with a swirling wind. It almost went in."

Zook will happily trot him back out every Saturday.

"He's not going to make them all," Zook said. "I've never been around one or seen one who does. He's a good kicker."

The defenders who can't stop anybody?

Only Indiana gave up more yards or points in the Big Ten than Illinois in 2004. So when Rutgers quarterback Ryan Hart got off to a hot start Saturday, it was another case of "here they go again."

Then, without warning, something clicked for the defense. Rutgers, which scored 20 points in the first half, had seven in the third and fourth quarters. The rally from a 27-7 deficit wouldn't have happened without five consecutive stops by the defense.

"The great thing about this team is that nobody had to say anything," Matha said. "When Coach Zook came in at halftime, he said, 'We've got them right where we want them.' They put up these new signs in the tunnel. It's a 60-minute game, it's a 100-yard field. That's the truth. And it really played out today."

Both Matha and Leman were part of Illinois comebacks in the past that came up short.

"Today, we just kept believing and kept pushing," Leman said.

The team that can't win?

In the three years after taking the 2001 Big Ten title, Illinois went 9-27. In the past two years, the four wins came against a pair of Division I-AA teams, Indiana and Western Michigan.

Finally on Saturday, Illinois got a win against a school from a BCS conference. Without playing well. With three turnovers given up and none gained. With a staggeringly bad first half by a new starting quarterback.

"If you look at that first half, we were awful," Zook said. "You know what? We kept playing. We kept going. We hung in there. I didn't know we were down by 20."