Ask Tate about the incident here

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

This week: With Kentucky and the Sun-Times exchanging unpleasantries, it reminded us of when Ron Zook's recruiting was taken to task by unnamed sources in a New York Times article.

Headline: Talk's Cheap

Date: Feb. 9. 2007

By LOREN TATE

Somewhere in what Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany calls "the blogo-sphere," the faithful of Charlie Weis and Notre Dame are high-fiving and back-slapping this week.

They pulled off the ultimate Internet coup de grace.

They drove rumors of Illini recruiting excesses wildly around the message boards and found an unlikely taker in The New York Times. And enterprising Times writers Pete Thamel and Thayer Evans located enough grumbling rivals to pad a now-famous, expose-type article questioning the propriety of Ron Zook's recruiting campaign.

The problem is not that there is anything directly incriminating in the article. It's all bark and no bite. But the problem is that innuendo and sweeping generalizations lead to suspicion, causing a buzz on sports talk shows and influencing Notre Dame booster-celebrity Regis Philbin to raise doubts among his millions of TV viewers with an off-the-wall accusation: "Doesn't that look fishy?"

The subject drew center stage on ESPN's "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption," and ESPN rhymed a ridiculous lead-in teaser: "Is Zook a Crook?"

UI athletic director Ron Guenther, unhappily aware of Illini-Irish confrontations in recent months, took the Internet gossip seriously enough to hire an independent firm to investigate.

"It's defamation of character," Guenther was quoted, "and it's got to be challenged."

Protection plan

Guenther, an NCAAwise caretaker and constantly vigilant that UI alumni are acting appropriately, spoke Thursday night of his costly pre-emptive action:

"For legal reasons, there are things I can't get into right now, but we began looking into this more than two months ago when some allegations cropped up. We are not investigating our own people. We are protecting our own people by chasing the accusations to see where they came from. There is a lot of made-up material that affects our athletes and our recruiting.

"Before we hired Ron Zook, we checked and found he was impeccably clean, and his hires are the same. We see no NCAA problems with our people, and I have total confidence in our staff. But what's happening is affecting our guys and our recruiting, and we want to find out where it's coming from. We'll make a public statement at the appropriate time."

Beyond concerns with rival staffs, the UI-directed investigation is looking into the activities of various recruiting analysts who are unregulated and are believed to favor institutions that pay for their services.

Illinois, in the eyes of some of these analysts, doesn't belong in football's Top 15 or 20, recruiting or otherwise, and doesn't belong on a par with Michigan and Ohio State.

The New York Times article was headlined: "Luring the best to one of the worst."

Some New York Times questions are legitimate. Why would an All-America receiver sign with the Big Ten's weakest passing team? Why would blue-chippers be attracted by a 1-15 Big Ten record?

But in the end, it is the signing of just three or four blue-chippers – A.B. Benn, Martez Wilson, D'Angelo McCray and Josh Brent – that sets this Illini group apart from last year's excellent crop. And there is a valid explanation, a logical tie-in in each case.

Connection network

All-America receiver Benn brings to 11 the number of athletes from the D.C. area (only troubled Melvin Alaeze was obliged to return) since Derrick McPhearson, Will Davis and Rodney Pittman arrived in 2005. Vontae Davis, called by Zook "potentially the best defensive back I've ever been around," attended the same Dunbar High School as Benn and fellow recruit Nathan Bussey.

UI offensive coordinator Mike Locksley hails from that sector, is a longtime close friend of Dunbar coach Craig Jeffries and recruited there previously for Maryland and Florida. He is the main cog igniting the domino effect although he couldn't pull the nation's top defensive player, Marvin Austin, out of his alma mater, Ballou High.

Austin chose North Carolina, a down program that finished just ahead of Illinois on the Rivals.com recruiting list.

"Locks calls it 'friends and family' recruiting," Zook said. "If our players weren't happy, if our guys weren't headedin the right direction, the visitors here would see it and feel it. You can't orchestrate that.

"I returned from the road at 10 o'clock one night, tired and wondering if it was all worth it, and I saw these young guys in study hall, and in 20 minutes I felt good again. If I get down, I call them.

"Our players are our best ambassadors. Just get around our guys at 10 or 11 o'clock at night and I promise you'll be cheered up."

Wilson, the UI's second five-star recruit, is the handiwork of Zook and recruiting coordinator Reggie Mitchell, who has made a huge footprint in the Chicago area. Like Benn, Wilson is attracted by the personality and potential of quarterback Juice Williams and is the seventh Public Leaguer (and 19th Chicago-area product if you count nearby Indiana) to choose Illinois since Zook arrived.

Word game

Mitchell formerly served at Michigan State under John L. Smith, who has a history of making unhinged statements like "where there's smoke, there's probably fire" in The New York Times. Smith's tenure at Michigan State began to disintegrate in last year's loss to Illinois, and one of his prize recruits, Quincy tackle Jack Cornell, decommitted and chose Illinois.

McCray and Troy Pollard are high school teammates from Jacksonville, Fla., where UI assistant coach Dan Disch was 'an outstanding coach for 17 years,' Zook said, "and where he knows everybody and is highly respected."

Brent was a teammate of tight end Michael Hoomanawanui at nearby Bloomington Central Catholic.

Five new Ohio recruits, who fell just under the Ohio State radar, come as no surprise considering Zook's background and that of his former offensive line coach, Ed Warriner.

There are reasonable, understandable explanations for what has happened.

But is recruiting analyst Tom Lemming surprised? Yes, because Zook's success is a phenomenon unlike anything he's seen by a low-rung team.

Are Northwestern and Wisconsin coaches upset? Absolutely. Zook is biting into their livelihood in a big way. If they respond verbally, it can almost be expected, although Badgers athletic director Barry Alvarez might caution assistant Randall McCray who was quoted in the Times: 'If something (illegal) is going on (at Illinois), they'll get theirs.' Catty comments like that won't help him in his next job interview.

And Notre Dame? Well, Irish coaches and perennially frantic Irish Nation evidently feel it is their birthright to attract key prospects, and they became doubly stressed when it appeared Chicago Hubbard's Robert Hughes might join Benn and Wilson at Illinois.

Setting the record straight

Lindsey Willhite wrote in the Daily Herald on Thursday, "Their respective coaching staffs have been gouging each other's eyes on the recruiting trail since Zook arrived in Champaign 26 months ago. Now their escalating hostilities have spilled over into the media."

Zook is deeply offended by accusations and upset by tactics used in the attempt to change Benn's mind after he announced for Illinois.

But Zook declined to mention Notre Dame by name, stating: "I've been doing this personally since 1978 .. and never has there been any accusations."

He added further that 'we know for the most part where it's coming from. It's a shame to throw things out there and try to take away from a great university, a great athletic program and obviously the work that our coaching staff has done.'

The New York Times article landed too late to impact this year's recruiting. When the final returns ultimately come in, Zook expects that 23 of the 34 official visitors will be Illini, a remarkable percentage.

Guenther's initiative, in hiring an independent law firm, soon will reveal the source and significance of rumors. Then it's likely someone else will have an embarrassing moment.