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Three questions with ... Illinois coach Ron Zook

The military fan just got back from the trip of a lifetime. Zook and four other college coaches visited U.S. troops in Germany and the Middle East. Needless to say, Zook was impressed with what he saw. Someday, he'd like to go back.

Did it change your perspective?

Greatly. No. 1, what they do so we can live the way we live. What they go through and not in a "You owe us something" type attitude. In a prideful type attitude. They're proud that they're able to serve America and keep us safe."

What's your relationship now with the other coaches on the tour (Harvard's Tim Murphy, Army's Rich Ellerson and Oregon's Chip Kelly)?

When you spend as much time as we spent together and travel as far and in as many different situations as we did, you get pretty close to everybody. There were, all in all, probably 30 people in the travel party. To me, a nine-hour flight is nothing now. The first two days, we flew about 8,000 miles. We were in tight quarters. The living conditions were not too bad. You knew where your bunker was if the siren went off.

Did you ever feel you were in danger?

They're playing a flag football game in Iraq. Coach Murphy and I are coaching one team and the other two are on the other side. They're getting into this. On a dirt field. One of the guys who was kind of our protection comes up to me and says, "There was just a mortar that hit inside the base. It didn't go off. If it goes off, don't worry." I said, "What?" It puts a whole new perspective on coaching. You're looking around. That's the way of life. It's like a thunderstorm to them. If there's a thunderstorm, you take cover. That base, the defense system is the best in the world. It's easy to see why we are the police of the world. It's amazing.