Zook is a players coach, kids like him, that's why he's a good recruiter.
But the knock on him at UF was that he was not willing to be enough of disciplinarian. He simply was too nice, and his game management skills were not the best. But nobody here denied his abilities as a recruiter.
Your description of Zook sounds very much like Tom Crean, the basketball coach at Marquette, except Crean still makes the mistake of leaving his players out to dry with the media, after he was successful in getting them to commit to playing for him.
From watching Zook's team this year he appears to me to have learned a great deal from his experience at Florida. Illinois could very well end up being a one year wonder team in the next 5 years.
Congratulations from a Canes fan, who seldom roots for the Gators, but did last night. Alot of us did, wanting a bit of payback, and boy did your guys deliver!
Tressel was humiliated last night, as was the entire OSU squad. It was sweet! Football played Southern style..