When I heard Ron Zook was going to be late to his own press conference for signing day, I immediately thought Zook might show up beaming over an unexpected recruit he just signed.

He didn’t.

But there were plenty of unexpected things going on Wednesday.

Three Illinois defensive recruits had not signed Letters of Intent (LOI) by the start of the press conference.

Zook’s first recruit to officially sign an LOI with Illinois was top 10 wide receiver Derrick McPherson.

McPherson didn’t even orally commit to Illinois.

He told Zook he would sign about eight hours before signing.

This is national signing day.

Unusual things happen.

Especially when you recruit till the ink is dry on the LOI’s like Zook does.

Rivals.com four-star JUCO defensive end Ismail Abdunafi and Florida cornerbacks Kennard Banks and Andre Powell did not sign LOI’s.

Abdunafi singed later Wednesday night with Illinois, according to scout.com.

But Powell signed with Louisiana-Lafayette instead. And Banks is as close to free agents as a college kid can be.

He may still sign with Illinois. Sometimes it takes a player a few days to turn in their LOI.

But the longer Banks is unsigned, the uneasier Zook becomes.

“You feel good (they will sign), but you never know until that fax comes along,” Zook said.

Maybe there was a paper jam.

Maybe they had second thoughts.

That is why Zook looked at the caller ID on his cell phone twice during the press conference.

You just never know.

Illinois isn’t used to these kind of signing day crises.

Under Ron Turner, Illinois didn’t really have that many surprises in the days leading up to signing day.

Turner signed his players early – 21 out of the 24 recruits from last year committed by December.

In the Midwest, players sign early.

Zook is from the South. Players sign at the last minute – and can change their minds numerous times.

The Southern mentality to recruiting is a player isn’t committed until he faxes a LOI.

Abdunafi originally committed to Texas A&M; before changing his verbal to Illinois.

Linebacker Sam Porter decommitted from Michigan State and signed with the Illini.

Fellow linebacker Rahkeem Smith signed with Illinois after Iowa withdrew its scholarship.

These players would have never signed with Turner.

Turner would have been the coach losing players to other schools.

Just like Turner lost Josh Hagis, Bobby Buchanan and Fabien Martin after they verbally committed to Illinois last year.

Recruiting is riskier for Zook.

He received commitments from over half of this recruiting class in the final two weeks of recruiting.

Zook isn’t afraid of not using all his scholarships if players go somewhere else at the last minute.

Most coaches know who to expect LOI’s from on signing day.

Zook doesn’t know who he has signed until he looks at the name on the LOI.

This way of recruiting is more exciting. Also, more nerve racking.

In the last 48 hours, Zook inked McPherson and fellow wide receiver Greg McClendon.

Both are superb athletes and two of Illinois’ better signees.

McPherson is to wide receivers what fellow signee Rashard Mendenhall is to running backs.

And Mendenhall has been compared to Walter Payton.

Not too shabby.

This is just year one of the Zook Experience on signing day.

I can’t wait to see what the sequel has in store.