Welcome to the Big Ten, Coach Zook.

Michigan State greeted the first-year coach with a 61-14 Big Ten hazing, which caused Zook to beg for forgiveness from the fans.

“I want to apologize to the Illini fans because obviously that’s not the kind of football team we’re going to be, and it’s not the kind of football team we’ve been the last three weeks,” Zook said. “We didn’t coach very well, and we didn’t play very well.”

Watching a team rebuild is a lot like going to see how hot dogs or laws are made – it’s ugly.

But the big surprise wasn’t Michigan State’s offensive showing, it was the Illini’s lack there of. To put up a meager 14 points against a Spartan secondary that had given up 341 passing yards a game is inexcusable.

Before this season began, the offense was touted as being fast-paced and fun to watch. But on Saturday, they were about as exciting as a Kenny G concert.

“It’s embarrassing,” quarterback Tim Brasic said. “You can’t let people come into your own house and let them score while you’re going three-and-out on every drive.”

The Illini had just 17 first downs, gained 271 total yards and crossed mid-field only once in the first half.

The offense was so bad that punter Steve Weatherford tallied more yards on seven kicks.

Brasic not only misread defenses and audibled into plays that still lost yards, he also scrambled with receivers open downfield.

“A clock goes off in your head and you think you have to do something,” Brasic said. “Sometimes I didn’t read it well, so some guy I thought was covered was really open, but it was too late.”

Before we all dwell on the Illini’s dismal offensive performance, don’t forget that prior to this season Brasic had thrown just one pass. To ask a first-time starter in a new offense to keep up with a blue-chipper like Drew Stanton doesn’t make sense.

In addition to having happy-feet, Brasic’s timing with receiver Kendrick Jones was still out of sync, and kept the Illini from establishing a deep-threat. As a result, Illinois once again needed to make big, long plays to put pressure on the defense, but instead was forced to rely on 14-play scoring drives, and couldn’t.

Zook said the Spartans didn’t do anything Illinois hadn’t seen on film, so I’m not buying that they came out flat. How do you come out flat opening the Big Ten season at home, with a new coach, and against a ranked team? Instead, I believe the fault rests with their lack of execution on offense. Without it, Illinois didn’t stand a chance against the offensive juggernaut of Michigan State.

Once the offense packed it in, it wasn’t long before everyone else followed suit.

“Maybe it wasn’t so much that we weren’t ready to play, we came out and tied it at seven, and had a goal line stand,” sophomore linebacker J Leman said. “We just quit when stuff started going bad.”

Now Zook has to pick up the pieces and move on from his worst loss ever. He said he’ll be going back to the drawing boad this week and reworking everything.

“We can’t go to the waiver wire,” Zook said. “But we are going to go through position-by-position and play-by-play and decide (what went wrong).”

This is your mulligan Illinois, another game like this, and I add a ‘d’ to this year’s slogan.

Extra Downs

The addition of Derrick McPhearson really solidified the punt coverage team. Illinois gave up points every conceivable way except by a punt return this weekend.

What did I think of Illinois’ execution? To steal a phrase from former Tampa Bay Bucs head coach John McKay, I’m in favor of it.

I have never wanted to drink that badly at 11:45 am in my life. That includes Unofficial.

Dan Berrigan is a senior in engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].