Usually reporters are the ones asking the questions, but Illini head coach Ron Zook decided to flip the script a little this week.

“What’s the difference between the football team today and the Monday before Penn State and the Monday before Missouri?” Zook asked a group of huddled media members after practice earlier this week.

No one answered the coach, but I’m sure everyone had the same thought on their mind: the chance of playing in a bowl game.

With only a pair of games remaining this season, a sense of urgency that didn’t exist before Missouri or Penn State now looms over Memorial Stadium. While one more win will technically make the Illini (5-5, 3-3 in Big Ten) bowl eligible, most are saying two wins are needed for Illinois to even have a chance. That’s something this columnist believes is an outside shot at best.

Where did it all go so wrong?

While many have been playing the blame game, pointing fingers at Juice Williams or the defensive line or the never-ending search for Rashard Mendenhall’s replacement, it’s almost impossible to narrow the blame down to one simple cause. Based on what the Illini have shown us, the blame goes deeper because we’re not getting the full picture.

One of Zook’s reocurring themes is that he’s always satisfied with the way practice is going, and that it’s not the cause of the team’s failures. The question keeps getting asked, however, because no one knows what’s happening at these practices because they are closed to the media – something new this year.

It’s behind Zook’s fake transparency where the real problems occur. I look around and see no other explanation, so it must be somewhere else. That’s right everyone, I’m talkin’ bout practice.

“Practice is everything,” said offensive coordinator Mike Locksley. “We spend a lot of time here.”

While it’s great the coaching staff devotes hours of their time away from their families in preparation of each week’s game, legendary basketball coach John Wooden said it best: “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”

We know what these coaches do, but we know nothing about how they do it.

When I worked for the football team during Zook’s first season as Illinois’ head coach, I remember his practices being nothing but intense. Although a certain amount of time was spent working on offensive and defensive plays, the majority of practice was watching two grown men beat each other to a pulp in one-on-one drills.

In one instance, I remember when a player had his knee bent backwards while trying to block his teammate, which was one of the more disgusting things I’ve seen in my life. He was silently carted off the field but quickly replaced by a new challenger, and the hollering from teammates on the sideline started again.

It was very primal, but it brought a new atmosphere to Illini football.

So is practice still like this? Does Zook still emphasize intensity? Do the coaches still make the players get after each other with the same ferocity as they once did?

As far as I know, the Illini are a team training to be professional track stars. I’ve only seen them running conditioning sprints at the end of practice. That’s it.

This only adds to the evolving enigma of this team. The Illini have so many weapons and so many athletes that it’s amazing they can lose a game like they did against Western Michigan. While everything might look right on the outside, it’s more obvious to me now there’s something wrong with what we’re not seeing.

After several lackluster performances, Zook has put some of the blame for the team’s play on the players’ lack of focus and energy. This is something I’ve always had a hard time believing.

“If you can’t get excited to come here and play this game when the fireworks go up and 70,000 people are erupting, then you’re in the wrong business,” linebacker Brit Miller said.

I think what coach Zook fails to realize is that most of the players on his team will not be playing in the NFL. For them, this is the highest level of football they will play for the rest of their lives.

If that can’t get them pumped up, then I don’t know what will. So instead of (whether intentionally or not) throwing their players under the bus, maybe the coaching staff should take a long look in the mirror before questioning their team’s focus.

The cliche says that a team takes on the personality of its coach. Well if that’s true, then these players are frustrated and confused like the man who leads them out onto the field Saturday (see Jeff Cumberland breaking Mikel LeShoure’s jaw and Eddie McGee getting arrested). Those aren’t exactly the characteristics I want my team to take into a game.

Maybe, however, we are all to blame. Maybe it’s our fault for being content with the explanation that practice is fine. Maybe it’s our fault for being left in the dark about what happens in the week leading up to a game. Maybe we should have demanded more transparency from the start.

Then maybe, just maybe, the coaches would point that finger at themselves.

Kyle Betts is a graduate student. He can be reached at [email protected].