Until he actually coaches a football game, high school, middle school, even Pop Warner, I ask that Kevin Olsen (“Poor decisions seal Illini fate against Big Ten opponents,” Oct. 25) please refrain from using his column as a “Football 101” clinic. You are entitled to your own opinion of whether or not Coach Zook is or is not a good coach. But few people with 25-plus years of coaching experience get hired at a Big Ten university without knowing how to coach a college football game. Coaches do not single-handedly lose games. They may make poor calls throughout the game but at the end of 60 minutes, the 11 guys on the field determine who wins and loses the game. End of story. Are we better than a 6-3 team? There is no doubt in my mind that we are. But 99 percent of the country could not have fathomed that we would have had the success this season that we are now having. I ask the DI, the student body and the community to stop bashing our coaches and players and finally start really supporting this team. I promise you that every player out there is giving everything he has. So for the first time in six years can we all start being positive and get behind our team because we truly have something special and something to be proud of.

Mark McGoey

University alumnus, ’06