Drop Dead Pat Forde

So sayeth Pat Forde in this article on ESPN.com:

Syracuse-Illinois (14): The two worst coaching hires of 2004 square off. Greg Robinson (5-20 at Syracuse) and Ron Zook (5-20 at Illinois) compete for the right to give their fans false hope that they're turning things around.

Two worst coaching hires? Interesting. I don't know anything about Greg Robinson and Syracuse, but here is something I do know.

Ron Zook took over a program that was in an absolute shambles. He came in and inherited Ron Turner's god awful program and we got our crap handed to us in 2005. Last year we were competitive in almost every game, and nearly picked off Wisconsin at Camp Randall and Ohio State at home. This year so far we lost our starting QB and still almost beat the team that most are picking to win their division, and our defense tossed a shutout last week while our running game continues to impress.

Ron Zook in his only two years running the program has stunned the college football world by having unanimous top twenty recruiting classes his first couple of years. He has worked, sweat, scratched and clawed to recruit top notch players and he has done it. He has done it so well that fatboy over there in South Bend is bitching to high heaven and so are some others.

If we stay healthy, Illinois will be going to a bowl game this year for the first time since 2001.

It is my mantra to give college football coaches three, and maybe four years to prove their worth. It isn't fair to criticize them for not being able to instantly perform! They have to totally dismantle the old system, and rebuild it from the ground up. It isn't fair to give Bret Bielema all the credit for the success of the UW football program is it?

Anyway, this crap statement is just another example of the la la land most of these sports writers live in - all Forde did is look at the record under Zook and say that Zook sucks. Of course, in the meantime Urban Meyer won a national championship at Florida - with whose recruits?

So Pat Forde can drop dead, and keep criticizing people of whom he knows nothing about - but it doesn't really matter - these sports writers are pretty much never held accountable for anything. I would like to see where Pat Forde had Michigan ranked in the pre season.