Zook from 'A' to 'Z'

There is no down time for a college football coach.

In the midst of another recruiting campaign, preparing for another Big Ten season and wondering how he will replace running back Rashard Mendenhall in his spread offense, Illinois’ Ron Zook was in Chicago on Wednesday for a conference meeting.

He took a brief timeout to discuss what makes him tick.

Q. Why college coaching?

A. I have been fortunate to coach at all three levels — high school, college and the NFL. It is different in the NFL. It was a great experience for me. But coaching in high school and college is more gratifying and rewarding because you are trying to help young men reach their goals.

Q. What is your coaching philosophy?

A. It’s all about the players, helping young men be the best they can be. Football is a hard game. You have to push people, maybe further than they think they can go.

One of the reasons we had success this past year is because our players allowed our coaches to coach them. They bought into what we were teaching them and tried to do it.

If one system was the best, everyone would be doing it. You have to believe that your system is the best there is. If you don’t, your players won’t.

Q. What is the most fun you get out of coaching?

A. Being on the field for practice. When I was with the Pittsburgh Steelers, coach Dick LeBeau said, ‘‘This would be a great profession if you didn’t have to play the games.’’ I coach because it is fun and keeps me young. It has taught me a lot of life lessons.

Q. What is the least enjoyable aspect of your job?

A. Losing. Teams change and players change, but the feeling after a loss never changes. Those are bad, bad days.

Q. How important is recruiting?

A. It is the lifeblood of college football. In the NFL, the draft is most important. Football is played by players. It’s all about them. Someone once told me that it is better to be known as a bad coach with good players than a good coach with bad players. I believe that.

Q. The best player you ever recruited?

A. The best player was Terry Love, from Proviso East, who played for me at Murray State.

But the best coach I ever recruited was Frank Beamer, now the head coach at Virginia Tech. He was at The Citadel, and I got him to come to Murray State, my first college job, as defensive coordinator.

Q. How do you evaluate a prospect?

A. Production. Football is a production game. In recruiting a player, I have to ask myself: What is his character? Can he help our program reach our goals? Will he graduate? But character is No. 1, no question about that.

Q. What don’t most people understand about recruiting?

A. Everybody has something good to sell. It is hard because you are selling something you can’t see, not a car, but a feeling, the prettiest picture. It is hard to get them to understand what a school can do for them.

Q. What separates a great player from a good player?

A. Production. I’m looking for something special, the guy who wants the ball in his hands no matter how pressure-packed the situation is, the guy who has the ability to take his level up, a winner, a guy who loves to compete.

Q. Are you superstitious?

A. I do things the same. Nike wants you to wear a different shirt for the first part of the season and another shirt for the second part, even a special shirt for the spring game. And I normally don’t wear a hat, but they want me to wear a hat with a swoosh on it.

Q. How do you relax?

A. I get on my boat, a Malibu ski boat, in Lake Clinton. I do a lot of water skiing. We do it as a family.

Q. If you could pick the brain of one person to learn more about coaching, who would it be?

A. Any of the great coaches — Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, Bear Bryant. But in coaching, you have to be who you are. You can’t coach like someone else. I’ve worked with a lot of great coaches, and I can’t be like any of them. But I’ve taken something from each of them, what fits my personality. The worst thing a young coach can do is try to be someone he isn’t.

Q. If you could have a conversation with three people of your choice, who would they be?

A. The president of the United States, Bill Walsh and a Navy fighter pilot.

Q. If you had it to do all over again, what would you do?

A. I’ve made some mistakes, but the best thing I ever did was marry my wife, Denise. I’d do what I’m doing right now. I’m very fortunate to be doing something I love to do, to be at great places and have a great family.

Q. One NCAA rule you would change?

A. I would somehow allow coaches to communicate with prospects more than they can now. It takes time to develop relationships. It doesn’t happen overnight. Coaches and prospects are asked to make decisions based on what we know about that person. It is hard to get to know people in the time we have: one call in May, call once a week beginning on Sept. 1, one home visit and one official campus visit. It isn’t nearly enough time to get to know them and for them to get to know us.

Q. One person you admire most of all?

A. The president of the United States. I know I’ll take some flak on that one, but think of what he goes through.

Q. What is your favorite pregame meal?

A. I’m not the type who goes out for a big dinner. I eat because I have to eat. My favorite meals are chicken sandwich and macaroni and cheese.

Q. What is the best thing that ever happened to college football?

A. I can’t say I never thought it would become so big, but the exposure and interest that people have in the sport, the attention it gets ... well, it has changed so much in recent years.

Q. The worst thing?

A. Because there is so much exposure, in some minds it is a lot more important than it should be.

Q. How has it affected your life?

A. Football has taught me how to get back up when you are knocked down, how to handle adversity. There is always adversity, in football and in life.

Q. What don’t most people know about you?

A. All through college, I planned to be a dentist instead of a football coach.

Q. Your most embarrassing moment?

A. At the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville, Fla., on national television, with all the cameras focused on me, I ran across the field to the visitor’s sideline instead of the home team’s sideline.

Q. Your ultimate goal?

A. Win a national championship. The more realistic goal is to win the Big Ten championship. That will put you in position to get there. But so many things have to happen to get into that [national championship] game. The great thing about being in a BCS conference is to have an opportunity to win the national title.

Of course, you have to have good players to win. But it’s really the best team that wins. Football is truly a team game. It is hard to get everyone to understand that the best chance to achieve individual goals is to have one goal that everyone can go for.

Years ago, in the NFL, we learned that you couldn’t win the Super Bowl without a great quarterback. Now you better have a good one in college to get where you want to get to.