Bowl-eligible Illini bring talent -- and insecurity

It has been two decades since Illinois posted winning records in back-to-back seasons, as it is favored to do Saturday, and even longer since the Illini went to bowl games in consecutive years, as they are already guaranteed. And no Illini team has won bowl games 12 months apart, as this group will try to do next month, in part thanks to a ferocious defense that ranks sixth in the nation in sacks.

Meanwhile, the Gophers rank 10th, 11th or 12th in the Big Ten in all eight major offensive and defensive categories -- scoring, rushing, passing, yardage, and preventing the same -- and, after going winless on the road, are projected by oddsmakers to fail to win even two conference games for the second time in 14 seasons.

It's no wonder, then, that the coaches who will be on the TCF Bank Stadium sidelines Saturday are in equally dissimilar circumstances. One is tremendously popular, an in-demand speaker, and was recently rewarded with a pay raise and a seven-year contract, making him one of the most secure coaches in the Big Ten. The other has few supporters remaining among the fan base, is being blamed for worrisome declines in attendance, and is widely expected to be fired in the next few days.

You've probably guessed the weird part. Jerry Kill is the crowd favorite, the guy with no worries about his future, while Illinois' Ron Zook is the one expecting a bring-your-playbook meeting with his boss next week. Heck, even Kill can't believe it.

"Our profession is a pretty amazing profession," Kill said, shaking his head at the rumors of Zook's reportedly already-certain demise. "He's a good football coach."

Opinions are definitely divided on that in Champaign, where a new athletic director, Mike Thomas, took over in August. Zook lost 15 of his first 16 Big Ten games before leading the Illini to the Rose Bowl with a 9-4 season in 2007. But he is 34-50 in seven seasons and only once has posted a winning conference record.

Still, when Illinois won its first six games of the season for the first time since 1950, upset nationally ranked (at the time) Arizona State and boasted a surprisingly dominant defense, Zook was regarded as Coach of the Year material.

Kill said he believes Illinois' skid and Zook's fate make the Illini (6-5) more dangerous in Saturday's season finale, not less. "If anything, they'll rally around the coach," Kill said, and they've got the talent to do it. "Michigan State was awfully good on defense, and this group matches them.

"They've got a quarterback [sophomore Nathan Scheelhaase] who's very similar to [Michigan's Denard] Robinson, but he throws the ball better. They've got a wide receiver [senior A.J. Jenkins] who's going to play in the NFL. Just a few plays here and there, and they'd be on the other side of the stick."

The same could be said for the Gophers in at least a handful of games, but Kill will wrap up his first season at Minnesota with either two wins or three, making him the fourth consecutive Gophers coach to have such a rough debut season. He doesn't consider it a failure at all, however, but a necessary first step.