Kittner: Illinois Should Play In Bowl Game
In the wake of the firing of head football coach Ron Zook, the team is meeting Tuesday to decide whether or not it will accept a bowl invitation.
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In the wake of the firing of head football coach Ron Zook, the team is meeting Tuesday to decide whether or not it will accept a bowl invitation.
After firing Ron Zook Sunday, the Illini have started searching for their next head coach.
When it comes to the reasons why Illinois' seventh-year head football coach held on to his job for so long and why he finally lost it on Sunday morning, I can boil Zook's problems down to just four.
Illinois coach Ron Zook was fired Sunday after the Illini followed a 6-0 start to this season with a six-game losing streak.
I'm sure that Mike Thomas has his own list of names who he'd like to see as his coach at Illinois. But my advice is this: Aim high.
In Ron Zook's defense, he warned them.
Police are searching for the gunman who shot three people, including an Illini football player, at a weekend party near the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.
Terry Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune joined The McNeil and Spiegel Show to break down college football.
Illinois rolled through its first six games with big plays, comebacks and happy endings, landing a spot in the Top 25 with a perfect start.
Above everything else on Saturday, as Illinois fans trudged out of Memorial Stadium, they were again reminded of the cold, hard truth that Ron Zook is not a big-time football coach.
I didn't watch the Illinois football game last weekend. Turns out, though, I wasn't the only one. Because, apparently, Ron Zook didn't see much of it, either.
Before the college football season began, I felt that Ron Zook and his University of Illinois football team had the most to prove in the Big Ten in 2011.
Illinois sacked Arizona State's Brock Osweiler six times and turned one into a touchdown in a 17-14 win over the No. 22 Sun Devils on Saturday night.
Football is a game of numbers. But when it comes to the job security of Fighting Illini football coach Ron Zook, might it be a game of figures, as well?
Baffled was again how I found myself last Saturday when Illinois' seventh-year head coach opted to burn highly touted freshman quarterback Reilly O'Toole's redshirt eligibility – by playing him for three meaningless snaps in the fourth quarter of a season opener vs. Arkansas State.
Adam Hoge breaks down which Big Ten coaches are on the hot seat this season and which coaches are completely safe.
The University of Illinois is on the clock. But it's Bruce Weber and Ron Zook who can hear theirs ticking. At about 5 p.m. this evening Illinois will be without an official athletic director for the first time since 1992.
On Tuesday, Fighting Illini senior running back Jason Ford was arrested on suspicion of driving with a suspended license.
There was a fire in Champaign this week. Early Wednesday, a blaze started in a building on Green Street – the main Campustown drag – and destroyed a couple of popular restaurants.
This is the risk you run when you recruit eighth-graders.
The Illini aren't quite living up to expectations but coach Bruce Weber has a plan to fix the team's problems. The Athletic Director has confidence in Weber too.
Ponder this: If Ohio State hadn't tattooed an "L" on the Arkansas Razorbacks Tuesday night in the Sugar Bowl, Ron Zook would have been the 2010-11 Poster Boy for Big Ten Postseason Success.
Well, I'm back from the Texas Bowl and you can color me orange. And impressed.
Winning a bowl game like the Texas Bowl may not be that big of a deal to many who follow college football, but for the University of Illinois fans and Ron Zook, they will gladly take it.
As a University of Illinois season ticket holder, I've watched a lot of Ron Zook football during the past six years. Most of it bad.
It is an extremely cold Tuesday in Chicago, which falls right in line with this day in 1985.
If you can't get enough of "Heated Rivalry," merch from the show is now available.
A burst pipe caused a ground delay at O'Hare International Airport on Tuesday morning.
A controversial data center in Naperville, Illinois, could be the cause to pack a city council meeting there on Tuesday night.
Federal prosecutors accuse Juan Espinoza Martinez of soliciting the murder of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino during Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago.
A controversial data center in Naperville, Illinois, could be the cause to pack a city council meeting there on Tuesday night.
Andrew Johnson is the latest in a series of pardoned Jan. 6 riot defendants to face new criminal charges.
A U.S. citizen detained by ICE at gunpoint in his underwear in frigid conditions in Minnesota asks, "What did I do wrong?" The Associated Press says
Illinois House Speaker Emmanuel "Chris" Welch posted photos of himself with Chicago Bears owner George McCaskey and president Kevin Warren at Sunday night's game as the apparent two-horse race continues to land a new football stadium.
As his standoff with America's closest allies escalates, President Trump says not getting the Nobel Peace Prize means he's no longer obligated "to think purely of Peace."
A controversial data center in Naperville, Illinois, could be the cause to pack a city council meeting there on Tuesday night.
Police in the west Chicago suburb of Geneva are warning of a scam involving spoofed phone numbers.
Protesters on Tuesday were cranking up the heat on Peoples Gas over a recently proposed rate hike that would add an additional $10 to $11 a month to utility bills.
A lawsuit filed late last month took Chicago-based McDonald's to task over the McRib sandwich, calling its name a form of false advertising.
As this holiday season nears its end, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias issued a warning Tuesday about text scams.
Roughly 1.4 million fewer Americans have signed up for an Affordable Care Act plan as expiring tax breaks drive up premiums.
January is Radon Action Month, and the Cook County Department of Public Health is urging residents to test their homes for radon.
Severe flu season is sending many people to hospital emergency rooms across the country, including in the Chicago area.
Unionized health care workers this week took aim at Northwestern Medicine, saying the health care system needs to hire more people before expanding the emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Tuesday that its recommendations for childhood vaccines will not be affected by a change in federal guidelines.
A development proposal issued this month calls for the replacement of a building housing a Giordiano's pizzeria in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood with a new mixed-use building with 28 residential units.
United Airlines flight attendants picketed outside Chicago's Willis Tower Thursday morning as they fought for a new contract.
WSCR-AM, 670 The Score, will begin a simulcast on 104.3 FM next month.
Does the Chicago Bears' dramatic improvement this season, culminating in their first playoff run in five years, change the discussion about where they will build a new stadium?
The Piggery, a popular barbecue restaurant and bar in the northwest corner of Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, announced Thursday that it is going out of business.
If you can't get enough of "Heated Rivalry," merch from the show is now available.
A flamenco dance series in Chicago is expanding access to the arts by bringing the expressive traditional dance form to Chicago communities.
Monday is the opening day for a new exhibit at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry that immerses visitors into the imaginative world of award-winning fashion and costume designer Paul Tazewell.
Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created the "Dilbert" comic strip, has died at the age of 68, his first ex-wife revealed on Tuesday.
Here is everything you need to know about how to watch and stream the 2026 Golden Globes.
The Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans for the data center in late 2025, but residents are furious about the idea. Asal Rezaei reports.
An Amazon retail store is coming to Orland Park after the board approved the project on Monday night.
President Trump is heading to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where he is expected to discuss his bid to acquire Greenland.
The first trial tied to the federal Operation Midway Blitz begins Tuesday morning. As Darius Johnson reports, federal prosecutors accuse Juan Espinoza Martinez of soliciting the murder of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino during Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago.
Israeli crews started bulldozing the Jerusalem headquarters of the "United Nations Relief and Works Agency" on Monday. There are reports tear gas was fired at a trade school.
A ground delay was issued at O'Hare International Airport on Tuesday morning.
A 3.8 magnitude earthquake was confirmed in South-Central Illinois early Tuesday morning.
It is an extremely cold Tuesday in Chicago, which falls right in line with this day in 1985.
A controversial data center in Naperville, Illinois, could be the cause to pack a city council meeting there on Tuesday night.
If you can't get enough of "Heated Rivalry," merch from the show is now available.
Chicago police issued a warning about a string of vehicle break-ins involving Honda Civics on the South Side.
Even as Mayor Brandon Johnson has warned of possible mid-year city worker layoffs if revenue estimates in the budget fall short, city employees and workers at the city's sister agencies owe a mountain of outstanding debt to the city.
Lead-based paint was banned for serious health reasons in 1978, but most homes built before then remain covered in it.
Fire department officials in Chicago's western suburbs said drone technology has been helping keep firefighters safe and make a major impact on public safety.
With the stores becoming a common target for thieves, some of the stores in the Chicago area are taking new steps to fight back.
Connor Bedard added an empty-net goal as the Blackhawks stopped a three-game slide. It was Bedard's first goal since returning from a right shoulder injury.
A program that had played in a grand total of 13 bowl games in the 130-some years before coach Curt Cignetti arrived in 2024 went on a historic run en route to a 16-0 season and a national title.
Caleb Williams was reflective the day after and focused on attacking the offseason, while appreciating the impact this team had on the city of Chicago.
Caleb Williams' last throw in regulation was a backpedaling, fourth-down rainbow that landed in Cole Kmet's hands in the corner of the end zone for a breathtaking touchdown.
Despite forcing OT with a catch in the final minute in the 4th Quarter, the Chicago Bears' playoff journey comes to an end.
The video shows burglars slicing into display cases under the eyes of several Louvre Museum staff members who do not intervene.
A judge and his wife were shot and wounded in their home over the weekend in Lafayette, Indiana.
A jewelry store in Chicago's Little India district was robbed at gunpoint Sunday evening.
A man was arrested and charged this weekend with a string of armed robberies and burglaries within a period of just over an hour earlier this month in Chicago.
The ages of the victims range from 17 to 40, according to Chicago police.
