It was all an Unemployed Dream.: They're bringing in the 2nd string quarterback

Inadvertantly, this could be the 3rd year in a row where Ron Zook ultimately decides if I'll ever get to visit Israel. So for all the Illini fans who feel screwed by the Zooker, he messes with my vacation plans too.

For the past 5 winters now, my Mom has been urging me to go on Birthright, the 10 day trip to see and experience Israel. Every Jewish person I know who has gone on it comes home and talks about how great of a time they had. Some even talk about how all they want to do is go back, which segues into a series of reunions and facebook albums that all have the same photos with slightly different captions of inside jokes nobody understands. Eventually a facebook group is made to keep in touch.

Now admittedly, I have never gone on birthright so maybe all of this stuff is normal. In any event, who am I to judge?

For a while I blamed my inability to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity on any excuse I could come up with, ranging from the completely unreasonable...

"Nah, not this year, it's my first winter break home from college. I want to show all my friends how awesome my alcohol tolerance has gotten."

"Nah, not this summer, it's my first summer home from college. I want to show all my friends how sick I am at Beer Pong."

To the slightly more reasonable.....

"I bought a ticket to see Jon Brion at the Harris Theater and he doesn't come to Chicago that often."*

*This event is immortalized on a recording a friend has of Brion's Bruce Springsteen tribute, where a drunk kid in front of us can be heard threatening to kick my brother's ass.

But in recent years, I have developed only one reason to blame my unwillingness to sign up, and that is Ron Zook.

Ron Zook is famous for spawning the website FireRonZook.com, being the coach of the University of Illinois Football team, and for being in this photo. Since he's come to U of I, I can list 3 games of the top of my head that he has single handedly blown for us- Indiana 2006 (the swinging gate debacle), Iowa 2007 (accepts two penalties leading to Iowa conversions), Minnesota 2008 (too much to mention).

Somehow, a 9-3 season fell into his lap in 2007 and since then the Zooker has remained in Ron Guenther's good graces, even leading to a recent contract extension so his job seems relatively secure in spite of everything going against him. Last season's team was coming off a Rose Bowl appearance and was expected to be the first Illini team to go to consecutive bowl games in years. With the exception of the loss of Rashard Mendenhall to the draft, all of the key pieces were back. A 5-7 season was what ended up happening, epitomized by a blowout loss to Northwestern in their final game of the season.

So as bad as the Zook-led Illini were last year, there's reason to believe that maybe things will be different this year. Illinois has arguably the top receiving core in the nation. They have an NFL quality tight end. They're going to score points. Will they stop anyone on defense? That we will have to wait and see.

Which brings me to my dilemma. Nobody saw Illinois going to the Rose Bowl in the 2007 season, except maybe J "Turbo" Leman. Expectations are lowered again this year, which just might be what Illinois needs to sneak up on some teams again.

Should I risk going to Israel to miss a potentially bowl-bound Illini team? Is this something that normal people think about when given the opportunity to go on a free trip to Israel? Would missing one football game be the worst thing in the world? How can I be sure I'm going to like Shawarma?

Damn you, Ron Zook.