The Zook Awards: History and Qualifications

The Zook awards started after Clemson's Sept 24th, 2005 loss to BC when I remarked to Gavin and Forrest that Tommy Bowden had won the Ron Zook Award of the week for absolutely blowing a game we should have won with terrible playcalling and decision making in the fourth quarter. However, the award was given out prematurely as Les Miles of LSU Zooked it big time against Tennessee the following Monday night, blowing a 21-point lead to a Tennessee team that ended up finishing the season 5-6. And so the weekly tradition of recognizing incompetence in college football coaching began...

Qualifications for winning the Zook Award

Now let's look at reasons you may be nominated for the Zook Award each week:

1. Playing a soft prevent defense to pull defeat from the jaws of certain victory late in the 4th quarter (see: UF vs Miami 2003, UF vs. Ole Miss 2003, UF vs. FSU 2003, UF vs. Tenn 2004, UF vs. Ole Miss 2004, UF vs. LSU 2004, and UF vs. Miss St 2004).

2. Giving up special teams or otherwise stupid scores

• Example1 : UF vs. Tenn 2003. With Florida leading 3-0 just before halftime, Zook decides to run the ball on first down. On 2nd down instead of taking a knee so UF can go into halftime with the lead, Zook decides to throw and try to pick up the first down. He then turns around and runs a draw play on third-and-long allowing Tennessee to use their last timeout to stop the clock and get the ball back with enough time for a 50-yard hail mary. When asked after the game about the play calls, Zook responded "We thought we'd try to get some more points before halftime". When further questioned as to why then did he run the ball on 1st and 3rd downs, Zook said "We felt that they thought we were going to try to get some points..." Yes, he thought they thought he thought ...

• Example 2: UF vs. S. Carolina 2003. Florida is punting on the last play of the first half with the lead. Instead of simply punting the ball out of bounds and going to the locker room, they decide to kick it right to S. Carolina's most dangerous return man, who returns the punt for a TD.

3. Coaching a talented team to a terrible loss against a vastly inferior opponent. For example, getting blown out at home by an unranked opponent (see UF vs. LSU 2002). Also going 0-for the state of Mississippi (see UF vs. Ole Miss 2003, 2004; UF vs. Miss St. 2004). Losing to the team ranked #117 out of 117 teams in division I-A -- a team that lost to a division I-AA team (see UF vs. Miss St. 2004). Or even a narrow escape if the opponent is bad enough (having to come back from down 17 in the second half to beat Kentucky ... in football).

4. Having a playbook so predictable that everyone in the stands, not to mention the opposing team, knows which play is being run simply by looking at the offensive formation.

5. Completely tanking in a bowl game.

• Example 1: UF vs. Michigan 2003. With Heisman runner-up Rex Grossman leading Florida down the field in a sustained drive late in the 4th quarter, Zook decides that it is the perfect time to have freshman cornerback Vernell Brown take a pitch back and attempt to throw the ball back to Grossman. Brown retreated about 20 yards and heaved up a high floater with a man in his face, which was predictably intercepted to seal the Michigan victory. When asked about the play, Zook's comment was "Rex was open."

• Example 2: UF vs. Iowa 2004. In a game in which ESPN analysts said beforehand that Iowa had no business being in due to the huge talent difference between the teams, Florida was completely blown out right from the start. After the game, ESPN analysts commented that Kirk Ferentz outcoached Ron Zook in every single phase of the game.

In the 2005 Peach Bowl, Larry Coker of Miami turned in a textbook example of how to Zook a bowl game.

6. Pure stupidity

• Example 1: Running to the wrong sideline when coming out of the tunnel at a UF-UGA game.

• Example 2: After offsetting personal foul penalties on Florida and Vanderbilt, Ron Zook declined the penalty on Vanderbilt, giving the Commodores 15 yards of field position.

• Example 3: Trying to throw the ball against the worst run defense in the conference (Kentucky 2004) followed the next week by trying to run the ball against the worst pass defense in the country (Ole Miss 2004). Zook stated "Just because they didn't do well against the pass last week doesn't mean they won't be better this week." The previous week, Ole Miss had gotten torched for over 660 passing yards!

• Example 4: After Ben Troupe had carried Florida's offense (and literally many Ole Miss defenders) for the first half with nearly 100 receiving yards including a TD where he dragged three defenders into the endzone, Zook did not call a pass thrown in Troupe's direction the entire second half.

7. Complete lack of control over players.

• Example 1: A couple of days before a big game vs. Tennessee (a game they subsequently Zooked), a group of players leave practice to start a fight with some fraternity members. Ron Zook instead of punishing his players, proceeds to threaten the fraternity members himself.

• Example 2: One player threw a half-full keg at a student's head yet was still on the team. Another was arrested multiple times yet was never removed from the team.

• Example 3: Players have been quoted as saying they didn't try under Zook because there was an attitude of it didn't matter if you win or not.

Note the important difference between Zook and just plain dirty coaches such as Bobby Bowden who will also let their players get away with anything but only if they help the team win.