Profiles of the nation’s most embattled coaches.

Ron Zook, God bless him, will always be remembered for two things: one, being the unlucky duck tapped to immediately succeed Steve Spurrier at Florida, and two, being the coach that inspired the “Start a FireCoachX.com Web site the same day Coach X is hired” trend. After his brief and frequently embarrassing tenure at Gainesville — remember his big confrontation at the Pike house? — he was an odd choice indeed to take the reins of the long-suffering Illinois Fighting Illini. Yet after a pair of frustrating two-win seasons, he managed to get the Illini into the Rose Bowl. Since that achievement, though, the team is just 8-16 and giving every indication that they’re headed right back into the depths of the Bad Old Days. The Illinois program may not have Florida-level expectations, but they’re not about to let that happen if they can help it.

Why he was hired. The Zooker’s record of 23-14 may not have cut the mustard at Florida, but after a 9-26 run over Ron Turner’s last three years as coach, it probably looked a lot more enticing. And even while Zook’s on-the-field results were causing acid reflux among the Gator faithful, he still managed to recruit at a breakneck pace — though he wasn’t the one responsible for landing Tim Tebow, he brought in most of the rest of the players who formed the core of Florida’s 2006 title-winning team (plus a few from its 2008 championship squad).

The “Uh-oh” Moment. The Illini followed up their improbable 2007 Rose Bowl campaign with a 5-4 start to ’08 — hardly stellar, but not bad, either, for a team returning only 12 starters. On Nov. 8, they had what should’ve been a bowl-eligibility-clinching layup against Western Michigan on neutral ground at Detroit’s Ford Field, but QB Juice Williams tossed INTs on back-to-back possessions in the second quarter, helping WMU to a 20-7 halftime lead and, eventually, a 23-17 upset. The Illini got handled by Ohio State and Northwestern in their final two games to finish 5-7.

It was a disappointment they should’ve been able to bounce back from, but any ambitions in that direction were snuffed out when the Illini opened 2009 with a 37-9 pummeling from Missouri in which they were never really competitive. From there, it was a fairly predictable trip to 3-9, with back-to-back upsets over Michigan and Minnesota representing the Illini’s only wins over D-IA competition.

Embarrassing attempt to right the ship. When you’re five seasons into your current job, headlines involving the phrase “last-ditch rebuilding” are never a good sign. Nor is it particularly inspiring when the best you can say about your 70th-ranked recruiting class is that they’re “going to surprise a lot of people” at some indeterminate future date. But when fan dissatisfaction over those developments neared fever pitch after National Signing Day, Zook capped off the bad-omen trifecta by pointing the finger at his own fans