Zook demands accountability

Apparently Ron Zook misread his calendar Tuesday when he woke up before the dawn.

At least, that's one possible explanation why the Illinois coach showed up for his news conference wearing a game face fit for Saturday's visit from Western Illinois.

At his high point, the wound-up Zook started shouting and waving his index finger in the air as he returned to his theme for the day: Accountability from the veterans.

"As I told our football team last night, I have a little bit of leeway with guys that are freshmen and redshirt freshmen and first-year players," Zook said. "But guys that's been around here awhile? By golly, they're going to play the way we expect them to play.

"And it goes back to this. I told them in the very beginning: You're going to play to our expectations, not yours. That's what our fans want, that's what this university deserves, and that's what we're going to get done."

Zook didn't volunteer culprits, but the stat sheet from the Missouri loss suggests that fourth-year starting defensive tackle Chris Norwell (1 assisted tackle) and third-year starting defensive end Derek Walker (1 assisted tackle) might be on the list.

Senior right tackle Akim Millington was flagged for 2 false starts, while junior running back Rashard Mendenhall whiffed on a block that led to a 10-yard loss for Arrelious Benn. On the next play, Mendenhall got caught for a 10-yard holding penalty.

Zook did mention one player, but only because a question about junior linebacker Brit Miller turned into a prime opportunity to address his issue.

"Brit's a guy that I love," Zook said. "My wife loves him. Everybody loves him. He's a great guy. But he's also a guy, and I'm not singling him out, but here's a guy who made a couple of mistakes in the kicking game that he can't make."

Then Zook slammed the lectern with his right hand to accentuate his point. "The guys that have been here three years, they've got to play the way they're supposed to, you know?"

Santella's in: Ron Zook announced Tuesday that Anthony Santella, the redshirt freshman from Wauconda, earned the punting job.

"As long as he continues to do what he's capable of doing, he'll continue to be the punter," Zook said.

In his college debut, Santella delivered 6 punts Saturday against Missouri and averaged 36.3 net yards. That represented serious improvement over last year, when Illinois ranked 117th in the nation with 29.4 net yards per punt.

The latter stat also explains why Santella chose to transfer to Illinois after an unhappy semester at Utah.

"The football scene was great out there," Santella said, "But the Western lifestyle? Let's just say it didn't fly with me. So I played the recruiting game out of Utah again."

With help from his high school coach, former Bear Glen Kozlowski, Santella sorted through interest from Michigan State, Clemson and Illinois.

"Illinois had interest out of high school," Santella said. "And what a better place to come than back to your home state and help them win?"

Santella didn't need to sit out a transfer year because he was a walk-on at Utah who never saw action in a game.