Step Into My Office: Coach Zook

Last week on Step Into My Office, our Mike Hall sat down with Nebraska coach Bo Pelini. At 10 p.m. ET Thursday on BTN, Hall takes you behind the scenes with Illinois head coach Ron Zook. Hall, who can be found on Twitter, @BTNMikeHall, filed a couple bonus Web-only video clips from his visit to Champaign. He also wrote a little about what it was like to hang with Zook, whose 2-0 Illini team hosts No. 18 Arizona State at 7 p.m. Saturday on BTN.

"I worked for two years very closely at ESPNU with Mike Gottfried, the former head coach at Pitt and a longtime ESPN analyst. He?s one of my favorite people ever.  And he is a big fan of Ron Zook, who was a Gottfried assistant. I called him before this interview to see if he had any stories for me to ask Ron about. In a fantastically Gottfriedian way, he explained he didn?t have a ton of time to talk as he was moments away from having a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu (of course – me too).

But he did have time to tell me the story of how at Murray State Ron basically gave up his promotion to defensive coordinator to Frank Beamer because he knew Beamer would be best for the team.  If that type of selfless act doesn?t make you like or at least respect Ron, I don?t know what will."

Here's another bonus clip with Zook: