Ronald Andrew Zook (; born April 28, 1954) is an American football coach who is a special teams quality control coach at the University of Maryland. He was the head football coach at the University of Florida from 2002 to 2004 and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 2005 to 2011.
Zook is a native of Ohio and an alumnus of Miami University, where he played college football. He has worked as an assistant coach in the National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Steelers (1996–1998), Kansas City Chiefs (1999), and New Orleans Saints (2000–2001). In August 2012, he was hired as a college football studio analyst by CBS Sports. He was also employed as the special teams coach for the Green Bay Packers. In 2019, he was the special teams coordinator and secondary coach for the Salt Lake Stallions of the Alliance of American Football (AAF).
Ronald Andrew Zook was born in Ashland, Ohio and raised in nearby Loudonville. At Loudonville High School, Zook played basketball, track, and football. Upon graduating, he was offered a track scholarship to Purdue University and received offers to play football at several small colleges in the Midwest. However, Zook wanted to play Division I football, so he decided to walk on at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He made the team, and by his senior season, Zook was a starting defensive back and a co-captain for the Miami Redskins. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in comprehensive science in 1976.
Zook started coaching football immediately upon graduating from college, beginning his career in 1976 as the defensive backs coach at Orrville High School in Orrville, Ohio under head coach Mo Tipton.
In 1978, Zook began his college football coaching career when he became a graduate assistant at Murray State University. Through the 1980s, Zook held coaching positions with a number of college football teams, serving as a defensive coordinator at Cincinnati and Kansas and as a position coach at Tennessee, Virginia Tech, and Ohio State.
Beginning in 1991, Zook served as defensive coordinator for three seasons at the University of Florida under head coach Steve Spurrier. After the 1993 season, Spurrier reassigned Zook to be the special teams coordinator, a move considered by many to be a demotion due to the team's unsatisfactory performance on pass defense. Zook's special teams units performed well enough during the 1994 season that he was offered the defensive coordinator position at Michigan State, prompting Spurrier to give him the title of associate head coach to help keep him at Florida.
Florida defensive coordinator Bobby Pruett left to become the head coach at Marshall University in January 1995 and Zook was promoted to take his place, becoming Florida's defensive coordinator once again. However, the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers offered Zook the job of special teams coordinator just one month later and he accepted, leaving the college game for a time. With Zook leaving, Bob Stoops was brought in to run Florida's defense.
After leaving Florida, Zook served three seasons as special teams coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, then was the defensive backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1999. KC finished with a 9–7 record, 16th in passing yards allowed, and James Hasty had seven interceptions and Cris Dishman finished with five interceptions. In the 2000 and 2001 seasons, Zook served as the defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints. In 2000, the Saints finished 10–6 with Zook's defense ranking tenth in points allowed. DT La'Roi Glover led the team with 17 Sacks followed by 12 from DE Joe Johnson and 11 by DE Darren Howard.
In January 2002, Steve Spurrier resigned from Florida to explore head coaching opportunities in the NFL, eventually signing with the Washington Redskins. Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley sought to replace him with either Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan or Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, but each decided to remain with their respective teams. Foley's next choice was Zook, who accepted the job. Given the success of Spurrier's 12-year tenure, expectations at Florida were high, and seemingly settling for Zook was not popular with many students and supporters. Others did not understand why the university would hire a man who was demoted as a coordinator on the same staff to be head coach. Within a day of Zook's hiring, one fan started a website called FireRonZook.com that gained national media attention. Many fraternity houses hung banners from week to week either praising Zook or calling for his firing.
Zook was head coach at Florida for three seasons. The Gators compiled records of 8–5 (2002), 8–5 (2003) and 7–5 (2004). While Zook's tenure saw modest success, it was well short of what Gator fans had come to expect. In his three seasons, the Gators lost six games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. By comparison, Spurrier lost only five home games in 12 years. Many of the losses were fourth quarter comebacks by the opposition, causing many fans to question the prevent defense that was employed. Zook did not beat a ranked opponent at home during his time at Florida. Zook was fired before the end of the 2004 season after a 38–31 road loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs (who were 1–5 prior to the game, including a home loss to Division I-AA Maine). He did not help his cause by getting into a heated argument with several fraternity members a few weeks earlier after being called in to defuse a dispute between the brothers and his players. Zook finished the regular season, but he did not coach the Gators in the Peach Bowl because he had already accepted the head coaching job at Illinois. Defensive coordinator Charlie Strong coached the Gators in the Peach Bowl. After Zook's departure, his successor Urban Meyer won a national title in 2006, largely with players whom Zook had recruited.
During his time at Florida, Zook did have some notable accomplishments. He handed both the 2002 Georgia Bulldogs and 2003 LSU Tigers their only loss of the year. His Gators defeated three highly ranked teams in succession in 2003, all away from home (LSU, Arkansas and Georgia). In his final game he defeated the Florida State Seminoles at Tallahassee, something that Steve Spurrier never accomplished. That victory occurred on the night when FSU dedicated Bobby Bowden Field, leading Gator fans to refer to it as Ron Zook Field. Zook had winning records against SEC foes Georgia (2–1) and Auburn (1–0). Zook was regarded as a fine recruiter who brought a great deal of talent to Florida during his tenure as head coach. Following the Gators' victory over Ohio State in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game, Urban Meyer praised Zook for recruiting the large class of seniors who played in the game. Twenty-two of the 24 starters were recruited to Florida by Zook.
In 2005, the University of Illinois hired Zook to replace Ron Turner as the head coach of the Illinois Fighting Illini football team. Zook inherited a program which had become a disaster since winning the Big Ten championship in 2001. They had only won nine games in the three seasons since, and only five games in Big Ten play. In Zook's inaugural season of 2005, Illinois finished with an overall record of 2–9, and a record of 0–8 in Big Ten games.
Despite his team's past struggles, Zook improved the ability of Illinois to recruit top football talent. According to one source, the 2006 recruiting class was one of the 30 best in college football. Despite this, they finished the 2006 season 1–7 in the conference and 2–10 overall. While the record did not improve, the play on the field did as the Illini nearly upset top ranked Ohio State in Champaign before losing 17–10. Additionally, the Illini played well against Iowa, Wisconsin, and Penn State (they lost 63–10 the year before; Penn State led 56–3 at halftime) but ended up losing close games (they were down 15–12 at Penn State until Penn State broke open a close game to make it 26–12).
The 2006 recruiting class included Isiah "Juice" Williams of Chicago Vocational High School, considered to be one of the top quarterback recruits in the country. In late 2006, Zook signed Arrelious Benn, one of the top wide receiver prospects in the 2007 class. More recently, Zook also won over Simeon High School standout Martez Wilson along with Florida prospect D'Angelo McCray. This class was one of Illinois' best in recent memory, being rated within the top 25 nationally by some experts.