CHAMPAIGN - Mike Schultz makes his living trying to confuse the people lined up across from him.

On Tuesday, Schultz admitted his own life has become pretty confusing.

Schultz, who turned 51 on Saturday, spent the afternoon frantically trying to vacate his office in the Texas Christian University football complex in Fort Worth.

"I'm boxing things up as fast as I can," said Schultz, who is leaving TCU to become the new offensive coordinator for coach Ron Zook at the University of Illinois. "I am handling this thing one day at a time."

All of a sudden, Schultz has more responsibilities than he can keep track of. And the success of Illinois' football offense rests in his hands, a job he'd love to get to just as quickly as some of the chaos clears.

Schultz admitted Tuesday he does not yet know when he'll get to Champaign to meet with players, including returning quarterback Juice Williams, how extensively he'll be involved in the 2009 recruiting class that is due to sign national Letters of Intent on Feb. 7, when he can study tape of the players he will inherit, or what input he'll have on filling out an Illini staff that is now also looking for a new offensive line coach.

Eric Wolford has left the Illini to become running game coordinator/offensive line coach for Steve Spurrier at South Carolina.

What Schultz does know is that he believes his offensive system has many similarities to that used by previous offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, who left to become head coach at New Mexico. And he said he's excited to be working for Zook.

"I just think Ron Zook is a great guy to work with," Schultz said. "I'm excited about the opportunity being given to me and the possibilities of what it could become.

"Coach Zook has a national reputation. He's a high-energy guy, which I like. I'm a high-energy guy. He's an aggressive recruiter. So am I. We had some mutual friends … and we were very fortunate we were able to get hooked up and get this thing going."

Schultz recently completed his 11th season directing TCU's offense, the last eight of which he has done on his own. When he arrived at TCU in 1998, he shared the offensive responsibility with head coach Dennis Franchione.

TCU just completed an 11-2 season that ended with a 17-16 victory over Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl.

The 2008 season saw TCU set single-season school records for points scored (420) and touchdowns (54). TCU led the nation in time of possession and was 13th nationally in team rushing, despite not having a player among the top 100 individually.

Four of the five highest-scoring teams in TCU history came under Schultz's direction and he tutored record-setting All-American running back LaDainian Tomlinson when he rushed for 2,158 yards in 2000 (Schultz was running backs coach at the time).

Prior to arriving at TCU, Schultz had coaching stints at New Mexico, Texas, Kansas State, Texas-El Paso and at his alma mater, Sam Houston State.

"When I watch Illinois' offense and our offense, there are a lot of similarities," Schultz said. "The language might be a little different, but we're very much in the same area.

"I think we do a lot of formations and motions here. I like to spread the ball, but if you've ever seen us, there are times when I think you have to bunch it and run the ball.

"We use a tremendous amount of formations, and we've tried to create mismatches and advantages through movements and motion to give us an advantage."

Schultz said he believes he can use 20 years recruiting in the state of Texas to Illinois' advantage.

"There are a lot of football players in this state," he said. "I'm fairly confident we'll be able to get into the Texas recruiting and get some good kids out of here."

With Schultz on board, Zook can now turn his attention to filling the assistant coaching vacancies on the offensive and defensive lines. In addition to the loss of Wolford, Zook recently let go defensive line coach Tom Sims.

Zook was out recruiting Tuesday but had this statement in a university-issued press release:

"Mike is a proven coach and coordinator and will be able to lead and continue to grow this offense. He has a great reputation in the coaching community for developing players and producing offensive numbers."

mtupper@herald-review.com|421-7983