CHAMPAIGN - If you're forming a fan club of honked off Illini football fans, you might give Ron Zook a call.

The Illini head coach sounded Sunday as though he'd be willing to be a member. And he hinted changes could be in the works by the time Illinois takes the field for a home game Saturday against Iowa.

"I am not very happy," said Zook, who was still stewing after the Illini dropped a 27-17 decision at Wisconsin one day earlier. "Hopefully (the team) is not very happy. They are not going to be very happy this week.

"Here's the deal: We are a better football team than we play at times. Our fans deserve a better team. They should be upset. Hell, I'm upset, too."

Zook said he didn't want to make changes immediately. But some personnel decisions could be coming.

"We will keep beating the door until we get it right," Zook said. "I am not going to make any changes today�but it's up to me and the coaching staff to figure out why."

So when might changes be made?

"You guys will see them on Saturday (against Iowa)."

Juice Williams threw three interceptions and, as always, the quarterback was receiving extra scrutiny.

"Juice is upset," Zook said. "He should be upset. He is not the only one. Sometimes the quarterback gets more credit than he deserves and sometimes he gets more blame than he deserves. That's part of it."

Zook said consistency will be the point of emphasis with Williams this week.

"He's capable of being a pretty good quarterback," Zook said. "The big thing is, he has to do it consistently.

"This is what Juice doesn't understand: Someone brought up the thing about coming out at the end of three years (for the NFL). He'd better worry about what he's going to do next week, then the next week.

"And it's not all on Juice. Everyone else has to rise up, too. We can't wait around for Juice to do it. They have to stand up and make plays, too, to help Juice get going."

Zook was also angry about some of the officiating calls, especially penalties when the Illini offensive line was flagged for movement, even though a review of the game tape indicated movement on the defensive line was to blame.

"I can't comment on some of them," Zook said. "Some of them are penalties and some of them weren't. Like I tell (Big Ten supervisor of officials) Dave Parry all the time, I get judged on the number of penalties that are called, so people think we have an undisciplined football team. We have as disciplined a football team as anyone.

"But when you go on the road in the Big Ten, you have to be better than the football team (you're playing), better than the fans and better than the officials. That's just the way it is.

"But we didn't lose that game because of the officials. We lost the game because we didn't play the way we are capable of playing. You are going to have penalties but we can't have stupid penalties. We lost the game because we didn't play the way we're capable of playing and that's something myself and our coaching staff have to get corrected."

mtupper@herald-review.com|421-7983