GREEN BAY, Wis. -- FireRonZook.com is gone but if the veteran coach doesn't turn around the Green Bay Packers special teams, perhaps some angry fans will resurrect it.
These days, Zook can joke about the website that was launched during his tenure as the head coach at the University of Florida.
"They started that before I landed. Before I landed," Zook said. "I had taken off from New Orleans; I was the defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints. Before I landed, that thing was up and running."
Zook has no trouble talking about his failed stints at both Florida and Illinois.
Of Florida, he said: "I mean Coach [Steve] Spurrier left for a reason. It wasn't because, I mean, he knew where it was going. He misused his personnel and talent. But anyway, it's a crazy profession."
Of Illinois, he said: "It didn't matter who's there. Put Nick Saban there, and it didn't matter. It's just that those are hard jobs, that it's a grind every day. And the attitude is, you know, the people, I mean, it's never gonna change."
Those are interesting footnotes to Zook's career, and he also has a self-deprecating side (more on that below).
But the only thing that matters now is the special-teams mess he inherited.
In Shawn Slocum's final season as coordinator, the Packers hit rock bottom in the Dallas Morning News' annual special teams rankings, although Zook was the assistant.
So far in training camp, it's impossible to tell if Zook's high-energy -- but perhaps a bit chaotic -- practice periods will make any difference. Or maybe having a few new core special teamers will do the trick.
Either way, there's immense pressure on the 61-year-old Zook -- with the help of assistant Jason Simmons -- to turn things around.
"Ron and Jason have done an excellent job to this point," said Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who also has become more involved with special teams.
There's plenty for Zook to sort out. There's a punting competition between Tim Masthay and Cody Mandell, a search for a new kickoff returner (rookie Ty Montgomery looks like the leading candidate) and the task of identifying a new group of core special teamers (tight end Richard Rodgers has jumped out).
So far, Zook said he has enjoyed the challenge of running his own unit again. He was out of coaching after Illinois fired him in 2011 until the Packers hired him last year. He said when he came home from practice earlier this week, his wife told him: "Boy, you look good." Good as in happy.
"You know, I wanted to be a head coach so bad, so bad,” Zook said. "But once you get there it's, 'Holy crap, be careful what you wish for.'"
As for the FireRonZook.com website, he wears it like a badge of honor that, as he claimed, he was the first coach to be the target of such a thing when it hit the web in 2002.
"Coach [Bill] Cowher, I had worked for him with the Steelers, and he had come in and said, 'Zook, you screwed this profession up,'" Zook said. "I said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'Man, they got 'FireBillCowher.' I said 'Coach, that's my legacy to coaching.' But that was before I even started."
