Answer to Illinois mystery lies with D.C.-wired Locksley

Mike Locksley speaks the language. That's his first advantage as one of the nation's best recruiters. It's a D.C. thing.

There aren't many major college coaches who can walk the streets of the nation's capital and own the moment -- as well as hearts of the city's best recruits. Respect? Locksley has it as Illinois offensive coordinator. Love? Locksley has it as a D.C. native.

Rashard Mendenhall's pounding running style is a boon for Illinois. (Getty Images)

Cool daddy? There aren't many assistants who can blow into town and talk about the best mumbo sauce in the neighborhood. Or can identify that strange music coming out of a record store being D.C.'s own Go Go sound.

"He kind of speaks the lingo that these guys speak," said Craig Jefferies, coach at D.C.'s Dunbar High. "He can personally talk to these guys in little buzzwords. It helps him relate to these kids a little better than somebody that's not from around here."

You want to know how a beaten-down, washed-out program makes a comeback with a beaten-down, washed-out coach (Ron Zook)?

Jefferies, Locksley and D.C. are a good place to start. Together they have helped construct a pipeline from the Lincoln Memorial to Memorial Stadium. Champaign is now the place to be for the nation's (capital's) best and brightest.

Freshman receiver Arrelious Benn followed sophomore defensive back Vontae Davis out of Dunbar to become breakout stars at Illinois. And there are more Dunbar players on the way.

Locksley has his hooks into Dunbar defensive end Ugochukwu Uzodinma and tackle Reggie Ellis (D.C.'s No. 1 recruit) for 2008.

"It's really a hotbed here," Jefferies said. "We don't play the best football. We've had a rep in the past of kids not qualifying or are late qualifying. But we always have great kids going places."

There are few loyalties in the area since there are no state schools in D.C. Davis had only two offers, from Maryland and Illinois. Benn was different, a five-star franchise prospect who turned down Miami, Notre Dame and Florida State.

"Illinois is the school for D.C. kids," Benn told the Champaign News-Gazette. "It's crazy. You wouldn't believe how so many people want to come here because of us and the mark we've made."

But how does this happen at a Big Ten cellar dweller? And how does it happen in D.C., a place that couldn't be more opposite of Champaign and its surrounding cornfields?

It defies all recruiting logic. Ask Charlie Weis, who complained loudly about broken commitments, or former Michigan State coach John L. Smith, who came right out and questioned Illinois' recruiting tactics in the New York Times.

"Those guys didn't get anything," Jefferies said. "I definitely didn't get anything. I wouldn't owe my ex-wife what I owe her if I got some money. It was above board."

Zook landed that No. 20 recruiting class in February, but he'd done better than that at Florida, and look what it got him. A pink slip. Not even a thank-you for providing a core group of players who helped Urban Meyer win a national championship.

Now it seems that Zook can coach a little too. Illinois is 5-1 for the first time since 2001. The Zooker has meticulously built the Illini into a Big Ten throwback, playing tough defense and tackle-breaking offense.

The Zook magic was easily transferable to Champaign: Pounding tailback Rashard Mendenhall was the top prep back in Illinois when he signed in 2005. Benn looks like a wild deer who doesn't quite know how powerful his body just yet. Check out Benn's highlights against Penn State.

Zook was never a bad coach. He made the "mistake" of being the guy to follow the guy. No one could measure up to Steve Spurrier even though more than one person, Zook included, has said that the OBC didn't exactly leave the cupboard stocked.

"When I got to Florida, we weren't as talented as what maybe a lot of people thought," Zook told the Chicago Sun-Times. "We were going to take our lumps."

Arrelious Benn is turning heads, and he hasn't reached his potential. (US Presswire)

Illinois is familiar with lumps. The program had run off the tracks since the Sugar Bowl season in 2001. But trust and familiarity trumped the losing for Vontae Davis. The recruit and coach have known each other for years. Zook was in town a few years ago recruiting his brother Vernon.

Clad only in a thin Florida jacket on a freezing day, Zook found the Dunbar doors locked. Vontae -- a grade-schooler back then tagging along -- pulled himself up on a ledge and knocked on a window until someone came to unlock them.

"I was absolutely freezing," Zook said. "After he did that, I told his grandma we'd be back to get him in a few years."

Vernon went to Maryland, became an All-American and is now in the NFL. Vontae was a natural to follow his brother before he began looking west. The last straw might have been the night he and his team were honored at Washington's Pigskin Club.

"The whole time they were giving him the award they talked about his brother," Jefferies said. "He was insulted. I looked at Vontae's face and he was like, 'I gotta get out of here.'"

Locksley (at Maryland) and Zook (Florida) met on the recruiting trail. When Zook got the Illinois job in 2005, he wanted Locksley to be his offensive coordinator and ace recruiter. Along the way Zook has changed his reputation as an all-recruit, no-coach guy.

Two years ago, Illinois was one of the youngest teams in the nation as Zook played 15 freshmen and sophomores. In two weeks this season, Illinois won more Big Ten games (three) than it had in the previous four years (two). After beating then-No. 5 Wisconsin, the Illini are in the conversation for the Rose Bowl.

"People are saying that everything else is a fluke and this is the game we're going to let down," Zook said of this week's game at Iowa. "Any time you're in a proving stage -- and our program's in a proving stage -- people are going to keep questioning you until you finally knock the last one down."

So what is mumbo sauce?

"When kids eat chicken wings around here they get mumbo sauce on them," Jefferies said. "If you walk into a Korean restaurant and ask for chicken wings, they would assume you want mumbo sauce."

The ingredients are pretty much a mystery. But everyone who chows down on those wings knows the barbeque sauce is the thing -- tangy and tasty.

So why not Champaign when the coach across the table can get sloppy just like you?

"D.C. is a unique place," Jefferies said. "We don't have a state school like Alabama or Georgia. ... Some of the kids really can't tell the difference between I-AA and Division I. That comes with not having a loyalty to a conference.

"These kids just want an opportunity. ... Until they get to the nuts and bolts of it, they don't see the difference between Howard, Notre Dame and Utah. With our kids it's a Division I scholarship, (then) just freak out."