For just the second time in the past 42 years, ZERO Illinois football players were selected in the NFL Draft; which concluded last night. The Illini and Northwestern were shut out of the Draft while EIU, NIU (twice) and Illinois State all saw players get picked. Even Pittsburgh State had a guy go in the middle rounds. Illinois football was one of just four programs from a power 5 league without out a player drafted. NU, as mentioned, Kansas and Texas were the others.
On the surface you might blame Tim Beckman, but there’s so much more at work here explaining the decline of Illinois football. It goes well beyond Beckman as I explain here.
There’s blame to be spread around to Ron Zook, Ron Guenther, Mike Thomas etc. Things only became this bleak through a group effort.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured both in Forbes and on the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)