It’s going to take something truly drastic to uproot Tim Beckman from his position as Illini football Head Coach before this upcoming season ends. Yet another new low came during his appearance at Big Ten Media Day this past Thursday. (We’ll cover, in detail, why this is the new lowest of lows for Beckman in a bit). However, no matter what you think of Beckman, he’s not going anywhere; at least not any time soon.
You need to accept that he’s staying in control until one of three major developments occurs.
1. The investigation turns up a “smoking gun.”
Everyone is sick and tired of this storyline. Exactly like the unionization movement at Northwestern, media care a lot, fans do not at all. Beckman goes nowhere until the Chicago law firm investigating the program uncovers a piece of hard evidence that would be grounds for dismissal.
No one can predict whether that will happen or not. If I had to guess I’d say the results will be inconclusive, and waiting for those results, in the words of Sideshow Mel…”this endeavor, is the height of tedium.”
Until something cut-and-dry “you have to fire a guy who does things like this” emerges, anything more that you read, hear and watch about this drawn out narrative is utterly pointless.
2. Athletic Director Mike Thomas gets dismissed
Most of the athletic department is metaphorically on fire right now, yet Thomas still has a job. As Big Ten Media Day reminded us, the national reputation of Tim Beckman and Illini football is comical. Attendance is laughably bad and it keeps declining further, Beckman is 4-20 in Big Ten play, the program becomes more irrelevant by each passing season, and you can infer how this all adversely affects revenue.
Men’s basketball is at its worst point since being on probation in 1991-92. Women’s basketball is facing a $10,000,000 lawsuit. Yet Thomas still gets to steer the ship. Thomas has publicly supported Beckman. They’ll sink or swim together. You can bet that if one is canned, the other will join him shortly after.
Again this is really hard to forecast, but I would guess both will be cut loose in December if the Illini finish under .500
3. Team gets off to a horrible start
Looking at their non-conference schedule, it’s impossible to imagine anything worse than 3-1 to start Big Ten season. In order for Tim Beckman to get fired, the Illini would need something awful like an 0-5 or 1-6 start. Obviously, there’s no way that’s going to happen. This team looks like a 4-8 or 5-7 when it’s all said and done.
Since mid 2012, Beckman’s train wreck of a first season, the “A block” story regarding Illini football has always been Beckman’s future leading the program. That’s really sad; for over three years, the top Illini football talking point has been: “How hot is the seat of Tim Beckman?”
The only news stories that have overshadowed it are his unintentionally hilarious public speaking gaffes, and now allegations of abuse. Yes, most fans don’t care who wins the press conference. All fans will trade media/PR skills for wins, but Beckman has neither. All of his “if you take away X points, and Y plays we win the game” statements were essentially harmless.
They are very dumb things to say and LOL funny, but still harmless.
Even Beckman’s National Signing Day plea to the media, asking them to be cheerleaders for him can be psychologically reconciled.
Was it a stupid move that backfired? Yes. Was it all kinds of wrong on numerous levels? Absolutely, but it still came off as just a nice guy who’s really in way over his head, and just trying so hard to fit in. I understood why so many of my media peers ripped him for that, but I never joined that bandwagon. Yes, in principal, the media were right in ripping him to pieces over this, but I just saw it as a situation more deserving of pity than scorn or ridicule.
This was undoubtedly one of the worst PR mistakes Beckman has made, but the idea of piling on was just low hanging fruit to me.
(By the way, I discussed Tim Beckman, and this situation, on CLTV “Sports Feed” today with Jarrett Payton and Josh Frydman)
Of course, the fact that someone with his salary, public profile and power can end up as low hanging fruit is a bit alarming.
Every time Tim Beckman said something that indicated he’s living in an alternate universe inhabited only by him (like when he said last winter that Illinois would go 8-4 this year) there was unintentional entertainment value. Tim Beckman, for all his folksy goofiness, and excessive references to food, always came off as honest and genuine.
I’ll take straight-forward over meaningless coachspeak and hyper-managed/corporatized message control (see John Groce for the paradigm of this philosophy) any day.
Unfortunately, the image of Tim Beckman changed this past Thursday. For years, all the Beckman nay-sayers who kept telling me “he’s the CEO of the football business, he has to present himself better in public” or “the face of the football program can’t come off as someone that tone deaf and clueless.”
I disagreed with those nay-sayers. (mostly Northwestern media, fans and alums)
But Thursday I changed my mind when the facts changed.
Tim Beckman failed himself, the Illini football program, the fans, the media, everybody, when he showed up for Big Ten Media Day. And he failed miserably. The allegations against him surfaced in May. This past week was the first time he finally accepted an opportunity to speak publicly.
He had months to prepare.
He had the perfect platform to get his side of the story out there.
Even if all he wanted to say was something along the lines of “the investigation is ongoing, therefore I can’t answer that question,” or “due to the legal issues involved, I can’t discuss that topic.”
That was the absolute LEAST Tim Beckman could do; and he couldn’t even handle it. Beckman had his opportunity to make a case in the court of public opinion, and he would have scored some points had he shown some basic class and professionalism. Instead he chose to live in an alternate reality where there is no investigation. Yes, all reporters dislike the “no comment,” but at least a “no comment” shows respect and dignity.
When you dodge a question entirely, you show no class at all. The Tim Beckman who was genuine during pressers in 2012-2014 is now dead. From here on out, it’s all going to be canned responses that have zero relevance to the actual question being asked.
He didn’t just dodge questions about the investigation, or his future, he dodged any questions that contained any substance at all.
Here’s the video:
Tim Beckman is the highest paid public employee in the state. His finger is on the proverbial button of the state’s biggest college football brand. By many measures, college football is America’s second most popular sports league. The idea that Tim Beckman is where he is should legitimately frighten you.
How Beckman handled himself on Thursday is the new low point given both the context and the gravity of the situation. But we live in a soundbite culture now. No meaningful message is allowed to be longer than a Tweet. Well, Tim Beckman has got you covered there too.
“Before I get started, I would like to express something that I want to make sure that everybody understands about our program,” Beckman began his time on dais, building up the entire room, along with those watching on television.
He then added a dramatic pause before shouting
“We use the word Oskee not just because of the word Oskee or that it’s a battle cry of the University of Illinois. But it also stands for something.”
He then proceeded to explain what buzzword corresponded with each letter in his new annual marketing slogan.
In other words, Tim Beckman intentionally played everyone watching and listening for suckers. EVERYONE wanted to know about the investigation. NO ONE CARED about your mantra catch-phrase.
After a huge set up that he was going to FINALLY say something meaningful, he delivered nothing but the football version of a “hang in there” cat poster.
If Illinois can retain him after this, then just what does it take to actually remove him?
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country.
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