Illinois football Coach Tim Beckman had a very rough time at Big Ten Media Day, and the week was yet another example of how these are extremely lean times in Illini athletics. And here’s yet another anecdote, from the night BEFORE Big Ten Media Day which is perfectly emblematic of what’s happened to the Illini football program under Tim Beckman and Athletic Director Mike Thomas.
It comes from former Nebraska Cornhuskers football player and morning host on KOZN Omaha, Damon Benning.
I appeared on 1620 The Zone on Friday to preview the Illini and Northwestern’s upcoming season. Like the last two years, it will be a regular thing once the season kicks off (Tuesday around 10:40 A.M. central)
Benning opened my segment by describing what happened when he spotted Beckman in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place hotel. It’s so sad.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/629730233609011200
Yep, that’s Beckman, the head coach of the fifth most populous state’s flagship college football program, and the interest around him was…well, it didn’t use to be like this. No, it didn’t use to be like this at all.
My first ever sports memory was the 1984 Rose Bowl. It’s the first sporting event I ever watched on television, and my personal history with Illini football began there. Of course, that specific game could likely be tainted, given what I found while researching it.
Still was a Rose Bowl, and in the 31 years since that game we’ve seen Illini football: go back to the Rose Bowl, play in another BCS bowl, have a #1 overall pick in the NFL, have several first rounders, and well, Illini football shouldn’t be this irrelevant.
Illinois is no Alabama, but they’re not a mid-major either, and the lack of interest in the program is alarming. The national reputation of Tim Beckman and the program is just comical.
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. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN Omaha.
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