For just the second time in the past 42 years, ZERO Illini football players were selected in the NFL Draft; which concluded last night.
Illinois 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. Illini 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 state of Illini football. Yes, he’s probably not fit for the job, but there’smany other people to blame beyond Becks for what we have in front of us. Let’s take a look at how we got here and where we’re going.
There are two occasions where you can usually rely on Illini football winning: fourth tier bowl games and NFL Draft night.
Last year, the Illini had more NFL Draft picks than any Big Ten team; despite going 2-10 the previous college football season. From 2007-2012, the Illini had more first round draft picks than any other Big Ten team. Illinois saw guys taken in both the first and second round in both 2011 and 2012; despite going just 14-12 in the two seasons preceding those drafts.
And that my friends is Ron Zook in a nutshell. While Tim Beckman is college football David Moyes, good at managing a small club, failed at managing a big club, Zook is football Tom Crean. Great recruiter; can’t coach.
The 2013 NFL Draft was an indictment of Beckman. When you have that much NFL talent and you go 2-10….well, the results speak for themselves. The 2014 NFL Draft is an indictment of the previous regime. Becks was given some talent to work with, the cupboard was not bare. But he was also given a raw deal in another sense. Zook was a fantastic recruiter, but he went on cruise control and stopped doing what he does best once he was relegated to lame duck status in Champaign. So you have two recruiting classes of rubbish thanks to the Zooker.
Sadly, Beckman’s first couple of classes have received very, very low ratings too. But you can’t blame Tim Beckman for the epic failure of previous Athletic Director Ron Guenther and his short-sighted, stop gap measure regarding Zook.
Two flashy and high priced coordinators were brought in after the disastrous 2009 Illini football season. Instead of sacking Zook, which Guenther should have done, he brought in Paul Petrino to run the offense and Vic Koening to run the defense. Zook had to concede much of his power to them, and essentially realized his days in Champaign were numbered.
The plan worked in the short term as Illini football saw the first back to back bowl appearances in two decades. Unfortunately, it failed in the long run because making Zook less of a coach and more of a figure head led to him losing his recruiting edge and now….well take a look at the secondary.
Beckman had to go young, because there was nothing but youth to work with. The initial general awfulness of the secondary as a whole is the fault of Zook/Guenther. Their continued awfulness is the fault of the two Tims: Beckman and Banks. The DBs, and the defense at large got worse as the season went on, and that’s why it’s inexplicable and unacceptable that D Coordinator Tim Banks was retained. This decision is almost as poor as the decision Guenther made to demote Zook instead of just sacking him and starting over.
So don’t pin this all on Beckman, pin some of it on the previous leadership at all levels. And pin a lot of it on current Athletic Director Mike Thomas. He made the call to hire someone who was under-qualified. You can’t blame Beckman for taking an exciting opportunity that he probably wasn’t ready for. Going 1-15 in the Big Ten, 6-18 overall pretty much tells the story there.
Mike Thomas probably realizes now, as Guenther probably did when he demoted Zook, that the next Mark Dantonio is not coming through that door. That the Kevin Sumlins of the world will only use Illini football as leverage, not true consideration. It’s sad to say that, but it’s just not a destination job. Illini football needs their Dantonio or their Barry Alvarez to establish a permanent culture in which 6-6 is unacceptable, not something to celebrate. I don’t know who that would be. Or when he would actually come. Illini football has truly lost its way and the issues began well before Beckman arrived.
What’s really disappointing about all this is that Illini football had the talent on campus to be something special. The kids who can consistently put you in the Big Ten’s upper division, they were coming through that door; en masse. All those NFL Draft picks over the very recent years shows you that Illinois is a destination for talented players. It’s just not a destination for talented coaches. And that is why they had the personnel to be a New Year’s Day bowl game fixture; but not the leadership to get them there.
So that’s how Illini football got here. Tomorrow we’ll look at where Illini football is going.
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)