Since John Mackovic left Illini football behind for Texas in 1991 the program has had four coaches; all of which went under .500 during their time in Champaign. They (Lou Tepper, Ron Turner, Ron Zook and Tim Beckman) combined to lose 53 more games than they won. OUCH! The coordinators, many of which were extremely incompetent and/or “eccentric” (or you could say “neurotic”), are a big reason for all the losing.
Bill Cubit, who we profiled in detail here, is by far the best coordinator Illini football has seen in well over a decade. You should feel comfortable handing the keys to Cubit, for now anyway. You could not feel comfortable handing the program over to any of the characters on this list.
Related: Five early candidates to replace Tim Beckman
Related: 10 funniest verbal gaffes of Tim Beckman
1.Mike Locksley, Offensive Coordinator, 2005-08
He had some great seasons, and some bad ones. However, his biggest mistake was taking the ground-focused offense which led Illini Football to the Rose Bowl in 2007, and converting it into a de facto summer passing camp. This was done in the sake of improving Juice Williams’ NFL Draft stock. Yes, a bunch of guys put up some nice statistics, but they went 5-7 and Juice never played a down in the NFL. Going from the Rose Bowl to bowl less in just one year is soooooooooooooo Illini football it’s ridiculous.
Locksley went on to become head coach at New Mexico, where he went 2-26, and encountered a whole series of off-the-field issues. Athlon did a story in 2011 entitled “Mike Locksley- the worst coach ever?” He’s now the O-Coordinator at Maryland, and that’s a big reason for my decision to pick the Terrapins to finish seventh in the Big Ten East this season.
2. Guy who succeeded Locksley, 2009
I really had to go grab a media guide to look up this guy’s name (Mike Schultz) because he was so terrible and he was dismissed after a year. The ’09 team had very high hopes, but this guy was so bad at his job that they could never figure out how to utilize all that talent- Arrelious Benn, A.J. Jenkins, Juice Williams, Mikel Leshoure.
The ’09 team was actually picked to finish third in the Big Ten by the media that preseason; yet finished 3-9. This was when Zook should have been fired, but like they did with Tepper, Turner and Beckman, they kept him at least one year too long.
Instead of firing Zook, they diminished his control over the program and then brought in two supposedly hot coordinators who would do more of the work, leading us to…..
3. Paul Petrino
You thought Bobby was the only Petrino with character issues? Paul Petrino, who led Idaho to a 1-10 record last season, completely flipped out, and went on a profanity-laced tirade against a mildly critical reporter. At Illinois, he had a great 2010, a good first half of 2011, but the second half of 2011 saw an absolutely atrocious unit take the field.
4-5. 2012 Co-offensive coordinators
I’ve been covering college football for 16 years and this idea: having one guy call plays on first and second down while a completely different guy calls plays on third down might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in this game. If you want to pick one single reason why 2012 was as ugly an Illini football season as you could ever imagine, it’s this.
Beckman, for some inexplicable reason, set up this bizarre idiotic arrangement to coordinate the Illini football offense during that 2-10 autumn of our discontent. Again, I had to dig into the media guide to find the names of these guys- Billy Gonzales (now co O Coordinator at Mississippi State) and Chris Beatty (currently running backs coach at Virginia)
6. Tim Banks, Defensive Coordinator, 2012-present
Seems like he might be a really nice guy, but the fact that he was retained after 2013, when the defense broke every Illini football record you DON’T WANT them to break, was unjustifiable. After Purdue ripped his unit to pieces in mid-season last year, I was again shocked that Banks still had a job. To his credit, the defense showed a pulse in the second half of last year, and even turned in a few really nice games.
Obviously, he’s gone after this season, but if he has potential, 2015 will be a good audition for his next gig. Last year’s bowl berth was “fool’s good” as the 6-7 Illini won every single possession game while producing awful point (-88) and yardage (-1,159) differentials.
7. Vic Koenning, Defensive Coordinator, 2010-11
He got off to a very slow start in Champaign, but once he figured things out he was pretty damn good. Koenning got the interim job when Ron Zook was canned, and he won the most boring bowl game of all time over UCLA. There was hope the new regime could retain him, but alas he moved on to North Carolina. The Tar Heels had one of the nation’s worst defenses last season, and Coach Vic was let go.
He’s now holding down the same position at Troy.
Expect more drama regarding Illini football, as Beckman’s public statement implies that he might sue the University.
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 1620 the Zone.
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