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It’s been that kind of year for the Illinois Fighting Illini and their hopeless coach Tim Beckman. At 2-10, winless in conference and blown out in more than half their losses, it’s been pure phantasmagoria.
Today’s blowout loss to Northwestern brought more pain. On the field, and the sideline.
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One thing is for sure- this Illinois Fighting Illini team can play some defense.
With starting quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase injured, safety Ashante Williams returned an interception 60 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown to help Illinois and new coach Tim Beckman hang on for a 24-7 win Saturday over Western Michigan in the season opener for both teams.
The Illini opened up a 17-0 lead but their offense stalled when Scheelhaase left the game with an ankle injury late in the third quarter.
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New Illinois football head coach Tim Beckman takes over for the fired Ron Zook. The rookie head coach (on a Big Ten level) from Toledo addressed the media yesterday (Here is the link to the 25 minute video) after a week at Camp Rantoul; the Illini train on the former Chanute air force base.
Here are some of the highlights of what he had to say
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Newly minted Illini head Coach Tim Beckman addressed the issue of the day surrounding his program, and the Big Ten conference in general, the Penn State football roster being re-opened for recruiting.
Beckman took the topic head on with the opening statement in his time at the podium:
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The Illini started to get defensive, real defensive in the 2010 Texas Bowl. In that 38-14 trouncing of Robert Griffin III and Baylor, they held RG3 and the Bears in check.
The man who would win the Heisman trophy and become the #2 overall pick in the NFL Draft the very next season was out of rhythm, out of sync versus the Illini in Houston. And that D carried over into 2011, when they Illini had a top 10 national defense.
A lot of that was the personnel, a lot of it was coordinator Vic Koenning, who unfortunately had to move on when Ron Zook was replaced by Tim Beckman.
Can they keep it going this fall, despite the coaching changes?
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Illinois football coach Tim Beckman revealed the 2012 Illinois “Loyal-Tee” shirt design Tuesday in front of Foellinger Auditorium in Champaign.
The winning design, featured on the front of the shirt, was voted on by thousands of Illini fans out of four designs based on the winning fan-submitted slogan, “A New Era BECKons.”
Get it? Cuz of Tim Beckman, beckons…”STEAKS AND CAKES!”
“LASAGNA PANS!”
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STEAKS AND CAKES!!!
There’s food on the line yet again surrounding Illini football.
Earlier this week it was announced that this Illinois football spring game would have a couple culinary twists. Newly installed coach Tim Beckman decided that the losing team would have to eat frank and beans as their postgame meal.
Not sure what the winners got, but I’m assuming it’s real food.
‘‘This is a competition,’’ Beckman said. ‘‘The winner will be rewarded. The loser will get their beans and weenies. That’s the way it is. That’s life — that’s the game of football.’’
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Ohio State hiring Urban Meyer this was not. Utah hiring Urban Meyer this could possibly be.
Even though it’s not official yet, conventional wisdom, the status quo and 4 out of 5 dentists agree: Toledo Rockets head Coach Tim Beckman will soon become the successor to Ron Zook at Illinois. This Illini head coaching hire has far less pizazz and excitement than any hire in recent memory. And that could be bad.
Then again the Zook hire had plenty of hoopla, and much of it was for the wrong reasons, so maybe going vanilla and “meh” is the right thing this time around?
I’m glad Illinois Athletic Director took some big swings, even if he whiffed on all of them.
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Ron Zook is gone. However, he was only one part of a larger college football problem in Champaign-Urbana. Zook “made history,” by becoming the first coach in FBS history to “accomplish” this feat- starting 6-0, finishing 6-6. But Zook wasn’t that much worse than Lou Tepper or Ron Zook, they all won only about a 1/3 of their Big Ten games.
So this needs to be a revolutionary hire for Illinois Athletic Director Mike Thomas. It needs to be a total sea change for Illini football; here’s a few hows and whys.
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