Tate: Illinois options appear bleak
Illini football has faced this crossroads before.
At the risk of repeating a half-century toboggan ride, we’re reminded that the Illini lost 11 consecutive league games ending in 1962, stumbled through a 16-for-17 tailspin under Jim Valek, went 19 games without a Big Ten victory (three ties) under Gary Moeller, snapped a 15-game league losing streak in 1998 and dropped 30 of 32 as recently as 2003-2006.
So heading to Ohio State with a 10-game conference slide is familiar ground. But this one is different. The surrounding mood has changed.
When Moeller was struggling in the late 1970s, drawing 30,874 (paid) for his final game, a defiant Illini Nation could be heard: “Give us an inspirational coach and we’ll come storming back!” Neale Stoner hauled Mike White from the West Coast, and voila! He energized the fandom and, within a couple of years, crowds topped 70,000 and the Illini won all nine Big Ten games in 1983.
There was a prevalent feeling that, with the right leadership, Illinois could be a persistent challenger, and this was verified again by John Mackovic’s four-year reign.
That feeling has tapered down and faded out. Bold defiance has been replaced by an attitude of helplessness. Cocky self-assurance has been supplanted by doubt and worse yet, indifference.
A new coach, Tim Beckman, hasn’t been able to stem the tide. In fact, team performance has gotten worse. Home crowds appear headed back toward the sub-40,000 range as local hotels report upcoming cancellations this week. The Quarterback Club started the season with an enthusiastic turnout of 300 and barely hit 140 Monday. Beckman’s Wednesday night radio show draws few callers.
This is a new low because, unlike the Moeller era, which was prior to the arrival of Penn State and Nebraska, and prior to the revivals of Michigan State and Wisconsin, it looks hopeless. Gloom covers the campus as thoroughly as the planned smoke ban. It has reached a point where a home win against Minnesota or Purdue would only slightly uplift the attitude.
The joke making the rounds goes as follows:
“I wanted to give away my two tickets for the next game. I left them on the counter. When I returned, there were four.”
Illinois always has enjoyed temporary rebounds. And the work of Bill Snyder at Kansas State shows it can be done. But how long will it take for the next one?
Not so special
Special teams — the kicking game — reveal a lot about a football team. For the Illini, all aspects are not bad. Justin DuVernois has them first in the Big Ten in net punting, and they’re third in kickoff coverage and perfect on PATs (18 straight).
But in punt and kickoff returns, the Illini display dismal numbers that are carrying over from one year to the next. They’re 117th of 120 in punt returns and 115th in kickoff returns.
Consider that North Carolina has 482 yards in punt returns and two TDs, Florida State 421 and three, Missouri 354 and three, and there sits Illinois with 23 total yards and no TDs. Forty-one teams are averaging 10 yards or more, which is a first down in my book. Northwestern is averaging 21 yards per return, Illinois 1.8. This means the Wildcats will have an advantage of two first downs when they exchange punts Nov. 24 in Evanston.
Beckman brought in one of the nation’s leading special-teams coaches, Tim Salem, to fix this problem. Salem put Central Florida in the upper echelons of the return game the last few years, leading the nation in kickoff returns and ranking 12th in punt returns in 2010.
What is it? Why is Illinois so ineffective in returning booted balls?
Beckman calls it “failures to block in space,” noting that “two punt fumbles were (in part) because we didn’t win on the line of scrimmage. We have to coach the basics better, hand placement and feet.”
Beckman is impersonating the Dutch boy who lacks enough fingers to plug the dike. He has divided practices for several weeks in order to spend time with the offensive and defensive units.
Blocking’s the key
Blocking and tackling in space are elements that separate football teams.
Salem sees the problem and is trying to deal with it. He said:
“In studying 12 games last year, plus the bowl game and this season, it is apparent that open-field blocking is a weakness, and that is critical to returning balls. We spent time last spring and this fall making sure we knew our assignments and trying to get a body on a body. But as we’re seeing on offense and defense, we often have 10 guys doing it right and one doing it wrong, and that screws up the whole play. If you watch the video clips, it’s one guy and not the same guy blowing an assignment. We’re giving it due diligence, and it’s not showing up on Saturday.
“We’re using the same schemes that Coach Beckman found successful at Toledo, the same schemes that were effective at Central Florida and Arizona State. Our preparation is not showing up on Saturday. That’s the bottom line.”
Salem held open tryouts Tuesday and Wednesday for punt and kickoff returns. He declined to say who’ll take over, while offering positive comments for Northern Illinois transfer Tommy Davis, who fumbled his second punt against Indiana.
“Tommy Davis is a self-starting, high-motor guy who feels worse than anybody,” Salem said. “It hurts him inside, but he pushes on. He loves to compete.”
Davis’ fumble on the first punt Sept. 29 set up Penn State for a go-ahead TD. His fumble last Saturday put Indiana in position to break a 14-14 tie before halftime. On those he has returned this season, he is averaging less than 2 yards per try.
Thus a change is called for. Either Darius Millines or Terry Hawthorne is expected to replace him at Ohio State. But if they don’t get open-field blocking, they won’t do any better than Davis did. For the record, in three seasons of returning punts at NIU, Davis averaged nearly 8 yards per return. It must be in the water here.
Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.
I flew in from the West Coast to attend the Penn State game and sat on the 50 yard line. It was pretty obvious that the punt return man ( Davis) was usually moving backwards when he was trying to catch the ball. Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but you're not going to get many return yards when your momentum is in the wrong direction.
By the way, I attended Illinois from 1969 to 1978 and I experienced exactly ONE winning team during that nine year stretch. The coaches included Jim Valek, Bob Blackman, and Gary Moeller. So I've seen some bad Illinois football teams, but I am still a loyal Illinois alum.
Tim Beckman's team that I saw against Penn State looked un-motivated, ill-prepared, and un-talented. There is a reason that the fans are despondent: We just lost at home to frakking Indiana: which makes us the doormat of the league. And it may be a long time before we gain some momentum.
Come on, we can't out-recruit Oregon State? That team located in a small town with a tiny stadium has NONE of the advantages or prestige of the U of Illinois. Plus they have to recruit against Oregon, Washington, Stanford and USC.
Yet their fans are loyal and enthusiastic. Plus they have a coach who the players and fans hold in high regard. And every couple of years they field an outstanding football team that soars in the national rankings.
I thought Illinois was on the right track with two successive bowl games. Now it looks like wheels have fallen off again.
What a surprise! No mention of Lord Guenther by his buddy Tate. Mr. 88-124-2 ruined UI football.
The sad truth is Ron Guenther governed over the death of this football program. The fact is that Guenther's reign over Illinois athletics the last 20 years was the death penalty for football. There simply are few Illini football fans under the age of 40. They are the life blood of the football program. Young fans go to games and tailgate and travel to away games. The disaster the last 20 years under RG has cost the program an important generation of fans. You see it when you go to games. It's an old crowd. Those empty seats you see are the next generation of fans that have taken their loyalty and entertainment dollars elsewhere
It is easy to criticize Guenther for the won and loss record. His football hires looked good on paper. Turner had the NFL experience and Zook a good record at Florida and a reputation for good recruiting but they did not pan out. I think the credit to Guenther needs to go to how he rebuilt the integrity of the Illinois athletic programs. After the slush fund it seemed we were on the NCAA watch list for nearly 40 years. It was easy for an opposing program to tell recruits Illinois was about to be put on NCAA sanctions. There seemed to be an appearance of impropriety during the Neale Stoner/Mike White/Lou Henson era. It was easy for a wanna be up and climber to provide false information to get Illinois wrongfully punished.
If for nothing else lets give Guenther credit for returning respectability. I want to win but I want to win within the rules not by walking the line or flat out ignoring the rules.
It is easy to criticize Guenther for the won and loss record.
Yes, it is. When you preside over a program for 240 games and you win fewer than 37% of them, what else can you say? In what sport would a .370 winning percentage be anything other than a complete disaster? How many years do you need?
If we just take the last 10 years of Guenther's administration, that's still 44-77 (.364). I guess you can give him points for consistency. Not a very high bar though, is it? The football program also went a miserable 23-57 (,288) in Big Ten play during that time period.
I guess you could say that we went a "respectable" 23-57? You may think that's respectable, but I don't believe that it's getting the program very much respect.
Speaking of respect and following the rules, I wouldn't trade places with PSU for anything. Yet there they are and we have articles like this. Even better, we follow NCAA rules and somehow manage to come out the bad guys for recruiting their players. The Illini are terrible at managing their PR.
Just for consideration, PSU is going to use their debacle to at least do something positive and shed some light on the problem of child abuse and provide some support for victims. Maybe a bit too little too late some would say, but wait to see how it all plays out in the press. The support (not the deeds that drove PSU to this point) will be viewed as a positive. (Oh, by the way, this is also far from over for PSU.)
Just for consideration, look at the way Illinois handled the issue with The Chief. What might have been an opportunity to create a win-win situation appears to have been a lose-lose, both for Native Americans and the University. Ask yourself, if you had to choose between the two issues: 1) PSU child-abuse scandal or 2) UI mascot, which would you rather have to deal with and which would you expect to have the better long-tern outcome? (Again, the Illini are terrible at managing their PR.)
Why are fans disenchanted? Because Illinois is one of College Football's Biggest Underachievers. Illinois ranks 26th overall in the nation in terms of collegiate sports budget (and that's with lot's of empty seats in the stadium). You would think that with that kind of money, the program would be able to field a team that would consistenly play over .500 ball, wouldn't you?
Mr. Tate has pointed to the real potential issue for the program here, and if I were Mike Thomas, this is what would keep me awake at night. It's not that the fans are angry and p----d off at the coaches, the AD, the administration or the University, it's that at some point they just stop caring. If someone is mad at you, that at least shows that at some emotional level, there is an attachment. When some one no longer cares, telling them that you are going to make it better, just doesn't matter. Is Illinois football staring into the abyss?
Having said that, I'm willing to give Mike Thomas time to get this sorted out. He inherited a difficult situation and I believe that it's still very fixable and I also believe that he's capable of turning it around.
I dont know how this will ever change unless the DIA is going to make someone a huge offer to come and change this mess. You cannot recruit successfully to losing and you cant win without the better players. I dont know who would want to take this on without a huge incentive to do so. I dont think the DIA will ever do this. There are no more wins on this schedule. I am tired of coaches who say they need to coach better. What have they been doing before?? Been an Illini fan for 50 years and I thought Michigan's Bo Jr. was the worst. This is a train wreck with a bridge out ahead
Tate briefly mentioned the success that Bill Snyder has had at Kansas State.
Earlier this week, ESPN SportsCenter did a piece on the K-State football program and its current success (#2 in the BCS Rankings). They gave all of the credit to coach Bill Snyder, and rightly so. Prior to his going to Manhattan (Kansas, that is), the Kansas State football program had a winning record in only 4 of the past 50 years!!! That's way beyond even Illinois' futility.
It does show that it can be done with the right guy and an AD who can find that guy. There should be no excuses. For those claiming Champaign-Urbana is in the middle of nowhere, Manhattan, KS is not exactly the Big Apple. As far as competing with the Michigans and Penn States with their 100,000+ stadiums, there are many very successful programs whose average attendance is in the 45,000 to 55,000 range. Hell, Northwestern is winning with 30,000 per game.
Yes, it's bleak. There are no indications yet that the team has hit bottom or has improved in any phase of the game. Beckman built a defense at Bowling Green and turned around Toledo pretty quickly and he's the coach we have so I choose to support him. Hopefully his schemes are applicable in the B1G and the staff can fix execution, and eventually talent, issues. I'm so tired of fans pounding away on Guenther or demanding that everyone be fired. We all want to win, hard to see how that helps.
As usual, hard to find a point in Tate's meanderings.
But, as usual, he tosses fans under the bus.
Everyone should stay home and let Obi Wan sit alone on the 50. Hope it rains.
Unclear whether Beckman -- or anyone -- can make Illini football competitive. I have my doubts. But Beckman deserves at least next year to show something.
After all, he has very little talent and speed to work with.
And no QBs.
Okay....I am usually one of the first to gripe about your nasty diatribe against the author of these articles, rather than the material, so I'll be among the first to give you credit for almost staying fairly repectful in this one. Were it not for the inane Star Wars reference, I'd actually probably agree with your whole post.
At a minimum, I will absolutely agree that Beckman needs some latitude and time to make a difference. It's hard to change a program in one year.
Maybe Illinois should give up football altogether or maybe leave the B10 and join a conference like the MAC where we MIGHT be more competetive or dare I say even in the middle of the pack. And there's the added bonus of Mike Thomas and Beckman feeling more comfortable.
Anyway after the 2007 season and being transferred (sadly ) back to Illinois I decided to "buy in" to the 2007 Rose Bowl success and became a season ticket holder and I-Fund donor. I joined the champions club at $500 per year and started at 4 but now at 3 season tickets. Anyway $500/yr Ifund x 5 yeears = $2500. Season tickets at $950/yr x 5 years =$4750, tailgating stuff like tent, grill, chairs, flags, tables, $700 roughly. Gas from Bloomington roughly $25 per game the last 5 years so but let's just call that $1000 for travel.
So for the last 5 years:
IFund - $2500
Tickets - $4750
Tailgate gear - $700
Gas/travel - $1000
So roughly $9000 invested the last 5 years. For many that's not much but to me it is. If I had HOPE that Illinois in the forseeable future or within 2-3 years might be able to right the ship then i would probably continue. But I just don't see it. Beckman will likely get 2 more years at least before a change is made. If he is replaced then count on another 2-3 years or more to rebuild things again. Given the way the Beckman error or era has started out it looks doubtful that he'll be the guy to be able to make this program competetive again. So we could be looking at a 5-7 year era of losing, bowl-less seasons. How does one justify investing hard earned money and time into that. I don't. I dont' have the money, time or patience for that and after 20 years of this I think many who have been season ticket holders a lot longer than me are starting to feel the same way.
As Loren said today and Tupper said earlier this week. It's the idea of hopelessness, that we'll NEVER get better that is plaguing Illini Nation right now. As has been said Turner and Zook got passes because we knew it would be a total rebuild and both coaches had a better reputation and more name recognition coming in to allow the fans patience and both RT and RZ DID deliver Illinois to a bowl game by year 3 of their tenure. I don't know of anyone who believes Beckman can or could get us to a bowl by year 3 or 4 of his tenure. Heck I bet 9 out of 10 people would bet that Penn St. with all their problems and un-precedented sacntions will be in a better position in football than us both now and 4 or 5 years down the road. That speaks volumes in itself.
Mike Thomas this is on you. On you for not doing enough homework to have a better plan "C" or "D". You had a WANT list or wish list of coaches but not a "get" or will likely come if called list. So as you checked names off you went with what was "comfortable" going after a rather un-tried and unknown MAC coach vs. trying to get a better name.
And you also insulted Illlini Nation by saying only about 10% of us were "upset" with the way things were going in football right now. 10%! Are you living in the state of Illinois or the state of delusion?
Sadly I think you'll find these next few games and next year that the fan base may be broken beyond repair until a solid winner comes along. In the meantime get ready and get used to seeing 20,000 to 30,000 type crowds...or less for the forseeable future. Your seat just got a lot hotter.
The firing of Zook was ill-planned and a knee jerk reaction from an umproven AD. If you don't have a replacement in mind, don't make a panic induced hire. It is even more compounded now finding that he hired the 2nd best coach at Toledo.
As far as the reference to Oregon State, he is only half right. Mike Riley has been there for years and as such, built pipelines into many Southern California high schools. Much like the main pipeline Zook had into the Baltimore/DC area. That is all destroyed now because of this BOZO THE CLOWN AD, Mike "I have no clue, duh" Thomas.
I think from the get go Coach Beckman was put in a bad position. This does fall on the A.D. for not knowing what type of coach the the Illini fandom enjoy having around. Coach Vic may have had a hard time too. Looking back the fans enjoy having a head coach who is a) a offensive coordinator b) people person who communicates well. Coach Beckman had a hard time from the start selling himself to the fans. That is the A.D.'s fault for putting him in that position. Coach Vic at least had support from the fans for a) heading up a leading defense and b) for taking the team to the bowl game. I point is that Coach Beckman was behind the 8 ball before he even started. Mike Thomas should have waited at least another year before making any changes. My opinion.
With basketball (girls and mens) he hit a home run!!! My opinion as well.
Illinois football was horrendous for nearly two decades before Mike White arrived, the turnaround was nearly instantaneous. It can be done and the Tim Beckman hire should stand or fall on it's own merits. It's not Ron Guenther's fault that Mike Thomas fired a bad coach and replaced him with a worse one.
Beckman needs to speak up, lay it on the line. He is increaisingly losing his credibility game after game in his demenor. I think there is something that has been overlooked. When we hired Thomas, it was hard to get a big time coach in here, so we settled with Becky. Now, I think if you were to ask some of those big time coaches, they would tell you, they did not want to be under Thomas. The key missed hire that is causing the football problem was Thomas, our A.D. who with his personality is the big reason we settled with Becky. We need a big time A.D. who will attract a Big time Coach, who will bring the Illini back to BIG TIME
The situation that Illinois is in right now I because of bad choices; bad choices by the fans, the administration, Tim Beckman and anyone else associated with Illinois sports. It was an awful choice to get rid of Zook, without a solid, implementable backup plan (i.e. you are positive that you will get the coach that is best for the program or you have a commitment to give an assistant- like maybe the one who had one of the best defenses in the country.
1)It’s ironic that all of the people who are on here complaining about how bad Beckman is, are the same people that wanted Zook fired for getting six wins and going to TWO bowl games in a row! Having been a lifelong Illinois fan and only having the opportunity to watch Illinois in a bowl game only a handful of times during the last 30 years, I thought this was great! This was great because that’s what Illinois is, a slightly above .500 team, we are not OSU, Michigan or Wisconsin and we never will be. Going 8-4, 7-5, 6-6 every year and going to any bowl game would be a great achievement for Illinois. For some reason there is this allusion amongst the fans that we are some dominate Big 10 powerhouse but we are not, we are just average Illinois and that is fine. That is ok to be slightly above average for a consistent while and then build on that. Then you can compete on a consistent basis with OSU & Michigan instead of getting one win against them every ten years or so. Firing Zook, wasting all of the money to buy out him and all of the other coaches without a sure replacement was an awful choice. Zook was not the greatest coach in college football by any means but he was a great “starter coach” to build the program to the next level in order for a premier coach to start over, or at least keep us going in the right direction, even if it was slowly for awhile.
It was an awful choice by Tim Beckman to come here. He probably ruined his budding career by accepting the fourth, fifth, or sixth offer that Illinois made. He was doing great things at Toledo and probably wishes every day that he was still there.
I love Illinois football and all Illinois sports. I’m on the west coast now and went the PSU game and also noticed that the actual crowd in the game was much older than the crowd that was outside tailgating. Illinois is in danger of losing it all. My father has been the most positive Illinois supporter for over 40 years but even he gave away his season tickets for the rest of the year and will not be renewing them next year. I am sure that next year’s attendance numbers are going to be very embarrassing.
Clue to the clueless: Quit hoping for a Messiah to save us from ourselves. Think outside the box. The athletic experts have failed and don't have a fix. Approach the problem in a novel way. Treat it like a business or engineering problem. The jocks have had their chance.
I was at the game in C-bus. This is the worst Illini squad I have seen in 25 years. At least in some of our poorer years in the last two decades, we could hang our hat on a running back, a quarterback, or a defensive stud. WE HAVE NOTHING AND NO ONE. What a pathetic horrid display of highschool ball.
What a difference a year makes. And by the way, the Illini still have no quarterback. Nate looks lost confused, like a country boy stuck in Manhattan.
irish
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