Tim Beckman is intense.
The Ron Zook era has drawn to a close, and with it the tradition of a head football coach who hoarsely bobs his head up and down while peppering his answers with “well…” as he looks all around the room.
Brace yourselves. The Tim Beckman era will usher in a new tradition, specifically a tradition of making unbroken eye contact while shout-exclaiming things like “HE’S A CHAMPION!”, “STEAKS AND CAKES!” and “I AM RUNNING FOR STARK COUNTY REPUBLICAN TREASURER.”
Okay, not actually the last one. Beckman does not actually give the impression of being unhinged like a local candidate turned YouTube sensation.
Perhaps most helpful on this front was the fact that Mr. Beckman actually acknowledged during his introductory press conference that he is incredibly intense. A little self awareness goes a long way.
There can be no doubt that Mr. Beckman is excited to have the position at Illinois. He stated that the day he got the job was tied with the births of his children as the greatest day of his life. Perhaps more shockingly, he did not seem to be joking in the slightest.
But the question is whether the Illini Nation should be enthusiastic about his joining as well.
I am. Here’s why:
I am not in the camp that espouses chasing the big name hires out there. When a head coaching position opens, there are always those who think that the best move is to take the biggest name on the board. For a school like Illinois, the biggest name available tends to be someone who has departed in less than stellar circumstances from another large program. This is the mentality that brought Ron Zook to Illinois after his ouster at Florida. The candidate of choice on these lines would have likely been the former coach of Texas A&M who was ousted for locking a player in an equipment storage room as part of his team discipline regime. I am far from being the type of person who believes that people can’t change and improve. But when a team needs rebuilding, a leader who is, himself, rebuilding only serves as a distraction.
The other school of thought, which is to try to find a rising star and hitch your wagon to it before someone else does. The reason that Mike Thomas makes a tremendous amount of money as the Athletic Director is his reputation as being a person who is very gifted at doing just this. Mike Thomas was hired from Cincinnati based largely on the fortunes of the basketball and football programs there, which had drastically improved under coaches that Thomas selected.
Some are disappointed that Illinois has gone the low-profile route. Others preferred a tweak on the low-profile route, perhaps choosing an offensive or defensive coordinator from a larger school for their first head-coaching position. But no one should be surprised at the pick, or at least at the type of pick. A Mid-America Conference head coach who has performed well and has a clean reputation, Tim Beckman certainly fits the Mike Thomas mold. This is far from being a novel or radical approach. Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer: all of these gentlemen, and Nick Saban, came through the MAC.
Still, that doesn’t stop some from wondering. A colleague of my wife, who is understandably passionate about Illinois football as he actually played on the team and hence has much more claim to his fandom than me, said of the news “Who the f#$% is this guy from Toledo? Are we trying to be the Toledo of the Big Ten.”
And the answer is yes. Yes we are.
Because Toledo, under Tim Beckman, won the vast majority of its conference games and is generally regarded to have outperformed its conference rivals in recruiting. Beckman took the helm of the Rockets when the program was in disarray and under NCAA sanctions for on the field (almost refreshing, right?) misdeeds, specifically a point-shaving scandal. Look more closely at Toledo’s record under Beckman and you may find it is more impressive than the numbers suggest. Remember that in the MAC, the non-conference schedule tends to be brutal as schools from the BCS Automatic Qualifier conferences pay big money to schedule teams like Toledo (or Western Michigan) at the start of the year.
In all honesty, I don’t know if Tim Beckman is the right person to lead Illinois to consistent football prominence. Anytime a racehorse moves up a grade, there’s always questions about whether the lower-stakes performance, no matter how good, is good enough to compete at a higher level.
But it should be fun to watch. “Steaks and Cakes” is the name that Beckman gives to the victory meals that the team would stage following wins. It’s a great example of the incredibly high energy and slightly goofy quality that Tim Beckman exudes. I get the feeling that he’s got a whole bunch of other off-the-wall things hiding in his sleeves. He’s incredibly intense, but seems to be having a ton of fun at the same time.
It’s a new era. Tim Beckman would like to announce to the Illini Nation that we are all now on Tim Beckman Standard Time, which he refers to as “Illini Time.” It’s ten minutes before the actual time (you can’t make this stuff up).
Start watches…..now.