Illinois Coaching Search Concludes With Tim Beckman Hire

For more on the Illini, visit Illinois blog Hail to the Orange.

Beckman, nearly going meta:

And though, by most accounts, he did win the press conference, Illini blog Hail to the Orange raises two big questions Beckman will have to address:

(Also worth noting another Rockets coach has Twitterly critiqued Beckman’s decision to leave.)

The MAC aficionados at Hustle Belt are accustomed to this sort of thing, and have turned to assessing the job Beckman did at Toledo:

Beckman has gone 21-16 in three seasons with Toledo, making a pair of bowl games and winning a MAC division title.

The Chicago Tribune reports Illinois is “zeroing in on” Beckman, who’ll reportedly meet with the Illini on Thursday.

The coach at Toledo for three years, he’s reached the 2011 MAC Championship Game, two bowl bids, a top-10 2011 offense, and two straight winning seasons after the Rockets endured four down years in a row. He has ties throughout the midwest, having schooled in Ohio and coached at Bowling Green and Ohio State, among other stops.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Sumlin is at the top of the list of candidates Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas wants to replace the recently departed Ron Zook. Other candidates getting a look are Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Todd Monken and Pittsburgh Steelers running backs coach Kirby Wilson. If hired, Sumlin, and WIlson for that matter, would become the Illini’s first black head coach.

Illinois has to battle, among others, Texas A&M and Arizona State for Sumlin’s services, and, according to an emancipated college football writer, that’s not a likelihood at this point:

Fighting Illini beat writer John Supinie cited one source and reported that the two sides are close to a deal, meaning Sumlin would take his explosive offense and move it to the Big 10. If he is to be believed, that would make two head coaches, Urban Meyer at Ohio State being the other, known for high-scoring teams revolving around the passing game — or mobile quarterbacks — who are joining the conference that pretty much invented ground-and-pound.

However, TexAgs.com’s Billy Liucci pretty much just saw Supinie’s source and raised him two:

Ilinois fired head coach Ron Zook this week after the Illini squandered a 6-0 start to finish 6-6.

Chryst, a former quarterback at Wisconsin, has been OC with the Badgers since 2005. He also overseas the quarterback position. Prior to that, he was offensive coordinator for the Oregon State Beavers. He was Wisconsin’s tight end coach before that position.

Somehow, Temple coach Steve Addazio’s presence on the list stirred up something beyond just, “Hey, that’d be ____.” Houston’s Kevin Sumlin is also on the list, but nobody’s tweeting, “Kevin Sumlin, next Illinois coach? Chicago Tribune reports ...” about him.

All of this led to Addazio [AUTOPLAY VIDEO AD WARNING] denying whatever it was that was reported:

Potrykus reports a meeting should happen soon and provides essential plane-tracking details.

Chryst has captained the Wisconsin offense since 2005, previously coaching at Oregon State. He played his college ball in Madison as well. His 2005 team set school scoring records, and that was just the start.

He declined to take any questions, out of respect for his now former players.

Illinois head coach Ron Zook has been fired, according to a report from the Champaign News-Gazette’s Bob Asmussen. Asmussen cites a source in his report, and says that official word on Zook’s firing is forthcoming. Sources also tell CBS Sports that a press conference has been called for 4 p.m. Central to announce the firing.

Zook being let go comes as no surprise now, given the roller-coaster ride that has been Illinois football in the last 12 months. Zook was rumored to be on his way out at the end of 2010, after his Illini posted a 6-6 record, but was brought back for the 2011 season and had Illinois at 6-0 after its first six games of the season.

On October 9th of this year, the Illinois Illini stood at 6-0, and everyone thought, “Well, boy howdy were we wrong about Ron Zook. What a fine coach he is, and a shoo-in for future huzzahs and laurels!” Oh, my how wrong we were.

This is the first time this has happened in the recorded history of FBS college football. Ron Zook football’s maddening inconsistency isn’t just a matter of popular myth anymore. It is now part of the college football fossil record.

Ron Zook already got testy with a beat reporter last night when asked about rumors of his imminent demise as Illini head coach. So you just had to push him, didn’t you, Shannon Ryan of the Chicago Tribune? You had to ask him about it again, and made him grab the pages of printer test pages he brought with him to the podium and walk out of his press conference. We can’t embed the video, but please note that Ron Zook either walks like someone who thinks he is a bantam rooster, or like someone whose right foot is perpetually asleep. I would believe either, or both.

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