From the Saturday, Nov. 14, editions of The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …
The WISCH LIST
By Dave Wischnowsky
You deserve better, Illini fans.
Now, after years of watching University of Illinois football teams get kicked all over the gridiron, turning your heart from orange-and-blue to black-and-blue, I understand that you might not think so. In fact, you might even believe that because the status quo in Champaign has been sorry for so long, that’s simply the way it’s supposed to be, and always will be.
But let me say this again, you deserve better.
And it’s time that everyone in Illinois starts believing it.
On Monday, Illinois fired athletic director Mike Thomas for basically being asleep at the wheel while his handpicked football coach Tim Beckman was allegedly running roughshod over his own injured players and NCAA medical protocols. Neither Thomas’ dismissal nor Beckman’s on Aug. 28 was the way a school wants to make national headlines, but both firings were much welcome and long overdue. And with a housecleaning now fully underway, Illinois finally has a chance to start fresh and emerge from what’s been a truly dark era at Memorial Stadium.
But in order to actually do so, people need to see the light.
Many don’t. For example, an Illinois fan lamented to me on Twitter, writing this week, “I’m so jaded by the past with Illini athletics, I just can’t imagine a situation where something good and smart would happen.” Meanwhile, a Facebook friend argued that U. of I. can’t possibly hire a good football coach because it’s where they go to “get fired.”
To which I replied, so was Wisconsin. Until it wasn’t.
Twenty-five years ago, when the 1990 season dawned, the Badgers had won only seven Big Ten games in the previous five years, while Illinois was fresh off a 10-2 campaign and a Citrus Bowl appearance capping a decade of dominance during the 1980s. Since then, however, Wisconsin has gone 214-97-4 (.688) while Illinois has is an ugly 114-168-2 (.404).
So, what happened? Well, in ’90 the Badgers brilliantly hired Barry Alvarez to breathe life into their program, while in ’91 Illinois lost John Mackovic to Texas and has been unable to adequately replace him since.
One good coaching hire truly can alter a program. But after being beaten down for so long, many Illini fans don’t seem to believe that a Wisconsin-like turnaround is even possible at Illinois. I do, but only if the right athletic director is leading the charge. And for a variety of reasons, including his poor reputation among the college coaching fraternity and lackluster salesmanship skills, I don’t think Mike Thomas was that AD.
To be sure, Illinois offers its challenges for a football coach. But it’s also a high-paying job with good facilities at the flagship school in the most populous state in the conference and the fifth most populous in the nation. Illinois also offers plenty of positives to sell prospective coaches, but the school needs a passionate and authentic pitchman to do so.
As a corporate-minded outsider who viewed Illinois as a workplace, Thomas wasn’t that guy. As a result, I’d like his successor to be someone with strong Illini ties who truly understands the school’s fan base, its quirks, its donors and its history while being more forward thinking than former AD Ron Guenther. Luckily, there’s a deep pool of candidates who boast experience and orange-and-blue bona fides, including Colorado AD Rick George, Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley and Illini golf coach Mike Small.
Illinois needs to move quickly to hire the best one and get on the path to then finally securing the right coach to build a brighter future.
It can happen, Illini fans. And, remember, you deserve nothing less.