Illinois hires Tim Beckman

Associated Press

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.

Tim Beckman has rebuilt a program before.

He inherited a mess when he took over at Toledo, where the Rockets had finished three straight losing seasons and were in the middle of a point-shaving scandal.

At Illinois, the 46-year-old Beckman isn’t walking into a gambling crisis but there are steep hills ahead.

The Illini are in the middle of a six-game losing streak that has given them an unwanted place in the record books. Much of an already unhappy fan base seemed initially underwhelmed by Beckman’s hiring. And one university trustee complained the school missed a chance to hire its first black head football coach.

But Beckman, coming from a Mid-American Conference school where resources are limited and the Rose Bowl isn’t a possibility, insisted Friday that what’s ahead of him isn’t a rebuilding project.

“It’s not broken, it isn’t,” he told reporters after meeting with Illinois’ players. “This is a gold mine. You can win at the University of Illinois.”

Beckman will be paid $9 million over five years plus potential bonuses for bowl appearances and other benchmarks.

He replaces Ron Zook, who was fired last month by athletic director Mike Thomas after seven seasons.

Illinois started this season 6-0, but carries that six-game losing streak into the Dec. 31 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl against UCLA. The Illini are the first FBS team to open the regular-season with six straight wins, and close it with six consecutive losses.

Thomas said he hired Beckman from a field of five or six serious candidates — he wouldn’t name the others — because he believes he can win Big Ten titles.

The athletic director, answering questions about fans on local talk radio and Internet message boards who said Beckman wasn’t a big enough name, said he heard much the same at the University of Cincinnati, where he hired a pair of MAC coaches that produced consistent winners, Brian Kelly, now at Notre Dame, and current Bearcats coach Butch Jones, whose team is 9-3 this season.