Mike Thomas Says Reports He Looked To Replace Beckman Are 'Absolute Nonsense"

As we're all well aware of around here, following the loss to Northwestern to end the season, there were plenty of rumors flying around that Tim Beckman was going to be fired. Various reports and anonymous sources said the firing was imminent, or that Mike Thomas had one possible replacement in mind for Beckman.

Those came from Dan Bernstein of The Score in Chicago. He claimed to have sources telling him that Beckman was going to offer the job to one coach and that if that coach agreed Beckman would go. If not, Beckman would stay. While Bernstein did not reveal the coach while this search was going on, he dropped enough hints to make it easy to figure out he spoke of Dave Doeren. Which he confirmed in Bernsteinian fashion following Doeren leaving Northern Illinois for N.C. State.

Well when asked about those reports on Saturday, athletic director Mike Thomas called them "absolute nonsense."

"That was absolute nonsense," said Thomas. "As I've shared, even publicly on radio shows locally at the end of the season, Tim and I are involved in a collaborative effort, and we will work it out together. I was clear in that regard. I didn't think it was necessary to make a formal statement.

"Tim not coaching for us next year was never a consideration, so I didn't think anything formal was required. I was responding to a question here on the radio, and I answered it. It's wrong for anyone to think it was anything other than that. Anyone who believes I was reaching out to another coach is totally wrong."

Now whether you believe Thomas here or not, that's your call. Personally I tend to believe him because as I've said here before, firing Tim Beckman to replace him with another coach from the MAC who has had a brief track record of success just doesn't make a lot of sense. If you're going to do it you need a bigger name.

And when I say that I believe Thomas here, that doesn't mean I think guys like Bernstein are just making shit up for radio. I just think they're getting bad info from people reporting what they want to happen, not what's actually happening.