Illinois Hires Greg Colby As Defensive Line Coach

We have our new defensive line coach.

Greg Colby, who had been serving as the head coach at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, is returning to Illinois to coach the defensive line. Colby is an alumnus.

This is not his first stop at Illinois as a coach, nor is he a stranger to coaching in the Big Ten. He was part of the Illinois coaching staff from 1988 to 1995. He's also spent time at Michigan State as a defensive line coach from 1995 to 1997. He then moved on to Kent State where he served as defensive coordinator until 2002 when he returned to the Big Ten as Northwestern's defensive coordinator until 2007.

He also has experience coaching at the high school level in Illinois, which is another bonus.

During his stint at Illinois, Colby coached linebackers and special teams while the Illini went to six bowl games in his eight seasons. That includes 1989's Big Ten title team.

So, once again, Tim Beckman has added experience to his coaching staff, which is fine by me.

Also, in other coaching news and rumors, word is that Oklahoma offensive line coach James Patton is on the way to Illinois as well, though what he'd be doing here, I'm not sure. After all, we already hired Jim Bridge to coach the offensive line. So if Patton is coming, I expect there to be shuffling of jobs.

We'll just have to wait and see.

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