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#AskTCR: All About Beckman

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS. THOUGH NOT ALL ANSWERS MAY BE TO THE QUESTIONS YOU WERE ASKING.

By Mark Primiano
Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

There was definitely a common theme for questions in this week's submissions. It's almost like something terrible happened this past Saturday!

There are two ways to ask The Champaign Room your questions. You can tweet them at us on Twitter using the hashtag #AskTCR -- it just makes it easier to keep track -- or you can email them to us at mprimia2@gmail.com. And if you've got a personal question and you're worried about your privacy, just tell us. We'll change your name to Tom Crean when we publish it on the site. And remember, you can ask us ANYTHING. It doesn't have to be about Illinois or even sports.

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I assume this is about not coming to your tailgate. So allow me to defend myself. I walked to your tailgate. I found the Miller High Life flag. I asked ten people "Are you Mike?" or "Is there a Mike Zagorski here?" and none of them said yes. After five minutes of asking confused strangers if they were the internet friend I speak to once a week, I decided to cut my losses and drive back to my hotel room. We'll try again at the Penn State game.

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Not that I've seen, no. I'll keep checking though.

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I moved here probably two months after you moved away, so I have a decent reference level of what has changed since you've last been here, making this easier to answer. But first I want to tell you what has changed. Ale House became Lucky's and then Chuggerz and is now a fantastic Indian restaurant. Bomb Bar moved. Bushwacker's is now a country bar called Dirty Dawg's. Fast Eddy's is a country bar called Rockin' Rodeo. That should cover it.

Back to your question though. My least favorite part would be the vet school because I spend far too much time there. My favorite places would have to be O'Malley's and Big D's Burger Shack. I love O'Malley's because the beers actually come in pint glasses and their jukebox is the sole one in town with "Pony" on it. Big D's is simply wonderful. Every town needs a burger join that does not try to be anything more than a greasy burger joint that will slowly kill you with deliciousness.

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An email from WilliamsForThreeeeeee-

A Michigan fan comes over to your house to watch football (stay with me). Do you?
A. Laugh at him
B. Tell him "I feel your pain. And we’ve been feeling it for about 20 years with very brief respites."
C. Tell him you are really hoping Michigan pulls some upsets in their remaining games so that Brady Hoke does not get fired. For the sole reason that ANY other football head coach opening is more attractive than ours and hence, puts us further down the pecking order for the next decent hire.
D. Silently watch both of your respective schools lose again while wearing your Appalachian State hoodie and sweatpants.

My good friend ColinTJ from South Side Sox just happens to be a Michigan Man, so I do not find your scenario preposterous at all. I'd go with something close to option D, though I don't care much for sweatpants. I talked about the inevitable Michigan job opening with Matt and Jim over dinner this Saturday and we all came to the same conclusion: the Michigan job is not appealing right now. You have an AD that has proven himself to be tone dead and will throw you under the bus. You have a fanbase that will crucify you if you aren't winning ten games a year. If you're the type of candidate I want Illinois to approach (more on this soon), that's a horrible first job. Yeah, we don't have the storied history or resources of the Wolverines. But we also have wonderfully low expectations, allowing a coach to grow on the job.

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There will be an entire post on this up at some point on Thursday. Probably around 11 AM. I promise. I even consulted beloved former leader Tom and a recent former Illini football player for candidates they would like to see get the gig. Just have to wait one more day.

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It would at least be interesting for the novelty value alone. Can't really do a worse job, right?

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There is no denying that what Holecek is doing up at Loyola Academy is impressive. He might be able to make the leap to the college ranks in the near future and be successful. But Illinois cannot be his first job. You just can't go out and grab a guy with zero college coaching experience and hand him the reins to your Power 5 conference team, even when your team might be the worst in the five conferences. Hugh Freeze made a relatively quick jump over the past decade from high school coach to damn fine college head coach. But he had stops as an assistant and as a coach at much lower programs before getting his first main gig. Hiring a high school coach straight up strikes me as similar to taking a friend who is a decent cook and making them head chef at a real restaurant without any training or cooking school. It won't end well.

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If I listed all of my sins here, the article would never finish being written. It's a good thing I don't feel guilt.

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His press conferences have grown more and more depressing/maddening as the season goes on. I wrote about how far he had come in that department during the Big Ten Media Days this summer. It seemed like he had finally turned the corner from cornpone goofball to confident leading man. And I defended him after the fabricated and out of context quotes that were hot internet fire after the Washington game. But holy shit, Timmy. You can't keep saying crap like this. I get what he means when he's saying it, but keep it in the locker room. The media members smelled blood in the water at his opening press conference and have been circling ever since. Yet he just keeps giving them more and more rope to hang him.

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I think it's fairly obvious that we're one of his tragedies and not a comedy, so we've got it narrowed done pretty well already. But what tragedy? There's no love story angle, so there goes another handful. If we were going with the history of the program as a whole, we could use Othello or Julius Caesar since both involve falls from great heights, but no. Just doesn't feel right.

The current state of Illinois football feels closest to Coriolanus. You have a leader who was somewhat successful at the lower levels and gets in it his head that he can do the same in the big leagues. Sadly, his temperament and abilities aren't up to snuff, ultimately leading to his ouster. Poor decisions he makes along the way lead to his death. Feels like we just need to change the names in the play to make it fit, doesn't it?

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An email from Shane-

What's more likely: Bailey plays enough meaningful minutes this season (barring O'Toole injury) that would warrant him burning the redshirt, Illinois wins 2 more games this season, Beckman is the head coach of another FBS program within the next 6 years.

Six years is a long time and Beckman was successful at Toledo, so a lower conference FBS school might be willing to give him a shot in three years or so. If the defense plays like they did against Purdue for the rest of the season, we won't win another game. That was the worst offense we were going to see all season. So I guess it's Bailey by default. And honestly, just make him the starter for the rest of the season. The redshirt is already coming off. Might as well let him play as much as possible. O'Toole is a very nice young man, but I don't want to see his weak arm ever again.

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This is a sentiment I just do not understand at all. You can add Bollant to the list of good coaching hires Thomas has made while you're at it. In what world is making one bad football coaching hire an offensive worthy of firing? WE ARE NOT A BLUE BLOOD PROGRAM. IF WE FIRE A FOOTBALL COACH AFTER TWO SEASONS, NO ONE WILL COME HERE.

This isn't hard. Yeah, Beckman did not work. Every other program is on the upswing. WE MUST FIRE THE AD WHO HAS BEEN HERE FOR A SMALL HANDFUL OF YEARS AND IS TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TIRE FIRE THAT IS OUR FOOTBALL PROGRAM /completely ignores the fact that the last Illini football coach to leave with a winning record was John Makovic who left the program in 1991.

I don't know when the program improves, but dear lord are our fans an impatient bunch.

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I'd be more concerned about the impending end of the world that win would clearly be foretelling. With a healthy Lunt, we at least would have a puncher's chance in any game. With O'Toole starting and that defense being on the field? No. Not even pretending an upset is possible.

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In the magical world where the Illini do win the next six, yeah, he's saved. But no, he's cooked. Keeping him at this point is career suicide.

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Nathan Scheelhaase more or less confirmed it on the radio with Jeremy Werner yesterday. I know for a fact that the seniors didn't buy in during Beckman's first year. There seemed to be a bit of progress in that department last season, but knowing that he's going to be gone after this year seems to have changed that. It can't be easy having faith in someone you know won't be around much longer.

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It won't be next season, no matter who is coaching. But if they hit a homerun with the new hire, I could see a sellout in 2016. I'll say it would either be Homecoming against Minnesota (10/29/16) or Dad's Day against Michigan State (11/516). No sooner than those dates though.

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An email from James-

Mark,

I know Nick Saban will never coach here, but how long would it take for him to rebuild Illinois in its current state of affairs? No way this is a standard 2 year project even for him like he did at LSU and Alabama.

Four years. LSU and Alabama have the built in advantages of being in the South and having illustrious histories and football crazy fans. That makes a quick turnaround a hell of a lot easier. We lack those things, so it would take a bit longer to turn Illinois into a perennial contender for a shot at the Playoff. Might change my answer to five years, but I feel comfortable at four.

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Losing that badly at home to the only team with fewer conference wins the previous season than us? Yup. That's the new nadir.

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I see no reason not to. If we get a defensive minded head coach next season, I wouldn't be upset to see Cubit retained. Making him the interim head coach could go a long way towards convincing him to stay.

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