What a mess...

(08-28-2015 03:29 PM)KCat Wrote:  What a mess...

A fine Microphone Thomas hire/fire.

The timing of it reeks of bad management. Get that done earlier or don't do it at all. It sounds like a long investigation was performed, culminating a week before the season starts. That's some poor planning, right there. Get that done faster & make the decision sooner.

Of course, once February comes all of the quality coaches have usually made their decisions, but anything is better than 1 week before game day. Yeesh.

Reminds me of the Huggins firing....horrible timing.

Illinois was going to be awful this year anyway, but firing a coach right before the season basically wipes out an entire year of recruiting as we know all too well.

Illinois athletics has a mess on its hands

13 hours ago • By Mark Tupper Decatur Herald & Review

Mike Thomas

University of Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas announces offensive coordinator Bill Cubit as the interim coach of the Illinois football team, during a news conference Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, in Champaign, Ill. Cubit was named interim coach as Illinois abruptly fired coach Tim Beckman on Friday, one week before the start of the season, saying preliminary results of an investigation found some truth to allegations of player mistreatment and inappropriate behavior. (Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette via AP ) MANDATORY CREDIT


Enlarge Photo

Welcome to the day after the day after in the frightening land of Illini football.

Hours after he was fired Friday morning, former coach Tim Beckman bolted town and drove to Avon Lake, Ohio, where he watched his son, Alex, play football. Along the way he found time to craft a statement making it clear he intends to sue to get some of the separation money athletics director Mike Thomas says he’s not entitled to.

“I will vigorously defend both my reputation and my legal rights,” Beckman said.

At some schools that might qualify as major drama. At Illinois, it’s another day at the office.

Coaching wish lists are already popping up and soon names like P.J. Fleck of Western Michigan, Dino Babers at Bowling Green and even Brock Spack at Illinois State will become more familiar.

No doubt some of those candidates will consider the mess at Illinois and wonder if what former Illini head coach Ron Zook said is true.

Recently, the current special teams coordinator for the Green Bay Packers was asked about his tough travails in college. Speaking specifically about his seven seasons at Illinois, here’s what Zook said:



“Illinois is a job ... it didn’t matter who’s there. Put (Alabama coach) Nick Saban there and it didn’t matter. Its’ just that there are hard jobs ... it’s a grind every day and it’s never gonna change.”

Law suits and coaching searches are definitely on the horizon, but sooner or later there is a greater sense of discord that needs to be addressed. And that’s the spiraling, darkening mood of a fan base tired of being embarrassed by on-field, off-field and administrative blunders that continue to make Illinois the butt of jokes throughout the Big Ten and beyond.

How does that mood manifest itself?

Just count the unoccupied seats at Memorial Stadium, where last season against Penn State there were more than 40,000 of them.

Just speak with suite lease holders at Memorial Stadium who anguish whether the money they are paying is really worth it. Or speak with basketball season ticket holders who keep wondering if there’s ever going to be a positive breakthrough to justify the rising cost of sitting at the renovated State Farm Center.

Just listen to the negative noise emanating from Chicago, where the University of Illinois is now routinely portrayed as the most dysfunctional operation this side of the legislators who fight like children every day in Springfield.

Sure, Downstaters can say they don’t care what comes out of Chicago. But they should, especially when nearly every Illini head coach talks about the importance of winning the recruiting battle there, of winning the perception battle there, of cultivating donors among their thousands of alums living there.

Like a football skirmish against Ohio State, Illinois is losing that battle and losing it badly.

The solutions are not easy because it’s so difficult to identify the people who can solve these problems.

Who’s in charge?

Moving forward, that’s really the No. 1 question with no permanent chancellor in place and knowing the search for a chancellor typically drags on for many months.

Ideally, a strong chancellor with a sense of athletics would decide very soon if Mike Thomas can continue as the athletics director. If a decision is reached to start over in athletics, that chancellor would find a new AD and that AD would lead the search for a new head football coach. That coach must be hired in late November or early December.

Clearly, this is unlikely to follow an ideal path. Barbara J. Wilson was promoted from dean of the school’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to be the interim chancellor. She’s Mike Thomas’ current boss.

It’s far less than ideal if she fires Thomas and finds his replacement, then she is replaced by a permanent chancellor who will be the new AD’s boss but was never involved in the hiring of that person.

Someone has to hire a football coach and as Thomas learned after firing Zook in 2012, they are not standing in line fighting for this job.

It’s a tough hire no matter who conducts the search. But it feels like a tricky journey just to get to that point, to get past the impending $10 million lawsuit against the women’s basketball program, past the lawsuit against the soccer operation, past the likely lawsuits to be brought by former football player Simon Cjivanovic and by Beckman, and past the muddied chain of command at the highest administrative levels of the university.

Bill Cubit is the popular interim coach and he might have the job longer than this season simply because it will take well beyond that to untangle the many knots above him.

Just another day at the office.

No coach with options will touch this gig right now... It will take a certain level of desperation to take this job.

Turner Gill.
Mike Haywood.
Jim Leavitt.
Norm Chow.

They need to have these guys in the Rolodex.

Short-term, Cubit is the guy. If he has any success this season he might get the job.

I wonder how is it possible that no staff is implicated? A head coach cannot do this in a vacuum.

(08-30-2015 01:31 PM)dossbig Wrote:  I wonder how is it possible that no staff is implicated? A head coach cannot do this in a vacuum.

It is possible other people have been let go, but maybe the media did not report it.

Honestly they should have fired him last year.

(08-30-2015 12:50 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Turner Gill.
Mike Haywood.
Jim Leavitt.
Norm Chow.

They need to have these guys in the Rolodex.

Short-term, Cubit is the guy. If he has any success this season he might get the job.

I'm surprised a down & out team hasn't hired Haywood. I guess he's out forever.

(08-30-2015 03:52 PM)Dannyboy Wrote:  

(08-30-2015 12:50 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Turner Gill.
Mike Haywood.
Jim Leavitt.
Norm Chow.

They need to have these guys in the Rolodex.

Short-term, Cubit is the guy. If he has any success this season he might get the job.

I'm surprised a down & out team hasn't hired Haywood. I guess he's out forever.

Hey lying O'Leary got hired by let's think, oh UCF. And cheating with a motor cycle momma Pettino got rehired by EKU and then win at all cost Loserswille, who also kept do my assistamt coaches wife on a table in an Italian Eatery.

(08-30-2015 12:50 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Turner Gill.
Mike Haywood.
Jim Leavitt.
Norm Chow.

They need to have these guys in the Rolodex.

Short-term, Cubit is the guy. If he has any success this season he might get the job.

Jim Leavitt? You don't replace a guy you fired for abuse of players with a guy who was fired from a school for hitting a player.

Schiano is my first call if I am Thomas. You need a program builder, and as much as I don't like Schiano, what he built at Rutgers out of that historical mess of a program is extremely impressive.

(08-30-2015 05:27 PM)subflea Wrote:  Schiano is my first call if I am Thomas. You need a program builder, and as much as I don't like Schiano, what he built at Rutgers out of that historical mess of a program is extremely impressive.

If you're him, would you even entertain the job? I'd have to think he'd have better offers if he waits a few months. Rebuilding a program from the ground once is hard enough, he may not want to go through it again.

No way I'd consider taking a position when I don't know who the President or AD will be over the long-term either.

(08-30-2015 05:27 PM)subflea Wrote:  

(08-30-2015 12:50 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Turner Gill.
Mike Haywood.
Jim Leavitt.
Norm Chow.

They need to have these guys in the Rolodex.

Short-term, Cubit is the guy. If he has any success this season he might get the job.

Jim Leavitt? You don't replace a guy you fired for abuse of players with a guy who was fired from a school for hitting a player.

Schiano is my first call if I am Thomas. You need a program builder, and as much as I don't like Schiano, what he built at Rutgers out of that historical mess of a program is extremely impressive.

Ok you've got a point with Leavitt... I was trying to pick "name" coaches who are currently out of the majors...

I considered Schiano as well. I think he's more an east-coast guy but...yeah, he'd fit the bill. I'm guessing his name pops up at UVA if they fire Mike London.

(08-30-2015 05:27 PM)subflea Wrote:  

(08-30-2015 12:50 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Turner Gill.
Mike Haywood.
Jim Leavitt.
Norm Chow.

They need to have these guys in the Rolodex.

Short-term, Cubit is the guy. If he has any success this season he might get the job.

Jim Leavitt? You don't replace a guy you fired for abuse of players with a guy who was fired from a school for hitting a player.

Schiano is my first call if I am Thomas. You need a program builder, and as much as I don't like Schiano, what he built at Rutgers out of that historical mess of a program is extremely impressive.

If you want someone that is willing to take on such a mess that may want some redemption and would do a good job I'd suggest Jeff Jagodzinski. He was doing a great job at Boston College and they fired him when it was discovered that he was interviewing with the NY Jets.

Quote:Jeff Jagodzinski, a long-time National Football League assistant coach and a successful collegiate head coach, is the offensive coordinator on Trent Miles’ Georgia State staff.

Before joining the GSU staff in 2013, Jagodzinski previously worked with Miles on the Green Bay Packers’ staff in 2000.

Jagodzinski made an immediate impact in his first year at Georgia State in 2013 when his offense produced a record-setting season for wide receiver Albert Wilson. Wilson earned all-conference and All-America recognition, was invited to the National Football League Scouting Combine and signed a free agent contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. Another offensive starter, tackle Ulrick John, was drafted in the seventh round by the Indianapolis Colts.

In 2014, Jagodzinski's offense ranked No. 25 in the nation in passing offense behind first-year quarterback Nick Arbuckle, who earned all-conference honors along with receivers Donovan Harden, Robert Davis and LynQuez Blair and tight end Joel Ruiz.



In his first two years at GSU, Jagodzinski's offense has produced one All-American, eight all-conference honorees and two NFL players.

Jagodzinski is well-acquainted with the city of Atlanta, having served as the Atlanta Falcons’ tight ends coach in 2004 and then offensive line coach in 2005. He is also familiar to Atlanta fans as the college head coach of Falcons’ quarterback Matt Ryan.

Jagodzinski enjoyed two highly successful seasons as the head coach at Boston College, posting a 20-8 record and capturing back-to-back Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic Division crowns. In 2007, with Ryan at quarterback, Jagodzinski led the Eagles to an 11-3 record-BC's highest win total since 1940-a berth in the ACC Championship game and a bowl-game victory over Michigan State.
In addition to the exploits of ACC Player of the Year Ryan on offense, Jagodzinski's first BC squad also featured a strong defense that was No. 2 in the nation against the run. Safety Jamie Silva was a first-team All-America selection.

Even after Ryan became the No. 2 pick in the 2008 NFL draft following, Jagodzinski kept BC winning in 2008 with a 9-5 record and another trip to the ACC title game.

Along with Ryan, Jagodzinski coached three other future first-round draft picks at Boston College in nose tackle B.J. Raji (2009, Green Bay) and offensive linemen Gosder Cherilus (2008, Detroit) and Anthony Castonzo (2011, Indianapolis).

Jagodzinski began his coaching career in 1985 as the running backs coach at his alma mater, Wisconsin-Whitewater. In 1986, he served as the offensive line coach at Northern Illinois before spending two years (1987-88) as a graduate assistant at LSU.

In 1989, Jagodzinski began an eight-year stint as the offensive line coach at East Carolina (1989-96), highlighted by the 1991 season, when the Pirates posted an 11-1 record. That ECU team featured future NFL quarterback Jeff Blake.


He then spent two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Boston College (1997-98) on Tom O'Brien's staff. At BC, Jagodzinski's offenses averaged more than 400 yards per game in each of his two seasons, featuring future Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck in 1997 and All-American running back Mike Cloud in 1998, who ranked third in the nation in rushing.

Jagodzinski began his NFL career in 1999, joining the Green Bay Packers as tight ends coach from 1999-2003. It was there that he worked with Miles in 2000.

He then moved to the Atlanta Falcons, where he served as tight ends in coach in 2004, helping Atlanta reach the NFC Championship Game, and then offensive line coach in 2005. During that time, the Falcons featured one of the NFL's most successful rushing offenses, leading the league in both rushing yards per game and rushing yards per carry those two years. In 2005, Jagodzinski's line blocked for Pro Bowl running back Warrick Dunn, who gained over 1,400 yards.

Jagodzinski returned to the Packers as offensive coordinator for one season (2006) before taking over as head coach at Boston College. Under his direction, Green Bay ranked among the top 10 in the NFL in total offense.

In college and the NFL, Jagodzinski has been part of offensive staffs that worked with future Pro Bowl quarterbacks Brett Favre, Michael Vick, Aaron Rogers and Matt Ryan.

He served as the head coach of the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL in 2010, and in 2012, he worked as a volunteer assistant coach at Ave Maria University in Florida.

http://www.georgiastatesports.com/ViewAr...=205823826


But it's MT so chances are the hire will come from the MAC.

My guess is Schiano will have a lot of suitors come year end-- I would keep my eye on Coral Gables after Al Golden is let go this year.

I also think Mike Thomas' goose is cooked as well. There is so much scandal going on at that university. IIRC they are on the hunt for a new president (the last one resigned/got canned last month). The new president will bring in a new AD and the new AD will bring in a new coach.