Beckman's Last Stand?

[Iceland12]

4. Beckman's last stand? Illinois coach Tim Beckman may well have to make a bowl game to save his job this season. That means the 3-4 Illini probably have to win this week at home against Minnesota, because the rest of the schedule isn't kind. The Gophers sit atop the West Division at 3-0 but looked vulnerable to a big-play passing offense on Saturday against Purdue. Illinois will have to follow the Boilermakers' game plan, though either Aaron Bailey or Reilly O'Toole must make a big jump at quarterback. Here's the best reason to predict that Minnesota will come away with the road win in Champaign: Beckman's defense is surrendering a Big Ten-worst 271.1 rushing yards per game. David Cobb could run all day.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/109440/b1g-early-look-setting-up-week-9

 

[TrueGopherFballfan#1]

Purdue almost came back against Michigan State and scored a surprising 31 points on them so they have a descent offense. Illinois has to get rid of the "Minnesota barely beat Purdue" reason to why they have a chance of beating us because 1. they got lost by I believe 11 to Purdue 2. again Purdue is not as bad as people think scoring 31 on MSU while Hakeem Hunt lit up MSU's apparent top D just like he did ours and besides we stopped him and figured it out in the 2nd half giving onvly 7 points so Illinois should be a win.

 

[RunGopherRun]

Vulnerable to a big-play passing offense? Aside from the long swing pass for a TD, what other big-plays did their passing offense have. Weren't most big plays running plays?

 

[Iceland12]

Vulnerable to a big-play passing offense? Aside from the long swing pass for a TD, what other big-plays did their passing offense have. Weren't most big plays running plays?

Box scores from both the NW and Purdue games show that you're right, there weren't many big passing plays against the Gophers.

 

[Rescooter]

Vulnerable to a big-play passing offense? Aside from the long swing pass for a TD, what other big-plays did their passing offense have. Weren't most big plays running plays?

You are correct. Here is the Box Score - we had more yards, more yards per completion (by a lot). They average over 180yds/game in the air. We held them to less:


Purd Minn
First Downs 17 22
Total Yards 451 450
Turnovers 2 1
First Downs 17 22
Passes for First 6 6
Rushes for First 10 15
Penalties for First 1 1
Third Down Eff 5-12 6-12

Total Yards 451 450
Total Plays 61 70
Avg Gain Per Play 7.4 6.4
Net Yards Rushing 298 285
Rushes 35 52
Yards Per Rush 8.5 5.5
Net Yards Passing 153 165
Comp-Att 16-26 9-18
Yards Per Pass 5.9 9.2
Times Sacked 0 0
Yds Lost To Sacks0 0
Interceptions 2 0
Punts 3 4
Punt Average 42.0 47.0
Penalties 7 7
Penalty Yards 55 66
Fumbles 2 2
Fumbles Lost0 1

 

[GopherHomer]

4. Beckman's last stand? Illinois coach Tim Beckman may well have to make a bowl game to save his job this season. That means the 3-4 Illini probably have to win this week at home against Minnesota, because the rest of the schedule isn't kind. The Gophers sit atop the West Division at 3-0 but looked vulnerable to a big-play passing offense on Saturday against Purdue. Illinois will have to follow the Boilermakers' game plan, though either Aaron Bailey or Reilly O'Toole must make a big jump at quarterback. Here's the best reason to predict that Minnesota will come away with the road win in Champaign: Beckman's defense is surrendering a Big Ten-worst 271.1 rushing yards per game. David Cobb could run all day.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/109440/b1g-early-look-setting-up-week-9

The schedule is never kind when you're terrible. I don't see a way Brewster...err I mean Beckman, keeps his job but I sure hope he finds a way. It's a nice security blanket to know that this joke is in our division.

 

[e.bigelow]

The schedule is never kind when you're terrible. I don't see a way Brewster...err I mean Beckman, keeps his job but I sure hope he finds a way. It's a nice security blanket to know that this joke is in our division.

If he gets canned, I am really going to miss his "Beckmansims/Brewsterisms", like, "take out 8 or 9 plays, and it's a tie game". Or "We won the second half".

 

[GopherHomer]

If he gets canned, I am really going to miss his "Beckmansims/Brewsterisms", like, "take out 8 or 9 plays, and it's a tie game". Or "We won the second half".

No doubt. I'm not going to pat myself on the back too hard, because it was complete luck that I ended up being right but the first time I saw Beckman interviewed as the Illinois coach, I said to myself that he's Brewster 2.0. It was just something about his personality and the way he spoke...

 

[gopherdudepart2]

Illinois should hire Tim Brewster as there next head coach. I know a lot of people will scoff at this and mock and ridicule it but I think Brewster would actually be a good hire for them. What is Illinois doing that would want to make a successful head coach jump to that program. In my opinion they are going to have to gamble on someone who had some failure but will bring a lot of energy and emotion to coaching that school.
Chances of this happening are zero to none but it would be highly entertaining to have him be the head coach and be back in the Big 10 again. Perhaps this go around if given the chance he may actually have some success.
There is no reason with the talent that is in the State of Illinois that Illini football should be this bad. They need someone who is a good salesmen at selling kids on joining the Illini program. You have to know as an Alumn that Brewster might actually have some insight in to what would make Illinois good at football. Perhaps this time he would have a network of coaches that he could call on that would actullay be able to coach the X's and O's and he recruit the Johhny's and Joes which he does seem to be OK at doing. Perhaps he learned something from his time at Minnesota that might actually make him the right fit for Illinois. I like beating Illinois but with as many good football players as there is in that state there really isn't a good reason that a team should be as putrid as it has been under Beckman.

 

[DoubleAlum]

Illinois should hire Tim Brewster as there next head coach. I know a lot of people will scoff at this and mock and ridicule it but I think Brewster would actually be a good hire for them. What is Illinois doing that would want to make a successful head coach jump to that program. In my opinion they are going to have to gamble on someone who had some failure but will bring a lot of energy and emotion to coaching that school.
Chances of this happening are zero to none but it would be highly entertaining to have him be the head coach and be back in the Big 10 again. Perhaps this go around if given the chance he may actually have some success.
There is no reason with the talent that is in the State of Illinois that Illini football should be this bad. They need someone who is a good salesmen at selling kids on joining the Illini program. You have to know as an Alumn that Brewster might actually have some insight in to what would make Illinois good at football. Perhaps this time he would have a network of coaches that he could call on that would actullay be able to coach the X's and O's and he recruit the Johhny's and Joes which he does seem to be OK at doing. Perhaps he learned something from his time at Minnesota that might actually make him the right fit for Illinois. I like beating Illinois but with as many good football players as there is in that state there really isn't a good reason that a team should be as putrid as it has been under Beckman.

I like your thinking and would love to see a story like this. Brewster was a good guy. Not sure if he makes the best decisions, but clearly most of us are pretty far removed from what's happening on the inside to know. He can recruit, he cares alot, kids seem to like him, he loves football. Whether he's truly qualified or not, it's tough to know. On paper, he doesn't seem qualified to be a head coach. Can't remember, did our players behave for the most part under Brewster? I think they did, except for the sex incident at the very beginning of his tenure where he had to remove those 2, 3 or 4 kids from the team. Oh yeah, academics were pretty bad too. Hmmmmmm, maybe it's not such a great idea..........

 

[GophersInIowa]

Vulnerable to a big-play passing offense? Aside from the long swing pass for a TD, what other big-plays did their passing offense have. Weren't most big plays running plays?

We continue to lead the conference in average yards per pass attempt at 5.5. Nebraska (5.8) is the only other under 6.2.

 

[maroonfive]

It will be curious what the crowd will be like. It is their homecoming but I also got my ticket for $10. This team is pretty similar to what they had two years ago but the crowd cheered louder for the band which was not that great. Even at the beginning they were no loud and it was a 2:30 PM start. I don't know what to expect at 11:00 AM.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!