Illini Football 2026

#233      
Battle89
bluemountain said:
No way....Tepper was far worse. He inherited a really strong program from Mackovic and ran it into the ground. An average coach would have won 2-3 games more a year than Tepper did.

Beckman was a clown, but he inherited a mediocre team and left a team in similar shape when he was fired - his last 2 seasons were very comparable to Zook's last 2 seasons.

Moeller was just about as bad as Tepper. He inherited a solid program from Blackman and within 2 years we were playing a 0-0 tie against the worst team in D-1
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Agree.

I would define it as Beckman sunk us to a lower depth overall, leading to 'not ideal but not a dagger' levels.

But Tepper dropped us much farther from where he started to where he finished. 1994 was the biggest wasted year in Illini history, measuring expectations vs. outcomes.
 
#235      
Curbelo Fanboy
bluemountain said:
No way....Tepper was far worse. He inherited a really strong program from Mackovic and ran it into the ground. An average coach would have won 2-3 games more a year than Tepper did.

Beckman was a clown, but he inherited a mediocre team and left a team in similar shape when he was fired - his last 2 seasons were very comparable to Zook's last 2 seasons.

Moeller was just about as bad as Tepper. He inherited a solid program from Blackman and within 2 years we were playing a 0-0 tie against the worst team in D-1
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The young ones won't know this history. But I have contended that Tepper was the worst coach of a major D1 team I've ever seen. Perhaps the worst coach of a team in major US sports I've ever seen. Just for the pissed away 1994 season. He was so so so awful. Nice God fearing man which is to be respected, but he couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag if you cut the bottom of the bag out for him.

And TBH, his vaunted defensive strategies were even wearing thin by the early 90's. The game was evolving into the more wide open thing we see today. His defense was more of a read/react kind of thing. Problem is as the pass happy offenses came into vogue starting late 80's/early 90's with run n shoot concepts they would feast on a read/react defense. They'd take that 7 yard completion all day long. With the LB talent we had we shoulda been blitzing on nearly eveyr play with at least 1 or 2 of those guys. But his D gave up many game losing drives in those years.

And that doesn't even touch the disaster he was as it related to offense. He seemed to view offense as the opponent more than a tool by which to win games.

I don't think Lou was a moron like Beckman, but he was a product of 70's football that was being pushed aside by the time he became a head coach. He was trying to win 1990's era games playing a 1970's philosophy. Just not gonna work.

1994 was 6-5 regular season. 7-5 with the bowl win. 5 losses by a combined like 25 points. Legit was the best 5 loss team perhaps in NCAA history. Certainly Big Ten history. Immense defensive talent & some solid offensive pieces that were all wasted.
 
#236      
chiefini
After having football season tickets for over 40 years and personally witnessing almost every home game for both of these coaches, I’ll take Tepper over Beckman any day. Tepper was a very good defensive coach, but more importantly, he was a fantastic man of integrity. Beckman was a joke of a coach and an embarrassing clown. The National perception of Illinois was much, much worse under Beckman, in my opinion, and the games were harder to sit through.
 
#237      
Mr. Tibbs
chiefini said:
After having football season tickets for over 40 years and personally witnessing almost every home game for both of these coaches, I’ll take Tepper over Beckman any day. Tepper was a very good defensive coach, but more importantly, he was a fantastic man of integrity. Beckman was a joke of a coach and an embarrassing clown. The National perception of Illinois was much, much worse under Beckman, in my opinion, and the games were harder to sit through.
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Tepper was a good man , just not a good head coach & we dropped from a top 25 program to about 75 . who can forget the Sat night game in Minnesota where his strategy at the end of the game was to ‘let them score’ so we could get the ball back with 45 secs . ugh

Beckman was not a good man , not a good coach & we dropped from like 75 to the bottom 5 in P4. we were basically an average G5 program under him . Games vs MAC opponents were 50/50 at best . It was brutal .

one really wonders what he said in his interview with Mike Thomas to get the offer .
 
#238      
genevaillini39w
Mr. Tibbs said:
Tepper was a good man , just not a good head coach & we dropped from a top 25 program to about 75 . who can forget the Sat night game in Minnesota where his strategy at the end of the game was to ‘let them score’ so we could get the ball back with 45 secs . ugh

Beckman was not a good man , not a good coach & we dropped from like 75 to the bottom 5 in P4. we were basically an average G5 program under him . Games vs MAC opponents were 50/50 at best . It was brutal .

one really wonders what he said in his interview with Mike Thomas to get the offer .
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Beckman was also rumored to have been the 5th or 6th choice on Thomas' list. So, at that point, I think Thomas was just filling the job.
 
#239      
bluemountain
As bad as Beckman and Tepper (and Zook) were, the worst 2 coaches in my lifetime were Lovie and Moeller, with Moeller being the worst. By mid-70's standards Blackman was a good coach; he had to deal with ridiculously difficult non-conference schedules and there was no way he was going to beat OSU or UM. With today's schedules he would have gone to bowl games every year, in which case who knows how the program develops?

Moeller inherited a lot of starters from a very competitive team in '77 and it took him all of one year to run the program into the ground. And for those who think Beckman is a jerk, well Moeller made him look like a saint. I was in HS and went to a lot of games during that era - it was brutal.
 
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