CHAMPAIGN, ILL. • Preparing to play rival Bowling Green while he was coach at Toledo, Tim Beckman and his team started a tradition by burning all of their orange clothing.
Never again would they be seen wearing the enemy's color.
So it was that Beckman was faced with a problem when it became apparent he was going to be offered the coaching job at Illinois. The day before Friday's news conference to announce his hiring, the 46-year-old had to buy himself an orange tie.
The missing piece having been filled, Beckman made his first impression with appropriate attire, a booming voice and energy that athletics director Mike Thomas said could "make caffeine nervous."
Having been immersed in a coaching family his entire life, Beckman said reaching the Big Ten is a goal he has had since childhood.
"I would say this is as good a day as it was when my children were born,'' he said. "This is a dream come true for the Beckman family."
Beckman was 21-16 at Toledo, where he landed on the heels of the school's point-shaving scandal. The program had significant academic problems and only 72 scholarships in 2009. The Rockets have gone 8-5 and 8-4 the last two seasons and 14-2 in the Mid-American Conference.
That résumé earned Beckman a jump from $409,000 a year to a five-year contract that will start at $1.6 million and average $1.8 million per year.
Thomas said he spoke to Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel, among others, to get their opinions of Beckman, who worked for both.
"You talk to a lot of people and start identifying patterns,'' Thomas said. "I felt he was the best coach in that conference. Talking to a lot of people, they felt the same way."
Thomas hired a head coach from the MAC for the third time in six years, having tabbed Brian Kelly and Butch Jones while he was at Cincinnati. He repeated a move made by Missouri in 2001, when Gary Pinkel was lured from Toledo, eventually turning Mizzou into a perennial bowl team.
Beckman's first duties at Illinois will be meeting with each assistant coach over the weekend and hitting the road for recruiting, probably Monday. He will not be involved in preparation for the Illini's appearance in the Fight Hunger Bowl on Dec. 31.
Beckman was noncommittal on the construction of a staff. The most pressing issue is whether to keep defensive coordinator Vic Koenning, who has his Illini unit ranked No. 7 in the country.
Toledo offensive coordinator Matt Campbell was retained to coach the team's bowl game. But Beckman said he wants Campbell and will try to lure as many of his Toledo assistants as possible to Champaign.
"I don't know Vic,'' he said. "Everywhere he's been he's done a tremendous job. I look forward to speaking with him and decisions will be made after I speak to everyone. It's important that the coaching staff understand what my ambitions are for the program."
Beckman's recruiting base at Toledo has been Ohio. He intends to concentrate on a radius of four hours from Champaign, focusing heavily on Chicago and St. Louis. Toledo has had the highest-ranked recruiting class in the MAC the last two years.
Thomas said he had Beckman on his original list of prospects and first made contact a week ago. He received a sense of Beckman's personality immediately.
"Coach Beckman has a little bit of a swagger to him,'' Thomas said. "I noticed that in the interview process, and to have a little swagger is a good thing to me. He's not intimidated and not afraid to take a punch. In a lot of ways, in our conference that's extremely important."
Although he has been a head coach only three years, Beckman has worked under some of the most successful coaches in the country. He spent two years with Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State, two with Tressel at Ohio State and two on Meyer's staff at Bowling Green.
"I've been in staff rooms with national championship coaches,'' he said. "But the one that rubbed off the most is my father. (Dave Beckman was an assistant at several colleges.) There are only certain coaches who can say that for every waking minute of my life, I've been around football. I was raised in this profession."
