Illini HC Tim Beckman: 'The first year was a disaster'

Most coaches don't like looking back to past seasons, at least not publicly. Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Tim Beckman did that and more in a sit down interview with the Big Ten Network.

The Illini have made modest improvements during his tenure, going from 2-10 to 4-8 and 6-7 last season with a bowl appearance. Beckman opened up about his first season at Illinois in the BTN interview:

"The first year was a disaster, I’ll be honest. I put it on my shoulders. Depth and injuries … I didn’t do a good job. But we have made strides. We still are lacking a tremendous amount of maturity on the field. I would have loved to have redshirted a Mason Monheim or a few other guys, but we couldn’t do it. I have 22 seniors this year, almost close to double what we had before the last few years. We have a lot of good leaders and guys who have played a lot of Big Ten football. We are making the strides."

It's going to be tough to improve on the six wins of last season without their best player, Mike Dudek to start the season but it is refreshing to hear such honesty from a coach.

(h/t Big Ten Network)

Photo Credit: Andy Manis/Associated Press