Tag Archives: Toledo

Illinois hires Toledo’s Beckman

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CHAMPAIGN, ILL. (AP)
Illinois has hired Toledo’s Tim Beckman as its head football coach, The Associated Press has learned.

Beckman told his players Friday that he has taken the Illini job, said an official at Toledo who spoke on condition of anonymity because Beckman’s hiring had not been announced.

Illinois scheduled a football-related news conference for Friday afternoon and the Big Ten network, in announcing plans to televise it, said it was to introduce the new coach.

Beckman will replace Ron Zook, who was fired late last month after seven seasons. Illinois was 6-6 when Zook was fired and had lost six straight. The Illini are headed to the Dec. 31 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl against UCLA.

Beckman comes to Illinois after three seasons at Toledo, where he was 21-16 overall. This season’s 8-4 team will play in the Military Bowl against Air Force, but Beckman will not coach in the game.

Beckman was hired in Toledo in 2008, and he inherited a program in disarray.

The Rockets were coming off three straight losing seasons and the program was in the middle of a point-shaving investigation involving football and basketball games from 2003-2006 that happened well before Beckman arrived.

Three former football players pleaded guilty in the probe that involved providing inside information about the team and its opponents. One player admitted accepting $500 to fumble the ball in a 2005 bowl game.

The Rockets were 5-7 in Beckman’s first season but finished 8-5 and with a trip to the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in his second year.

His Toledo teams have been able to score – the Rockets scored 42.3 points a game this season, best in the MAC and eighth nationally. They averaged better than 200 yards a game in both rushing and passing. They also played tough against bigger-name opponents, losing 27-22 this season to Ohio State and defeating Purdue last season and Colorado in 2009.

But Toledo gave up big points under Beckman, too – 30.9 points a game this season. In back-to-back weeks in November, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan torched the Rockets for 63 points, though Toledo lost only one of those games.

The 46-year-old Beckman came to Toledo form from Oklahoma State, where he spent two seasons as defensive coordinator.

Beckman got his start as a graduate assistant at Auburn before moving on to assistant coaching jobs at Western Carolina, Elon, Bowling Green – where he was Urban Meyer’s defensive coordinator – and Ohio State. Beckman coached the Buckeyes’ cornerbacks in 2005 and `06.

Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas said when he fired Zook on Nov. 27 that he wanted to find a successor with head-coaching experience. The Illini reportedly also pursued Butch Jones at Cincinnati, who Thomas hired when he was AD there, as well as Houston’s Kevin Sumlin and Boise State’s Chris Petersen.

Thomas, who came to Illinois this year from Cincinnati, has declined to comment on the search since he fired Zook the day after a 27-7 loss at Minnesota. The loss completed a historically bad run for the Illini, who with it became the first FBS team to open the regular season with six straight wins, and close it with six losses in a row.

Zook came to Illinois in 2005 from Florida and went 34-51, finishing with two winning seasons – a win at the Fight Hunger Bowl would give Illinois its third in seven years. He took Illinois to the 2008 Rose Bowl, a loss to USC that was the Illini’s first trip to Pasadena since the 1980s, and to last year’s Texas Bowl. Illinois defeated TCU.

But Zook also barely survived the 2009 season, a three-win campaign that led to the firing of most of his staff. Special teams, which he personally coached, were often bad during his years in Champaign. Recruiting, often said to be Zook’s biggest strength, started to fall off the past couple of seasons.

The bottom line, as Thomas pointed out just after he fired Zook: The Illini won just under a third of their Big Ten games under Zook, and had a winning conference record over that period against only Indiana. Illinois paid Zook $2.6 million for the two years left on his contract.

MAC: No way to award Toledo victory

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TOLEDO, Ohio — The head of the Mid-American Conference says there’s no way to take away Syracuse’s overtime win over Toledo despite a blown call on an extra point.

Mid-American commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said Monday that NCAA rules say there’s no route to reverse the outcome once the game is declared over.

Toledo athletic director Mike O’Brien asked the Mid-American Conference to call for the Big East Conference to give Toledo the victory after a Big East official admitted that replay officials made a mistake in the Orange’s 33-30 victory Saturday.

Video shows that Syracuse missed a late extra point but the officials ruled it good. Replay officials allowed it to stand.

Toledo then kicked a tying field goal to force overtime, but the Orange came back with a field goal to win.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

Toledo wants Syracuse’s win vacated

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TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo wants Syracuse’s 33-30 overtime win against the Rockets to be vacated after a Big East Conference official acknowledged that replay officials wrongly awarded an extra point for a kick that was no good.

Toledo athletic director Mike O’Brien says he has asked the Mid-American Conference commissioner to request that the Big East give Toledo the victory.

Toledo made a field goal to force overtime Saturday, but the Orange came back with a field goal to win. The Rockets are upset because video showed Syracuse narrowly missed an extra-point attempt after an earlier touchdown. Officials who reviewed the kick let the extra point stand.

Big East coordinator of officials Terry McAulay has said replay officials made the wrong call.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

No. 4 Boise State not looking past Toledo

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TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Boise State’s players say they came away a bit surprised and impressed after Toledo came within a play or two of beating Ohio State last week.

That’s why the fourth-ranked Broncos are vowing that they won’t look past the Rockets on the road in Toledo Friday night.

The Rockets scored 15 first-quarter points, before bowing to the Buckeyes, 27-22, in Columbus. It was a nicely timed wake-up call for Boise State, which had a week off after beating Georgia, 35-21, in the season opener.

Boise State cornerback Jerrell Gavins says Toledo showed they have more athletes than he expected.

The Broncos still may be without projected starting safety Cedric Febis, who is one of three players suspended by the NCAA for undisclosed reasons.

Boise State Chris Petersen said earlier in the week that he was hoping all three would be back this week.

No. 15 Buckeyes barely hang on to beat Toledo

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — For 90 years, Ohio State has stayed unbeaten against every in-state opponent it’s played.

On Saturday at Ohio Stadium, the streak nearly snapped.

John Simon pressured backup Toledo quarterback Terrance Owens, forcing an incompletion on fourth down with 48 seconds left, to preserve No. 15 Ohio State’s 27-22 victory over the error-prone Rockets.

The Rockets, striving to become the first team from the state to defeat the Buckeyes since 1921, weren’t disconsolate that they lost so much as upset that they had a hand in their own undoing. They threw one interception, had 102 yards in penalties, missed a 45-yard field goal, mishandled the hold on a 50-yard field-goal attempt, gave up a special-teams touchdown and continually made mistakes that saved Ohio State drives or shortened their own.

“There’s no doubt,” starting quarterback Austin Dantin said when asked if the Rockets had let the game slip away. “We had (14) penalties, a missed field goal, another missed opportunity on a field goal, then had a punt returned against us – things that are just inexcusable.”

The Rockets (1-1) drove from their own 28 and were 17 yards away from ending Ohio State’s 43-0-1 run against in-state foes since a 7-6 setback to Oberlin in 1921. But they couldn’t finish the deal.

“We got some respect, but that wasn’t what we were trying to get,” said Toledo defensive end Malcolm Riley.

The Rockets led 15-7 after a quarter and were on top 22-21 before Carlos Hyde went 3 yards for the winning points late in the third quarter.

The Buckeyes (2-0) only had to run out the clock on their last possession, but freshman Rod Smith lost a fumble to give the Rockets a final shot. But then Simon, who went to the locker room earlier in the game with leg cramps, turned the tide.

“That was huge. We knew we had to stop them or they were going to win the game,” Simon said of his late pressure. “It was a big play for us. The secondary did a great job covering and giving me extra time to get back there.”

Several players made big plays for the Buckeyes, who travel to Florida to play Miami next week.

Chris Fields returned a punt 69 yards and Hyde ran for two scores for the Buckeyes, still reeling from NCAA suspensions which held out seven top players.

“I think and I hope that this is what’s going to make us better, all the adversity,” interim head coach Luke Fickell said.

Down 21-15 at the half, the Rockets took the second-half kickoff and, five plays later, took a one-point lead after Adonis Thomas ran 4 yards on fourth and 1.

After a punt, the Rockets drove to the Ohio State 33. But a fumbled snap ended any chance of a 50-yard field goal.

The Buckeyes promptly came back. The key was a 36-yard pass from Joe Bauserman to Devin Smith, and Hyde capped the march with the TD run. A failed 2-point conversion pass kept the margin at five points.

Toledo punted away the ball on its next three possessions. After the third, the Buckeyes got the ball with 5:45 left at their own 25. A 31-yard completion from Bauserman to Smith gave Ohio State a first down at the Toledo 33.

But then Rod Smith fumbled after a 5-yard gain and the Rockets’ Johnathan Lamb fell on the loose ball.

Suddenly, the game was in doubt and Ohio State’s in-state winning streak was in jeopardy.

“We knew the game was on the line,” said Buckeyes defensive back Tyler Moeller. “It was up to the defense to win it. You’re bummed he did fumble but you’re excited the game’s in your hands.”

Down 7-0, the Rockets scored on consecutive possessions to knock the Buckeyes back on their heels.

First, Dantin, who was 14 of 26 for 155 yards and one score, hit Eric Page for a 6-yard touchdown. Page then took a direct snap in a spread set and passed to Hank Keighley for the two-point conversion. The scoring drive was a short one, set up when Kishon Wilcher blocked an Ohio State punt and T.J. Fatinikun rumbled 23 yards to the Ohio State 1 with it.

The touchdown marked the first points Toledo had scored against its big, downstate neighbors. The Rockets had been steamrolled by a combined 87-0 in two previous losses in 1998 and 2009.

After forcing a Buckeyes punt, the Rockets came right down and did it again. This time Owens tossed a 66-yard touchdown pass to Page, who had beaten Ohio State’s C.J. Barnett deep.

The Buckeyes rebounded. They’d scored the first time they touched the ball on offense, with Bauserman, who was 16 of 30 for 189 yards in a surprising solo performance (co-starter Braxton Miller never left the sideline), hitting his favorite target, tight end Jake Stoneburner, on a 26-yard scoring strike.

Hyde burst through a hole off left tackle and angled to the sideline on a 36-yard touchdown run.

Toledo then committed a critical mistake.

Vince Penza’s punt rolled dead at the Ohio State 17 with a minute left in the half, but the Rockets were offside on the kick. The ball was brought back and Penza kicked again – this time a line drive directly to a waiting Fields who was nearly tripped but regained his footing and raced to the end zone.

The game still would come down to one play.

“That’s what we intended to do: In the fourth quarter, to be there, to give yourself a chance to win it,” Toledo coach Tim Beckman said. “We fell (17) yards short.”

© 2011 The Associated Press