Beckman, UNC Part Ways
Twenty-four hours after Larry Fedora defended his decision to bring on disgraced former Illinois head football coach Tim Beckman, the parties have agreed to part ways.
Beckman was accused by some of his players at Illinois of forcing them to practice and play when injured. He reportedly threatened to take away their scholarships, among other things, if they didn’t.
Fedora has known Beckman since they worked together at Oklahoma State in 2007. Fedora was the offensive coordinator and Beckman was the defensive coordinator.
“I’m happy to give him a chance to learn how we do things here, what our culture is,” Fedora said after practice Wednesday.
The issue was so big to local and national media that the first 16 questions Fedora took Wednesday were about Beckman. Fedora miscalculated what would come of the hiring even though he acknowledged he understood why there were so many question about the move.
“I can, and I know it’s going to happen,” he said. “And then a couple of days from now it won’t be news.”
Fedora continued his defense.
“I promise you, I didn’t see anywhere where the NCAA said he should be banished from the game of football. The guy didn’t win enough games, that’s all it was.”
On Thursday evening, however, it all came to an end.
"We made the decision today to part ways with Tim Beckman and thank him for his contributions in the short time he volunteered with our football program,” UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham said in a release. “Coach Fedora's interest was in helping a coaching colleague get back on his feet. We will learn from this and continue preparing for the season.”
Fedora issued a statement, as well.
“Tim will no longer serve as a volunteer with our program,” he said. “I brought Tim here to help a friend gain experience from our staff, but after meeting with him today, we agreed his presence had become too much of a distraction.”
So did Beckman.
“I appreciate the opportunity Coach Fedora gave me to stay connected to the sport and be around one of the best staffs in the country. His willingness to help a friend was a benefit both personally and professionally. I do not wish to be a further distraction to the team or University and I will no longer serve as a volunteer at UNC. I wish Larry and the program nothing but success going forward.” But the most important and interesting statement came from Chancellor Carol Folt.
“When I first learned yesterday that Coach Larry Fedora had invited former Illinois head coach Tim Beckman to serve as a volunteer with the football program, I was surprised and disappointed. The decision for Mr. Beckman to withdraw from his volunteer position was the right thing to do, and moving forward I don’t expect this situation to recur. I continue to put a great deal of trust in Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham and Coach Fedora to educate and develop our student-athletes and to ensure we meet the high standards we all expect at Carolina.”
The 51-year-old Beckman spent three years as the head coach at Toledo, going 21-16, before taking the job at Illinois. He has also been an assistant coach at Ohio State and Auburn, plus in North Carolina at Western Carolina and Elon. He was on the latter two staffs in the 1990s.
Beckman was fired a week before last season began and spent the better part of 11 months unemployed and not working in the sport. His deal with UNC was as an unpaid volunteer.
But pressure from the media didn’t dissipate, it cast another negative shadow on the university’s athletic department, something Folt, Cunningham and perhaps Fedora decided wasn’t worth whatever value there was in having Beckman around.