Imrem: With Beckman gone, Illini's Thomas should go next

As if firing Illinois football head coach Tim Beckman wasn't embarrassing enough, Mike Thomas had to open his mouth as well.

The Fighting Illini athletic director said a couple times, that "we're going to turn the page."

Turn the page? My goodness, Illinois has to burn the athletic department's entire playbook and whacking Thomas would be an appropriate next step.

Look, I'm an Illinois alum who was in school when a couple decades of NCAA rules violations began with the infamous slush fund.

A fellow alum and I used to say about Illinois football: "We cheat, we lose, we're Illinois."

Even worse than losing, Beckman allegedly compromised his players' welfare.

Now my friend and I can say, "We abuse, we lose, we're Illinois."

Soccer and women's basketball also are being investigated over the treatment of players.

However, football is the window into the university and the biggest news.

Losing is one thing but losing without dignity and integrity is difficult to live with.

The allegations that led to Beckman's dismissal are as egregious as it gets in college athletics.

Thomas said that "the health and well-being of our student-athletes" are primary. So, then, how egregious is the act of hiring a football coach who endangered "the health and well-being" of his players?

If Tim Beckman was a monster, then Mike Thomas is his Dr. Frankenstein.

Thomas didn't hire only a 4-20 football coach, though that's what Beckman was in the Big Ten during three seasons in Champaign.

Beckman allegedly also was so much worse: A football coach who blazed such a trail of abuse that Thomas felt compelled to fire him at such an untimely time.

Well, the whole mess began with Mike Thomas hiring Tim Beckman in the first place.

You or I could have found a better football coach by picking a name out of a phone book or a face out of a police lineup.

Firing Beckman and keeping Thomas would be like treating the symptom and ignoring the disease.

Yet when meekly asked about his own job security, Thomas said, "I'm confident in the program I'm leading. You're going to have adversity and obstacles along the way."

No argument with that. The argument is over Thomas manufacturing his own "adversity and obstacles."

Thomas went on to say that he is "all about the orange and blue" Illini colors. Actually, judging by this fiasco he is all about the black and blue he has inflicted on the university.

Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Bill Cubit was named Illinois football's interim head coach.

Cubit all but stuck his arms straight out with palms straight up to indicate "I know nothing" of Beckman's transgressions.

"I'm like a mushroom," Cubit said, adding he spends most of his time in his office watching football tape.

He'd have to be more like an ostrich with his head in the sand, don't you think?

Thomas had no idea what was going on. Cubit had no idea. Beckman did this all by himself and was shrewd enough to hide it from everyone else.

Buy that and I'll sell you some oceanfront property in Central Illinois.

University chancellor Phyllis Wise and provost Ilesanmi Adesida recently resigned in an unrelated scandal.

It's time for Mike Thomas to follow them out.

The athletic department's whole playbook needs to go up in flames and be rewritten from "I-L-L" to "I-N-I."

• mimrem@dailyherald.com