With just more than a minute remaining in Saturday’s game in Evanston, Ill., the Wildcats dealt the finishing blow to the Illini with a 36-point lead, not on the field but through the Ryan Field loudspeakers.

A recording of broadcaster Gus Johnson proclaiming Northwestern as “Chicago’s Big Ten Team” was greeted by cheers from what remained of the 32,415 home crowd.

Illinois boasts a competing slogan — “Our State. Our Team.” — but this football season, there was no doubt which in-state Big Ten program finished on top.

In the final postgame news conference of his debut season, Tim Beckman spoke fondly of Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald, whose bowl-bound 9-3 Wildcats are exactly where Beckman hopes to have his Illini sooner rather than later.

“He’s built that thing,” Beckman said. “I’ve been here (Ryan Field) three times and I can see a team getting better and better each year. … I think they really believe in what they’re doing and you can see that.”

Beckman has championed the Northwestern-Illinois rivalry since he was hired last December, often referring to the Wildcats as “the team upstate.” But on the field, the rivalry was anything but competitive. Northwestern pummeled Illinois 50-14, capping a disappointing first season for Beckman.

Illinois (2-10, 0-8 Big Ten) finished on a nine-game losing streak and has lost 14 straight Big Ten games dating back to Oct. 8, 2011.

“We’ve just been kind of in a bind that we’re not able to crawl out of,” quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase said. “It’s been tough. Got one more year left, don’t want to have that feeling again.”

Ron Zook was 2-9 and 2-10 in his first two seasons at Illinois, but Beckman’s Illini were uncompetitive in most of their 10 losses, with the average margin of defeat at 25 points.

While the Illini weren’t expected to be among the Big Ten’s top teams, they were at least expected to be competitive in a Leaders Division which had two postseason-ineligible teams in Ohio State and Penn State.

Illinois lost the nation’s sack leader and the team’s top playmaker in defensive end Whitney Mercilus and receiver A.J. Jenkins, both of whom were picked in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft, but the 2012 season was still a long fall for a team coming off back-to-back bowl victories.

The Illini defense, which finished in the top 10 in the country last season, surrendered an average of 32.1 points per game this year, and the offense struggled throughout, averaging just 16.7 points per game — good for last in the conference and third-to-last in the NCAA.

“It goes in cycles,” defensive coordinator Tim Banks said. “If we could figure it out, we’d never have a bad year, but, unfortunately, we did. But we’re going to frickin’ rally the guys and start back up right away. We’ll get this thing where it needs to be.”

Beckman inherited a roster that lacked depth on both sides of the ball, and the Illini were hammered with injuries to key players all season — Beckman said his players missed a combined 82 games — and saw numerous starters go down throughout the year, including Scheelhaase, linebacker Jonathan Brown, receiver Ryan Lankford and cornerback Terry Hawthorne.

“Worst I’ve ever been around, but hey, that’s college football,” Beckman said. “Somebody’s got to step up and play.”

On Tuesday, athletic director Mike Thomas joined Lon Tay and Jeremy Werner on Champaign’s ESPN radio affiliate, and he confirmed that Beckman will return for next season.

Beckman has four years remaining on his contract, and if he had been fired, his buyout would have been worth $3.2 million. 

For now, Beckman and his staff will spend December evaluating a disappointing season, shifting their focus to recruiting in an effort to turn the Illinois football program around.

Chad can be reached at thornbu1@  dailyillini.com and @cthornburg10.