When the Ryan Field clock struck triple zero on Nov. 24, the Illinois football season ended with a 50-14 loss to Northwestern. But for the coaching staff, an entirely different game was in full swing.

Illinois head coach Tim Beckman and the rest of his staff immediately turned their focus to the next generation of Illini football. A few even hit the recruiting trail directly from Evanston, Ill.

The Illini finished last in the Big Ten with a 2-10 record and were among the worst in the NCAA in many statistics, particularly on offense, where Illinois ranked 122nd in points per game, resulting in Chris Beatty’s firing and co-offensive coordinator Billy Gonzales’ demotion to wide receivers coach. 

“I didn’t come here to lose, nobody did,” Beckman said. “I think by far that was the hardest thing that we all had to endure as we kept on going through it and not being successful.”

Beckman hopes that the 25-member recruiting class will be a step in the right direction in turning the program around, despite the bleak conditions surrounding a nine-game losing streak.  

“I’m very proud of the way that our staff has gone out and recruited with only having two wins,” Beckman said. “But I think it tells a lot about this university and what it brings academically.”

While walking into recruits’ homes attempting to sell a 2-10 season isn’t easy, the Illini coaches were able to pitch the important perk of donning the orange and blue — playing time.  With a young roster and a thin senior class, the freshmen and junior college transfers of the 2013 class, whom Beckman is labeling “immediate impact Illini,” will have an opportunity to see the field early and often.

“And that’s what we sold,” said recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach Alex Golesh. “We sold playing time. We don’t have a big senior class, and we don’t have a big junior class.”

With the class in place, the 2013 Illini are beginning to take shape.

The offensive coaching staff was overhauled in the offseason with former Western Michigan coach Bill Cubit taking the reigns from Beatty and Gonzales. N.C. State’s Jim Bridge was brought in to replace offensive line coach Luke Butkus, who is now with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Illini still have a coaching vacancy on the defensive line after Keith Gilmore, the lone holdover from Zook’s staff and the man responsible for two first-round draft picks, rejoined Vic Koenning at North Carolina.

When the coaching staff wasn’t recruiting, Beckman said it was evaluating the season and preparing for the 2013 campaign. 

The current Illini even joined in on the process. Beckman had each of his returning players make a film cut-up of all the plays they were directly involved with last season, calling it their “point-of-attack tape,” which each had to review and grade.

“As you go through the evaluation process, you’re always trying to fix it,” Beckman said. “Even if you won 10 games, you’re still trying to fix the reasons why you weren’t successful in the losses.” 

Chad can be reached at [email protected] and @cthornburg10.