Steve Hull can’t remember exactly why he was walking through the Illinois football facilities when he ran into head coach Tim Beckman. The safety knows it wasn’t long after Illinois lost its season finale at Northwestern on Nov. 24. The Illini had sputtered to a 50-14 loss to the Wildcats — the program’s worst loss to its in-state rival since 2000 — and had finished the season with a measly two wins.

Coach and player approached each other in the hallway and exchanged greetings. And then Beckman said, “Hey, by the way, you’re going to be playing wide receiver next year.”

Hull gave his coach a dumbfounded look. Moving to wide receiver had been discussed during the season, but it had just been talk. It was not a total surprise though, what with the rash of injuries that have kept Hull on the sideline for much of his career. He missed most of the 2012 season with a shoulder injury.

It wasn’t long after the encounter with Beckman that Hull visited with team trainers and even a head-and-neck specialist from the Cincinnati Bengals. Doctors advised him that if he wanted to stay healthy and on the field, it would be best to move to the offensive side of the ball.

Hull did what any competitor would do to get on the field: he agreed. But it wasn’t like Hull was moving into totally uncharted waters. He came into Ron Zook’s program four years earlier as a receiver. And if he needed any more incentive to make the switch, he’d be catching passes from a close friend and a former roommate.

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The field has been elusive for Hull at times. He came into the program prior to the 2009 season and was redshirted his freshman year.

His second year, he found himself in a situation similar to where he is now. When safety Supo Sanni went down for the season with an Achilles tendon injury a week before the season opener against Missouri, Zook came to Hull and asked him to play safety. Days later he made seven tackles in a 23-13 loss in the Arch Madness game, which was discontinued following the 2010 matchup.

Hull made one start that season and played in eight other games. As a sophomore he would miss two games with a back injury, and then last year he missed all but five games with the shoulder injury. The hope is that removing the tackling workload will keep him healthy.

Previous experience at the position has made the transition to wide receiver “like riding a bike” for Hull.

As a senior in high school, he averaged 22.3 yards per catch and caught 11 touchdowns for Sycamore High School in Cincinnati.

“Those first few days are a little bit clumsy,” Hull said, continuing the bicycle analogy. “But once you get the feet back and get your conditioning back, it feels like a second home.”

First-year wide receivers coach Mike Bellamy likened it to painting a picture that’s already half painted.

“He’s one of our best skill-set receivers,” Bellamy said. “He’s a great athlete and a great competitor. My job is to get him a little more polished, but it’s kind of a pleasure.”

Hull isn’t doing it alone. With new offensive coordinator Bill Cubit, everyone has to learn a new system. That includes quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase, a guy whose passes Hull used to try to break up in practice.

The two first met at a recruiting visit during their senior year of high school. They hit it off immediately and agreed to be roommates that weekend. They lived on the fourth floor of Taft Van Doren that year, both redshirted, watching as the Illini sputtered to a three-win season.

Despite Hull’s move to the opposite side of the ball, Hull and Scheelhaase have remained close. It hasn’t been uncommon to see the two throwing the ball around in the offseason. As the 2013 season approaches, things have come full circle. Hull will no longer be batting down Scheelhaase’s passes in practice but catching them.

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Long before the position changes and the injuries, Hull made a deal with his siblings. His brother, Mike, and his sister, Julie, both played collegiate athletics. Mike was a wide receiver at Ashland University, and Julie played soccer at Kentucky. Both wore No. 9.

When Hull takes the field next season, he will be wearing No. 9 — as opposed to his customary No. 5 — in honor of his siblings. He started wearing the number this spring.

The number wasn’t the only thing that was odd. Hull found himself waiting for the snap and staring across the line of scrimmage at the teammates’ whose side he was once on. Hull said he caught a lot of grief from the defense in the beginning.

“It was pretty difficult to turn that switch (to be) cutthroat towards them,” he said. “It’s just a competitive nature.”

Experience on defense is invaluable. Hull understands how the defense thinks and he can read the defense from a perspective most of the other receivers don’t have.

But after just a handful of practices in his long-lost position, Hull found himself covering up his new number with a purple jersey, signifying an injured player. According to Beckman, Hull strained his hamstring and will not play in Friday’s Spring Game. It is a familiar, frustrating situation.

“The hardest thing for Steve is he hasn’t gotten as many reps as he would like to playing a new position,” Beckman said.

As he reacclimates to playing wide receiver, Hull is just hoping Friday’s scrimmage is the last game he has to watch from the sideline.

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.