Skip to main content

One has to wonder

in 2007 Illinois State Athletic Director Sheahon Zenger reached to his home state of Kansas to gather Tim Jankovich as a replacement for Porter Moser. Mosers tenure was tenuous at best and Zenger pulled the plug early on his 7 year contract. Best I can tell is Jankovichs contract is a 5 year contract with a rollover for extensions at the end of the term. That leaves him the remainder of this season and one more till the end of his first term.

The first 3 years were pretty decent. Jankovich was able to keep the best of the talent that Moser had discovered and added some transfers along with signing some other good talent. Now, O is absent. Dinma gone. Talented others are on board, but the Birds are 0-3 in the conference with Witchita State coming here on Friday with a record of 3-0 in the Valley tied for first with Missouri State. The season has been disappointing to say the least. Soft preseason play is responsible say some.

3 Days ago, Zenger takes a job back in Kansas. Who will take his place? Will they allow Jankovich to move on with his program that seems to be off the tracks? Will they be too busy settling in or working on other things to do an evaluation? I don't have the answers, but think the coaching situation at ISU will be a topic before the end of this season and certainly before the end of the next.

Don't get me wrong, I like Coach Jankovich and wish him and the team all the best but what else will be looked at? The talent is there but seems to be lack those things that make it click.


Tim Jankovich - Images by Alan Look

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Redbird Classic - a real winner!

Illinois State University Redbird Women's Volleyball hosted a 4 team volleyball this past weekend.  Participating visiting teams were #7 ranked Marquette Golden Eagles, #7 ranked University or Illinois Fighting Illini and the Knights from the University of Central Florida.  Events kicked off on Friday evening with the Knights and Golden Eagles followed by ISU v the Illini.  Both those matches went 4 sets with Golden Eagles defeating the Knights and ISU upsetting the Illini! On Saturday UCF took on the Illini in a morning match.  The Illini fell once again moving their record in the tournament to 0-2 and setting UCF's record to 1-1.  The evening matchups included a 5:30 match between UCF and Illinois State and the nightcap was Marquette and the Illini.  Both matches went 5 sets, both thrillers with ISU taking the win over UCF and the Illini besting Marquette. Sunday afternoon, the final match between Marquette and Illinois State was nothing short of epic...

Football season gets started with ISU Redbird Red-White Scrimmage

The local football season kicked off today with the Illinois State Redbird Red-White scrimmage.  A healthy combination of fans and students attended the event and the preliminary activities which included the annual student promo photo on the field in Hancock Stadium with the Big Red Marching Machine, cheerleaders, flag corp, and Redline Dancers forming ISU all wearing red shirts. High School football will follow in 13 days with the first Friday Lights games. Get out this fall, support your local teams and see some of the great talent that passes through our communities! Red-White game gallery

Locally seen talent to Quarterback in NFL SuperBowl

On September 15th, 2012 Jimmy Garoppolo visited Hancock Stadium at Illinois State University as the starting quarterback for the Eastern Illinois Panthers.  Who knew that 8 years later he would become one of 2 starting quarterbacks in the NFL's SuperBowl.  Jimmy of course is the 2nd starting Quarterback from Eastern to do well.  Ten Years before, another named Tony Romo completed his senior year at Eastern.  Tony went on to an NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys. Freelance photographer Alan Look was fortunate to have captured both players in action.  The image of Tony Romo was taken at Eastern during the Homecoming game in 2002 against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels.  The image has been used by national media and in several books.  The images of Jimmy Garoppolo were both used by Upper Deck as trading cards for his rookie season.