Gary Moeller at Illinois

Illini football history

*Former Illini/Michigan head football coach Gary Moeller passed away earlier this week.......Moeller head coach at Illinois 1977-1979 leaving Bo's staff in Ann Arbor to replace Bob Blackman in Champaign....three seasons Moeller's Illini went 6-24 with three ties before athletic director Neale Stoner replaced him with Mike White.

My first in-person Illini experience 1979 coaches caravan came to Rock Island...my dad took me......met an Illini head coach that night.....Moeller in his suit smoking a cigar wearing a Rose Bowl pin on his lapel....shook my hand, said of the pin, 'that's where we will be playing January 1st'.....fantastic Illini going to the Rose Bowl!....fired me up for the season even more after his speech to the crowd.....Couple of Illini players at the event also wearing their Rose Bowl pins....then defensive tackle Dennis Flynn (one of Moeller's first big recruits at Illinois out of Munster, Indiana) and fullback Wayne Strader (Geneseo).....both got up, talked about how 'we believe in Mo' and the Rose Bowl pins they were wearing, 'our goal'…..how ready they were to show the Big Ten that Illini a team to be reckoned with......that fall ‘Mo’s team’ goes 1-6 to begin the season....after another loss said to my dad, 'No Rose Bowl I guess'....few weeks later Moeller fired….He went back to Bo's Michigan staff as defensive coordinator.

Jared Gelfond did a great retrospective of Illini football from Moeller to Tepper for the website 2003....interviewed so many of players/coaches from those era's...one coach he had trouble tracking down....getting to talk Gary Moeller...Moeller then an assistant coach for the Bears....Gelfond used the 'let's hear your side of the story' strategy...Moeller relented....Still bitter about how his time at Illinois ended....Stoner hiring White who as we know Bo/Michigan felt a bad guy/cheater.....off the record Moeller always felt 'promises' made by the UIUC admin to him were never kept....so many grievances Moeller held onto about his time at Illinois.

Few years later ran into a former Illini/Moeller era assistant coach at a high school football summer camp...bullshitting with the then head coach…said Moeller still seemed to have a stick up his ass about his Illini experience....coach said, 'Yeah Gary he never got over that....even in the end when we were told a new athletic director was coming in, Gary kept telling us the chancellor promised him two more years (1980-81) to turn it around...we knew once Coleman was gone (Illini AD Cecil Coleman hired Moeller) we were gone but Gary kept saying they promised me'......'He was promised a lot of things that never were changed when he took the job...he felt lied to, how he was let go.....he just didn’t want to believe he would be treated that way but he was’.....some of those things the Illini football staff Moeller era had to 'overcome'/deal with.....Coleman/Illini athletic department at that time...cheap cheap cheap.

Coaches gear-after the season over....Illinois coaches had to check in their coaching shorts (old school Bike style certain age you remember those), shirts, socks, yes socks, hats to the equipment manager after the season…blow out a school issued shoe? would send it to the shoe repair shop get it fixed ....gear would be washed, if holes, stitched up, socks darned etc....coaches issued the same gear next spring/fall...if a coach needed/wanted to replace issued gear would have to pay for it out of his own pocket.

Weight room-Weight training/off season conditioning in the 70's not anywhere close to what it is now....Illini 'weight room' Moeller era chain link fenced in cage under the east end Memorial Stadium horse shoe....four benches and some rusty free weight racks...winter time if a player wanted to workout.....put blankets on the inside of the fencing, kerosene heaters to keep warm.

Bo-Moeller's staff made a big deal about making in-state recruiting a priority cause Bob Blackman era before....Illini losing out left and right on top in-state prospects...former Moeller assistant said, 'we would do all the work, find these good players in state and then Bo would come in late with his championship rings and tell the kid, Illinois good school, Gary Moeller good coach but at Michigan, we play for these...tap the ring on the table talk about how your mom will be able to watch you on TV almost every week....those top kids that would have helped us so much...we would find them and Michigan or Notre Dame would come in late and steal them after we would put all that effort in.'

Offense and defense-Moeller ran the Michigan option offense....Wolverines defensive scheme when he got to Illinois cept'...didn't have the Michigan talent to execute it like the Wolverines did....after two years of stink on offense.....1979 Moeller hired Steve Axman off the Army staff as QB coach to modernize the Illini passing attack.....one issue...offense had a 'running' QB Lawrence McCullough who came in on running plays, one 'passing' QB Rich Weiss came in pass plays...needless to say opposing defense's didn't have a hard time figuring out what Illinois was going to do on offense based on which QB was on the field.

Recruiting out of state-Moeller's young staff didn't have a lot of contacts in the south, state of Florida, state of Texas...when they would go down south Coleman to save money would encourage Illini assistants to 'see if you have a coaching buddy same town you are going to share a ride with him' when visiting different high schools in the area.....and if that coaching buddy had a hotel room, maybe share a room with him to cut down on expenses....recruiting budget/facilities/coaches salaries all supposed to be upgraded when Moeller took the job at Illinois...of course they never were.....cause of staff ties to the state of Michigan, Ohio, Midwest, bulk of Moeller's staff recruits came from those areas 1977 to 1979.

Previous to Moeller….Blackman's teams competitive in the Big Ten vs. all teams not Ohio State or Michigan....Moeller hired to take Illini football to the 'next level'....instead program dropped like a stone finishing 9th B1G each season Moeller head coach (thank goodness for Northwestern football then kept Fighting Illini out of the cellar).......staff’s strategy of building Illinois in the 'Michigan mold' without the Wolverine talent....oh well...Moeller long time the worst Illini head coaching hire till Tim Beckman came along.

Some of the assistant coaches that worked for Moeller at Illinois....Lloyd Carr....Brad Childress (grad assistant)....Glen Mason...Joe Novak...Norm Parker....Bob Smith (well respected high school coach in Peoria later became head coach at SEMO/SIU two stints as o-line coach at Illinois).....long time NFL defensive coordinator Bob Sutton....future Northwestern head coach Rick Venturi

Illini Rose Bowl week 2008...Illini get together at the Pink Taco then on Santa Monica SoCal throwing them back with Dennis Flynn (who was moved for defensive tackle to offensive tackle under White)....made a comment about Moeller....Flynn goes into how much he loved 'Mo' how 'if they had given him the time we were going to the Rose Bowl' ‘on the 'right track'....talked how important Moeller had been in Flynn's life as a young man....you get that a lot from those former Illini players recruited to/played at Illinois for Moeller......his players that era so believed in what the head coach was teaching/selling.....ton of respect for their old coach…..Gary Moeller was 81 years old.