Illinois coaches fail Aaron Bailey

Watching the entire Aaron Bailey package—the arm strength, speed, awareness and size—it appeared that when he arrived on Illinois’ campus, stardom was in the future.

It still may happen for the sophomore quarterback. Though it would be with a different university.

A source confirmed on Thursday that Bailey will transfer from Illinois, but said that his destination is not yet known.

Bailey was a highly regarded recruit who led Bolingbrook to the 2011 8A Illinois State Championship. Having held offers from Notre Dame, Ohio State and Nebraska among others, it took some doing—promises, really—to convince Bailey to play his college football in-state.

Considered the best recruit of the Tim Beckman era, Bailey was promised, publicly, the design of a specific package to suit his athleticism. And who knows what more in terms of playing time was promised privately?

But by Thursday, those promises had been unfulfilled. Bailey never saw significant time and therefore wasn’t allowed to realize his potential. The “Bailey package” never appeared on game days. Unwilling to switch positions, Bailey spent the past two seasons third on the Illini depth chart.

It has to be asked: What would Urban Meyer do with a talent like Bailey? Would he turn him into a starter? An all-conference player? A Heisman contender?

As much as this program finds itself mired in the off-the-field gaffes of Beckman, this is a strictly on-the-field issue—though it brings to the coaching staff the kind of negative attention it’s head man asked, very awkwardly, for the media to avoid on Wednesday.

Bailey was a player that this coaching staff should have coveted and one it could have used during many losses over the past two seasons when the quarterback play was sub-par and, during some weeks, non-existent.

Talk about his failings as a publicist for the Illini program all you want, but Beckman loses games because of his inability to coach the team on the field. The ineptitude at developing Bailey is a prime example.

The plan this past season, after playing him sparingly as a true freshman, was to redshirt Bailey with sophomore West Lunt ahead of him on the depth chart. That would have aligned Bailey to start for the Illini as a fifth-year senior.

But an injury to Lunt caused—not forced because they started Reilly O’Toole—the coaching staff to play Bailey, effectively burning his shirt.

And now it seems Beckman will join reporters in one respect—watching Aaron Bailey. Then again he and his staff have already done a lot of watching. They certainly didn’t coach him while he was in Champaign.

Email: sgruen@suntimes.com

Twitter: @SethGruen