Simon Cvijanovic Needs Support of Ex-Teammates to Put Tim Beckman on Hot Seat

It's been two days since Simon Cvijanovic first took to Twitter to air his grievances about Illinois head coach Tim Beckman.

But thus far, it's hard to imagine the former Fighting Illini offensive lineman has received the response he wanted.

Embarking on a prolonged Twitter rant that has now entered its third day, Cvijanovic has lofted numerous accusations at his former head coach and the Illinois program, including claims of mistreatment both personally and medically. The four-year letter-winner has yet to respond to multiple requests for an interview from Bleacher Report but hasn't been shy when it comes to sharing the intentions of his tweets:

And while the second and third goals of Cvijanovic appear noble on the surface, his primary objective is going to be difficult to accomplish without the support of his former teammates.

At least, it will if Cvijanovic's Twitter tirade continues to resemble that of a smear campaign without offering tangible proof of any of his lofty accusations. It'd be hard to imagine that the words of just one former player could affect the security of a head coach, particularly when Cvijanovic has repeatedly lobbed personal attacks at Beckman throughout his admitted "rampage."

That's the line of thinking Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas seems to be following as well, as he's taken note of Cvijanovic's serious accusations but continues to back his head coach. On a conference call with reporters, Thomas said he'll conduct an internal investigation into the former player's claims but has yet to find anything that corroborates Cvijanovic's story.

“He’s put the welfare of (Cvijanovic) above everything else,” Thomas said in the conference call. “The feedback I get from players and our players’ families is that our coaches genuinely care for them and treat them like their own children.”

Multiple Fighting Illini players and family members have backed up Thomas' sentiments. Like Cvijanovic, senior offensive lineman Ted Karras saw his 2014 season come to an end due to injury but insists that accusations of mistreatment from the Illinois coaching and medical staffs don't hold any water.

The same can be said for Matt DiLauro, the father of sophomore offensive lineman Christian DiLauro, as well as former Fighting Illini wide receiver Miles Osei. Conversely, the most prominent person to publicly back Cvijanovic's claims has been Andrew Weber, a former walk-on kicker who played under Beckman at Toledo. 

That's not to say neither Cvijanovic nor Weber is being truthful, but it's going to be hard for Cvijanovic to accomplish what he wants with just the support of one former player from another school. If Beckman has truly created a culture as ugly as the one Cvijanovic has described, it's more probable than not that more players—current and former—would have already come forward.

It also doesn't help Cvijanovic's case that he has admitted that he wasn't a fan of Beckman's before he ever played for him. Speaking to The Doug Gottlieb Show, Cvijanovic recalled Beckman lying to him about beverages in order to pump up Toledo's sponsor, Yoo-hoo, during a recruiting visit.

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"The first major issue is that he lied to me on my recruiting visit at Toledo," Cvijanovic told Gottlieb. "He told me Yoo-hoo chocolate drink has more protein than Muscle Milk. Simple lie, didn't need to be said, but it made him seem like a liar to me. So on the way home, me and my dad decided I wasn't going to go to Toledo."

Nevertheless, Cvijanovic's and Beckman's paths would cross when Beckman took over Illinois in 2012.

Whether or not Beckman is really bending the truth about Yoo-hoo (which possesses two grams of protein to Muscle Milk's 25) is really a "major issue" is somewhat beside the point. What's clear is that while Cvijanovic's recent accusations should be taken seriously, his issues with his former head coach have predated his playing days and are only becoming public now that his college career is over.

Any speculation about Cvijanovic's motivation truly being rooted in revenge would be just that, but at this point, there's simply not enough evidence for Illinois to take action on his accusations. What Thomas' investigation will ultimately find remains to be seen, but if it's Cvijanovic's goal to bring down Beckman, he's going to need help.

And maybe it is. But it's going to take more than tweets like that. 

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.