The University of Illinois officially announced today that Jim Heffernan will take over as head wrestling coach.  Heffernan had been an assistant under Mark Johnson for Johnson's entire 17-year tenure at Illinois, plus his two-year stint at Oregon State.  He's a former national champion wrestler under Dan Gable at Iowa, and a four-time All-American.  He has the wrestling and coaching pedigrees necessary to lead a Big Ten program.  You can hear the press conference here.

The other big news to come out of today's press conference is that assistant coach Carl Perry will remain with the program, becoming Heffernan's top assistant coach.  Senior-to-be and two-time All-American Jimmy Kennedy commented that Perry was one of the main reasons he came to Illinois, and so he was relieved to hear that Perry would stay in the fold.  That had been a question, as Perry also applied for the head coaching position.

Third assistant Jeremy Hunter hopes to also remain on the Illini staff.  He will be applying for the now vacant second assistant coaching position.  Hunter has been with the program for the last eight seasons.  If Hunter does get that second full-time spot, that would leave one assistant coaching position open.  There has been some speculation that three-time All-American Mike Poeta might join the staff on a part-time basis while he continues to compete internationally.

It's obvious with Heffernan's resume that he has had other opportunities to become a head wrestling coach at the Division I level.  He cited his affinity for Champaign-Urbana as one of the reasons he stayed as a top assistant for so long, and also said he hopes to finish his career as an Illini. 

One of the challenges Heffernan faces is maintaining or increasing Illinois' standing in the wrestling world as the Big Ten continues to get stronger each year.  Penn State recently made a big splash in the wrestling community by hiring Cael Sanderson away from Iowa State, which is his alma mater.  Sanderson had led the Cyclones to three straight top five NCAA finishes before the Nittany Lions lured him away with a pay raise and superior facilities.  Ten of the eleven conference teams were ranked in the national top 25 at some point last season, which illustrates the national standing the conference carries.

I talked with Jimmy Kennedy and Jordan Blanton after today's press conference.  You can hear their comments here and here.  Kennedy had some interesting comments about possibly moving up a weight class or even redshirting next year.  Heffernan will be Steve Kelly's guest tonight on Sportstalk at 5:15 pm.  If you can't tune in to WDWS-AM 1400 in Champaign, you can hear the podcast here shortly after 6 pm.  Thanks for reading.

bmoline@wdws.com