If Lovie succeeds next year then high fives all around. If he does not succeed then the next coach arguably walks into a pretty good situation. Either way it is a win win for the program long term.
Lovie is gonna show up with an Urlacher full head of hairWill we have another Lovie Smith re-brand this off-season? Last season was the beard, my vote for next is handlebar mustache.
(And rumor has it that the Browns are very interested in the head coach of a Midwestern land-grant university that begins with I.)
Like you said, losing an employee to another employer....helps retaining rod smith, Butkus, ward (those would seem most desired) and also 2 coordinator positions that need to be filled.Giving a contract extension to a football coach in order to help with recruiting has never worked, and Josh Whitman knows this. The only reason you give someone a contract extension is because you are afraid of losing your employee to another employer. Josh Whitman has seen the improvement Lovie has made, and believe me, if JW sees it, then every other AD and GM sees it, too. There is a lot that can happen in the off-season, but I truly believe Lovie has a chance of going from 4 wins this year to 5 wins next year! ADs at Louisville, Maryland with their dirty money, USC which might open up next year, among others, are all eyeing the improvement Lovie has shown and must be very interested. (And rumor has it that the Browns are very interested in the head coach of a Midwestern land-grant university that begins with I.) But with a stroke a of pen, Josh Whitman has nipped those assaults in the bud. While the rest of you are playing checkers, JW is playing chess!
Close, but Iowa isn't a land-grant university. (The rumor I read was actually about the coach of the land-grant university in Iowa.)[Kirk Ferentz photos]
Giving a contract extension to a football coach in order to help with recruiting has never worked,
Unprovable? It has either worked before or it hasn't. It certainly hasn't worked at Illinois before. Let's hope it works this time!I'll take "Totally unprovable assertions" for $1,000.
LOL yeah, who cares about academics. (sarcastic if you couldn't tell)Do people really think the U of I administration cares enough to fire Whitman if Lovie doesn't work out? I doubt they would have fired Mike Thomas if it hadn't been for the Beckman fiasco. They're too worried about making the university the Harvard of the Midwest to care enough about the revenue sports.
Whitman on 670 right now.
*sigh* Think where we might be if we had hired Campbell instead of Becks. Probably worried about whether NFL teams where going to steal him away, which is a really good problem to have.Close, but Iowa isn't a land-grant university. (The rumor I read was actually about the coach of the land-grant university in Iowa.)
WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! What are you doing injecting logic into this discussion? Many posters board have descended into the very depths of Hades,with the best explanation being:Not really accurate. Our defense was made up of mostly seniors in Lovie's first year, including the entire DL (Smoot, Phillips, Bain, Clements) + Nickerson at LB. That Jr & Soph class had very little talent. The only players of consequence, who we could've really used this year, were Watson & Nelson. But they weren't run off and they didn't leave until this past year, and Watson actually had a horrible '17 season. We did lose Vaughn after '16, but McGee proved he didn't handle any part of the Offense correctly, especially RB & OL.
That 2016 season was a disappointment, with what seemed to be a defense with some talent and experience. But it was mostly due to the ineptness of our offense, which carried over and continued in 2017. Hopefully, with some improved WR play the offense will continue to do their part. Minus Phillips, the entire D returns, so hopefully with the experience & another off-season, we'll see significant improvement. A new DC can only help after the debacle that we watched most of this year..
Unprovable? It has either worked before or it hasn't. It certainly hasn't worked at Illinois before. Let's hope it works this time!
He promptly hired Lovie Smith & instantly added hope & credibility to our football program
No one expected success in the first 2 years & preseason projections put us at 3 wins this year.