How did that work out last year?
Very bad move and may cost him his job.
Football Coaching Staff / Coaching Carousel Thread
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Very bad move and may cost him his job.
I don't think Lovie sees Miles as a risk. I think he sees Miles as someone that will work with him day and night to develop the best strategies and watch the film. Plus, Miles has a long tenure learning Lovie's system. As much as people complain about the money, I don't think several hundred thousand dollars for a year is sufficient to warrant sacrificing 5 million + in salary for multiple years.
Whether or not Miles is good is besides the point (we don't know). Lovie knows that he won't have a job if he doesn't win more games. And, he hired Miles. I think that speaks volumes about his decision. Probably his decision as a dad.
As a dad, I know what it is like to believe in your kids. This could be blind fatherly optimism. It could be that Miles is somewhat like an echo chamber, after all, he has learned most of what he knows about football from his dad. But I don't disagree with his decision. Whether or not it works is yet to be determined. And, I would fire Lovie if he doesn't win more games this year.
I get your opinion that this is a bad move. But if we lose next year, this will have nothing to do with Miles.
Deleted member 654622
D
Guest
I am not taking sides here, but who is to say Lovie is going to be assisting with the LBs all year? If Miles is doing a great job, and Lovie backs off, is anyone on this board going to know about it?
Everyone is always quick to take away someone else's job.
The last thing we need is to fire the head coach. With that goes the entire staff. And the entire program starts all over again.
High school coaches want to see continuity when schools come to recruit. They'll say, "What, all new Illinois guys again?"
And what does that buy us with our narrative, our reputation? Always firing after 4 years?
Have we forgotten that we deliberately chose to rebuild a program from scratch?
In Lovie's first year, he had 24 seniors. How far did we get that season?
We lost 2 games we should have won last year. However, we cannot forgive getting blown out of the stadium in others.
Lovie is a proud man and our athletic director is one smart dude. Do you think they say in weekly meetings, "Let's do our best to be mediocre the next game."?
You might want to start a Lovie Loyalty board. In no way, shape or form does Miles' hiring as an assistant coach benefit the Illinois football program. Benefits you are describing could also be performed as an analyst.
I think the Miles Smith hire shows that Lovie wants complete control of the defense, with no challenge from his assistants. Look at the staff on D. Inexperienced Clark. Unqualified Miles. Low experience Hudson, and friend Byrd. It’s gonna be Lovie’s way and only Lovie’s way.
There’s 2 sides to this coin though. Could be good because Lovie knows if they don’t drastically improve this year, he’s gone and his reputation takes a hit. So he wants to sink or swim doing exactly what he wants on D. The other side is the micromanaging and lack of trust and adapting of his philosophy. Not allowing input from challenging viewpoints usually isn’t good.
There’s 2 sides to this coin though. Could be good because Lovie knows if they don’t drastically improve this year, he’s gone and his reputation takes a hit. So he wants to sink or swim doing exactly what he wants on D. The other side is the micromanaging and lack of trust and adapting of his philosophy. Not allowing input from challenging viewpoints usually isn’t good.
Come on with this. How many coaches have we fired after 4 years or less? Beckman was fired for a player abuse scandal after making a bowl in year 3. Cubit was literally hired as an interim and never even given a contract longer than 2 years.
Just curious.
Are you saying that Lovie was unable to find experienced coaches that would mesh with his ideas?
I love that these are the two responses I got. To paraphrase: 1. Why do you want to fire Lovie? 2. You just like Lovie too much
bahahahhahahha
I agree about stability, Lovie and Josh. But less than 5 wins is unacceptable. In no way can I fathom less than 5 wins with this team. I don't care about individual blow out games. But a season with every loss as a blow out, would also have me question.
I get your opinion on the topic. I am just pointing out that this isn't as black and white as you are making it. I have never been a micromanager in real life, so I don't care about micromanaging Lovie's hire. I care about winning. If our defense improves, then I won't care about Miles. If our defense gets worse, I won't care about Miles. But if we get worse as a team, then Lovie's time is up. Lovie knows this, so let him choose his weapons.
If this is true then why give him an extension? Thats throwing away more money in a guy that (in your opinion) has to win this year or he is fired. I can't imagine that we have money to just throw around right now.
The extension was purely for optics. Power 5 coaches rarely have less than 2-3 years remaining on their contracts. The extension was done strictly for recruiting.
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
Exactly. The key is that the buyout didn't change.
Giving him an extension basically buys recruits. If you don't commit to Lovie, how can he sit in peoples' living rooms and convince kids to play for a coach on his way out.
I'm not sure how objecting to blatant nepotism falls under micromanaging. Perhaps you can explain that a little more. For all we know, MaryAnne may have a better grasp of the defense and be a better instructor and recruiter than Miles. Would objecting to that hire also fall under micromanaging, or is that sufficiently black and white?
And are you sure this is a do-or-die year for Lovie? Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is a $4 mil. contract plus a $4 mil. buyout. Barring a complete collapse, can the athletic department afford $8 mil., plus whatever they will have to pay for a new coach? The argument for retaining him was to give him a chance with his recruits. But his oldest recruits will only be juniors. Is that really giving him a chance?
Lovie will not be retained if we keep getting gashed on defense game after game.
I agree with that to a point. But how does it look to the recruits if you give that coach an extension and then the next year they are on campus the coach gets fired. I get it that NCAA sports is scummy. I think as fans we look at the extension as a bigger deal than recruits do. Coaches never hesitate to jump to a better job (please refrain from bringing Brohm into this conversation) and assistant coaches move around just as much as recruits. The assistant coaches do the bulk of the recruiting and I get that ultimately the players are here for the head coach. I am not sure the exact point I am trying to make (cause I am an idiot fan) but I think that Coach Smith will be coaching the Illini in 2020 assuming the 2019 season isn't a catastrophic failure. Again I cannot stress enough that I am an idiot fan with a dumb brain.
I get what you are saying but if you don't "extend" him and recruits become skeptical about him being there and end up not signing because of it you lose out on a whole year of recruiting and put the program farther behind the 8 ball so to speak. Also Brohm got paid more at Purdue than he was offered at UofL so maybe Purdue is the better job.
I don’t know. I have zero inside information. But hiring your son after saying you’d do a national search doesn’t pass the smell test. Also I don’t think it’s any secret that Lovie is very stubborn when it comes to defensive philosophy. Him and Rivera weren’t exactly best friends, and that’s when they were running one of the best defensive units in the NFL. I’m just trying to piece together what evidence is out there. Something is definitely up with the assistant salary pool. That much seems certain.
I completely agree, and I was very upset when the rumors were out there of Miles getting the job. However, now I look at it the same way others are: this is Lovie's decision, and he will be successful or get fired from it. If he wants his legacy to be getting fired from three jobs to end his career, then he dug his own grave. On the flip side, if this is successful, they will continue to get good coaches and players interested in coming. As long as they make a bowl this year, I don't care who is coaching the positions.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
And that's where the fear sets in if Illinois goes 6-6 next year and makes their first bowl game since 2014. Lovie will need another extension for the same reasons given for this year's extension, except it will need to be a REAL extension, with increased salaries and buyout provisions. I have no concerns about giving another contract, as a second contract means that progress is being shown and the program is moving forward. But 6-6 in year 4 would be the minimum-accept improvement and leaves Illinois in a potential situation where if the 2020 or 2021 goes sideways.
Lovie could have had all the money in the world to hire assistants and he would have made the same hires.....the assistant salary pool hasn't been cut.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
I'm not sure this is an excuse. He's essentially telling the remaining staff that he has ample money to give all of them significant raises but decided to not use it. Saying the pool hasn't been cut just means that the money is not being used, or am I missing something?
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