Mike Norvell Memphis (age 38) 31 – 15 overall. Worked as an Offensive Coordinator for Pittsburgh and Arizona State before becoming the head coach at Memphis in 2016. Won his division the last two years. This might be a reach because he doesn’t have a lot of head coaching experience and is young. Currently 5 – 1.
I think that is exactly the kind of guy that Illinois needs to go after. Young guy that has had success in a non Power 5 conference, but may not be getting looked at by the big dogs quite yet because he is young and "inexperienced." Unfortunately, he may be past the stage of being willing to take and Illinois rebuild job. He is the highest paid non Power 5 coach. So it's not like he is exactly hurting for money at Memphis. He may be willing to wait around at Memphis and continue winning for a few more years until the big dogs start making offers.
He would probably be up there close to my #1 choice, but I just don't think it'll happen. We are gonna have to take a bigger risk and hope that we get lucky at this point.