mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
What baffles me is that so many earnestly believe Underwood took this job because Illinois is where he actually wants to be coaching. One only needs to watch the OSU introduction and then the Illinois introduction to see the lip service that he, and essentially all coaches, put on. Everyone wants to believe that their coach is in his dream job, but it just isn't always the case. Hell, we have a head football coach that holds school records here as a player and is basically the King of Stillwater and that dude, Mike Gundy, still flirts with other schools every few off seasons. The breed of coach that is actually coaching in their dream job is a rare one.
No, see, actually we get ALL of this. We lived the Bill Self-Roy Williams-Bruce Weber carousel, which provided a lifetime quota of certain guys calling certain places "dream jobs" or "destinations" or "home."
You, on the other hand, waltzed in here feeling spurned because your first-year coach dropped Hank Iba's name a bunch of times.
Just be happy that Illinois was willing to pay Underwood an amount no one else was willing to and that he agreed. It's a business, and at times it's slimy, but you're exactly right...Underwood will probably lead Illinois to a lot of wins, and he's no stranger to the Big Dance at this point, so things are definitely on the upswing at Illinois...and ultimately, isn't that the point of it all?
I (and others) literally directly responded to the post you are quoting saying "It's about F'ng time we decided to treat this as the business it is." So yes, that's the point. Glad we're on the same page.