Football Coaching Staff / Coaching Carousel Thread

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#501      

BlindLoyalty

FartNoiseMotivation
"I think that I (Whitman) understand, and I think our university understands, what we've undertaken here. We've undertaken a long-term build of a football program. We recognize what our starting point was. We recognize what our current situation is and we all have a good sense of what our future's going to look like."
Whitman doesn't plan to start over. Smith is his coach. Period.”


The Smartest guy in the room already took a victory lap after beating Rutgers and made his proclamation. After this historical loss, look for some kind of fundraising milestone, statue announcement or hockey announcement from wonderboy. Soon.
 
#502      
"I think that I (Whitman) understand, and I think our university understands, what we've undertaken here. We've undertaken a long-term build of a football program. We recognize what our starting point was. We recognize what our current situation is and we all have a good sense of what our future's going to look like."
Whitman doesn't plan to start over. Smith is his coach. Period.”


The Smartest guy in the room already took a victory lap after beating Rutgers and made his proclamation. After this historical loss, look for some kind of fundraising milestone, statue announcement or hockey announcement from wonderboy. Soon.
And when do you admit you've screwed up and made a horrible mistake. Year 3 SHOULD be seeing some progress. Not losses worse than year one. I agree that Lovie is not getting fired this year. Buyout is way too steep. He'll sink the program even lower next year and then be shown the door. And we start all over again....
 
#504      
Whether Lovie stays for 2019 or not...there almost certainly will be a change for 2020....but I ask for as bad as Lovie has been. Can we trust Josh to make a hire when he emptied the bank for a disaster? While he's a good guy, his tenure at this point has not been any improvement from Thomas. He's just liekable.

Josh at worst would be wounded - because of the current Lovie predicament. And, IF BU does well, it will be very difficult to call for ouster.

I really do not know the ground realities of this football team - how are those returning going to impact + the current recruits. But, 4-X is what we all expected, just not in such a dramatic fashion. With the likes of UM on the table next year, things will be more challenging for sure.

However, I think I heard Lovie say "recruiting" for the very first time after the Nebraska game. He seems to be waking up. ??????

All said and done, Josh, I think, is safe.

As far as "bank"s are concerned, Joh will have to find a bunch of new folks to fund his next coach. I very much doubt that will be a big challenge for him. JMVHO.
 
#505      

JJE

Bethalto, IL
When Whitman hired Lovie I think a majority of Illinois fans thought it was a good hire at the time. That time of the year it seemed at the time that getting Lovie was a home run. Whitman isn’t stupid or naive. I’m confident that he understands that bringing Lovie in for another year might put the program back 2-4 more years behind where it already is.

Another thing to consider is the defense is putrid and If Lovie is retained he’s going to have to hire a DC. I know a lot of guys want the opportunity to be a DC at a P5 school. But what coach would want to takeover the worst defense among P5 schools for a coach who more than likely will be fired after your first season? Even if the money is there to offer a big time DC, who would be willing and able to turn the defense around in one year? I suppose it’s possible, but even Rod Smith has had ups and downs this season with the offense.
In my opinion the best case scenario would be for Lovie and Whitman to agree on a decreased buyout. At Lovies age I would be thinking about enjoying retirement instead of another year of ruining what’s left of my coaching legacy. I know he’s not a guy with a big personality, but he seems like he has zero passion to lead this program out of the basement.
 
#506      

Deleted member 631370

D
Guest
While there's lots of talk about Jeff Brohm and what a hot prospect he is, note that PU lost game #6 today and risks bowl ineligibility if they don't win in Bloomington next week.

For a team that blew out Ohio State, beat BC, and beat Michigan State, they sure put up some real stinkers.
 
#507      

GortTheRobot

North Bethesda, Maryland
Whitman should definitely make the change. It was a big splash hire, and he got lots of kudos for it, but he needs to demonstrate that he also has the guts to say it ain’t working. I wish Lovie no ill, he’s a man of integrity, but you have to prove you are in charge by not being tentative about letting anyone go, even if it’s a man who is greatly respected by all.
 
#510      
Many people are in favor of wanting Lovie gone. If that happens, which guy floating out there would make the perfect Illini Coach? With a cart of dual threat QB's, I would hate to see a complete change in offensive scheme, unless we went air raid like TT or WSU. I think those types of offenses allow for lesser talented teams to compete because they are incredibly hard to prepare for. Until we become the bigger, faster, stronger team, I think running a pro style is out of the question.
 
#511      

Hoppy2105

Little Rock, Arkansas
I hope Nathan Scheelhaase ends up killing it as a coach and wants to come back to his alma mater and take us to the promised land.

Too bad that’s like 10 years away at best...
 
#512      
For Whitman to consider a change he would have to have somebody he really thought could turn the program around. Strike 2 could leave the masses crying for his removable.
 
#513      

SKane

Tennessee
Why would Lovie settle for a penny less than his full contract?

He could have an extra year of retirement/time to do something else that is more fun than coaching Illinois.

He could retain a bit more of his dignity/pride in his career.

I guess it depends on how much the buyout would be reduced.
 
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#516      
My completely irrelevant opinion on who our next DC should be:

1. Mike Phair- I had forgotten that he was co- D-Coordinator with Tim Banks in 2015 when we had the #15 D in the nation according to S&P+ (Hindsight looks pretty bad not leaving him at DC when Lovie arrived)

2. Jeff Knowles - NIU DC. Illinois native who mentored under Dave Doeren. Has orchestrated a top flight D in his first year but inexperienced.

3. Jon Hoke- Most experienced of the bunch, but getting up there in age and I wonder about recruiting prowess at this point
 
#517      

the national

the Front Range
My completely irrelevant opinion on who our next DC should be:

1. Mike Phair- I had forgotten that he was co- D-Coordinator with Tim Banks in 2015 when we had the #15 D in the nation according to S&P+ (Hindsight looks pretty bad not leaving him at DC when Lovie arrived)

2. Jeff Knowles - NIU DC. Illinois native who mentored under Dave Doeren. Has orchestrated a top flight D in his first year but inexperienced.

3. Jon Hoke- Most experienced of the bunch, but getting up there in age and I wonder about recruiting prowess at this point
Jeff Knowles seems like the most likely option. I like Phair but I would doubt he would want to come back to this mess. For a young DC, this could be a great opportunity. You can only do better, really. On the broadcast today, they flashed that we were a plus 120 defense in like 6 categories. Can only really go up.
 
#518      
For Whitman to consider a change he would have to have somebody he really thought could turn the program around. Strike 2 could leave the masses crying for his removable.

The next coaching search needs to start and end with John Holecek.
 
#519      

JJE

Bethalto, IL
Why would Lovie settle for a penny less than his full contract?
I agree that if he’s given the choice he decides to stay another year. However, Lovie has made a lot of money over his career. I’m not him but at his age I think I’d cut my losses and take a lower buyout and enjoy retirement.
One thing I would think Whitman would have to consider is recruiting. I would think most recruits would want to see improvement in the wins column. If Lovie has a roller coaster year next year or has another year like this one, I can’t imagine the class would be very good. Putting this program further behind.

It has to be a difficult decision for Whitman, because I have to believe most of the fan base is either angry or is apathetic. Do you get egg on your face and admit this thing isn’t going to work, take the financial hit, along with the PR hit or do you go another year and potentially have an empty stadium with bad football and possibly make this worse? I don’t envy where Whitman is, but he’s smart and I believe is willing to learn from his mistakes. I still have a lot of faith in him.
 
#520      

JJE

Bethalto, IL
Another thing to consider is that there’s probably going to be a couple mediocre jobs open just in the Big Ten with Purdue and Maryland. Both of them I would believe are better than Illinois.
 
#521      

Deleted member 631370

D
Guest
Sometimes, you just know if a coach is going to be a dud or stud. And the moment you realize that your coach is a dud, you have to make a change -- assuming you can afford it.

Firing Charlie Strong at Texas after only 3 years was absolutely the right move. It was clear he was never going to get that program going. It's pretty darn clear to me that Lovie is never going to get Illinois to anything more than an occasional 6-win team -- if that. Are we content winning 6 games here and there? If so, then Lovie seems like an acceptable option. If the goal is to win 6+ games consistently -- and occasionally win 8+ -- then he's not it. And he never will be.

I never liked this hire. He's an NFL guy who made his mark on the NFL on the backs of a great defensive coordinator and an elite defensive unit. He doesn't have those advantages in the college game, and to compete in a conference with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc., he needs to recruit at a very high level (high for Illinois -- borderline top-25 classes) to make us competitive. Clearly, that's not happening. And he sure as heck isn't wowing anybody with his Xs and Os.

Whitman isn't going to fire him this year. No way, no how. But Lovie is not the guy for this job.
 
#524      
Well ..............................................

Loser: Lovie Smith's Defense (scroll down to the bottom

made it on "Winners and Losers".

Certainly are getting attention. Cannot complain.

And ................

There's no clear answer on what to do. Smith has cachet but has also not produced anything worthwhile in his three-year Illinois tenure. The administration may want to have Smith be more of a figurehead like Herm Edwards is for Arizona State than anything else.
 
#525      
I don't think it is the buyout, it is a commitment to what you believed would fix this. As horrific as this game was, the offense has improved substantially and will be largely intact next year. The defense has been abhorrent but almost by default must be better next year and you have the start of a pretty strong recruiting class.

Lovie's guys are just in their 2nd year and you gotta let them mature.

This is the mentality I just don’t understand. Look at the pipeline. It’s empty on the defensive side.

The notion that these guys will miraculously become better over time - under this staff which has unequivocally shown its ineptness at evey turn - is nearly cult level cringe-worthiness. It’s Scientology. Trying to heal a gunshot wound with a gauze pad and hope.

This isn’t rocket surgery. Whitman made a bad hire. The timing was always questionable. As was throwing a huge sum of money at a coach literally nobody else was targeting.

Illinois has long been a b1g punching bag, but even for us this level of ineptitude is scary. Tim Beckman, for all his personality faults, was a much better college football coach than Lovie has been. And that is really saying something.
 
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