South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
Kaplan is being the designated contrarian on this. His differentiating on this vis a vis the Cubs makes him look like a fool.
Lovie Smith Named Illinois Football Coach
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Kaplan is being the designated contrarian on this. His differentiating on this vis a vis the Cubs makes him look like a fool.
For those of you who do not like the hiring of Lovie here is a quote from one of the players.
"I met Lovie today." I have never been more excited about football in my life!" A guy I used to watch as a little kid is now my head coach!"
To me this is what matters. Sure the ticket sales are up. Donations are up. But the most important thing is the players and recruits now have a sense of purpose! Go Illini! We Will Win!
"I met Lovie today." I have never been more excited about football in my life!" A guy I used to watch as a little kid is now my head coach!"
To me this is what matters. Sure the ticket sales are up. Donations are up. But the most important thing is the players and recruits now have a sense of purpose! Go Illini! We Will Win!
South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
I cant wait to see who our OC and other assistants are. Figuring Phair will still have a big role on D, maybe even will still be the DC.
all of our players, but especially any who have 2 or more years of eligibility left, must feel like they won the lotto.
all of our players, but especially any who have 2 or more years of eligibility left, must feel like they won the lotto.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
I'm not sure this is the best way to reach David Kaplan.
"Look Lovey, we got Lovie!"
There were lots of other names publicly at the time, and more has been ferreted out since then.
Thomas' initial plan was to bring Butch Jones with him from Cincinnati. Jones felt he was on a path to a bigger jump than Illinois (he was right) and told Thomas he wasn't interested, which came as a bit of a shock to MT. From there the search widened and a lot of potential candidates were contacted. Larry Fedora, Chris Petersen, and Steve Addazio all said thanks but no thanks. Kevin Sumlin was our biggest target after Butch Jones, but Thomas thought Sumlin was more interested than he really was, in the end Sumlin was largely playing us against other suitors.
Paul Chryst and Pat Narduzzi were both interviewed and wanted the job, and Narduzzi in particular was a favorite of Thomas' from his time as Dantonio's DC at Cincinnati, but for whatever reason, Thomas just felt that Narduzzi wasn't a big enough name or experienced enough to make a credible hire. It wasn't until 2013 that Narduzzi blew up as a nationally known elite assistant, so that's slightly less crazy than it sounds, but still. Beckman also interviewed, on the recommendation of both Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel, both of whom Thomas knows and respects. Beckman had some cold feet about the gig, which at the time was read as Thomas' weak bargaining position, but looks in retrospect more like Beckman being unsure whether he was really ready for the job. In the end Meyer and Thomas talked him into it. Beckman thought he'd be able to bring his whole Toledo staff, and if he'd been able to, 2012 wouldn't have been nearly the disaster it was. But Toledo knew what they had in Matt Campbell, and the assistants who chose to stay there rather than stepping up to the Big Ten spoke volumes.
It's not just Illinois, it seems nationally there is an inherent resistance to these bloodless business school technocrat AD's. Steve Patterson at Texas and Dave Brandon at Michigan were very similar stories. Very thorough, very sensible, very well articulated plans, but when it comes time to sell that vision to tobacco spittin' football coaches and black slappin' good ole boy donors, these guys just don't speak the same language.
Whitman can be the best of both worlds, which is great.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
What's so crazy to me is that, even in hindsight, the case for the Beckman hire isn't a bad one. And I know, I know - everyone will be "couldn't he tell from the interview?"
To that I'd say - tell what? That he's a goof? Some football coaches are (see Miles, Les). Surely Thomas didn't ask him about any plans to play fast and loose with the wellbeing of his players. And even if you had some questions, wouldn't the combined endorsement of Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer be a formidable counterweight?
To S and C's point, the biggest red flag was when the Toledo staff didn't join him, but by that time the horse was out of the barn.
I'm not saying hiring Beckman wasn't a fireable offense, because it clearly was. But it was also a jarringly plausible series of events that should be a cautionary tale moving forward.
To prefer head coaching experience makes a lot of sense. To turn down a guy you KNOW is a good football coach and who is up to the job in favor of someone like Tim freakin Beckman is insanity. And it cost him his job. I don't think there's much question that Thomas is still here if Narduzzi is the choice over Beckman.
So, Whitman can sell ice to Eskimos and fire to the Devil. Fair enough.
And ketchup flavored Popsicles to an old lady in white gloves.
Probably opening an Italian restaurant where you pull a hamstring and they rub lasagna on it.
The allegations against him and his ongoing suit against his former employer probably makes him a bit radioactive for the moment, but he'll probably find his way back into football eventually. He'd be welcome on the Youngstown State staff I'm sure.
Given the allegations, absolutely not. In this day and age these allegations will prevent him from working with young men anytime soon. I'd say it would be five years like a show cause penalty of public perception.
Well time to start paying attention to the ol' football program again. Good job Mr. Whitman, good job.
ivwilsoniv
- Aurora, IL
I'm curious what the WAR will be for Lovie Smith + Staff, assuming that Bill Cubit + Staff was probably between 0.0 and -1.0 WAR.
I developed an armchair psychoanalyst's opinion about Beckman as time went on. The fact that he mentioned his "being around coaching" his whole life in virtually every single interview he ever gave was telling to me. Most people took that as an expression of how passionate he was about coaching, but I think it had other undertones. I believe he was a guy who was not exceptionally gifted at coaching or (not trying to be pejorative here) super intelligent, but he studied other coaches and taught himself to look and sound like one, at least if you spoke to him superficially. But underneath the veneer, I question how well he really grasped the profession conceptually. He did a lot of things because "that's what coaches do" but, when you looked more deeply, he didn't seem to have a strong understanding of the purpose behind much of it. It was always like, Coaches come up with motivational slogans, so I will too (even if they make no sense); coaches play up the animosity with their closest rival, so I will too (even if nobody cares); coaches facilitate a tough culture, so I will too (even if I'm pressuring guys to play injured, which is a bad idea). And so on. To me, it explains both his cartoonishness and also many of the darker aspects of his failure here.
The lingering mystery is why Thomas failed to see this back at the interview stage. Even in Beckman's introductory presser, his shortcomings largely manifested themselves. Not just his difficulty speaking, but just how small-program oriented Beckman was.
Anyway, it's water under the bridge now but worth mentioning just to illustrate once again how far we've come in ten months. You can question whether Lovie can bring himself up to speed on the recruiting game or whether his laid-back style will work in the college game, but nobody questions his intellect or the depth of his coaching insight. Nor is there any question that Whitman would make the same mistake Thomas did in failing to see the emperor's new clothes. It truly is the dawn of a new day.
I would say about +0.5 to maybe +1.0 WAR. It's the first year in a new system for every player on the field and there will be growing pains. Plus we are moving in the right direction, but we aren't filled with talent yet.
I am saying 7-6 with a bowl victory at a low level bowl and maybe an upset of a good team during the regular season
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Unfortunately Lovie has already lulled me into a bit of a boredom with his interviews... Hahah gah I'm sorry he just isn't very high energy. It's ok though. It will be really exciting to hear how the rest of the staff will fill out and to see them start spring practice. Don't get me started about when football season comes around. But I think I have had my fill of watching his interviews. I love the (mostly) hype on the radio programs though! It is so awesome to start this glorious new era of Illinois football! Thank you Josh!
So, Whitman can sell ice to Eskimos and fire to the Devil. Fair enough.
And walk on water according to Barb Wilson's Whitman intro speech. Don't get much better than that. Perfect!
We can sit around forever and discuss how Beckman managed to talk himself into the HC position at a Big Ten school, but that's a waste of time at this point. Although I feel no sympathy for the man (we made him richer than 99% of us will ever be), I don't doubt Beckman wanted the best for the Illini. Unfortunately, he just lacked the experience/knowledge to make us anything but a bottom feeder.
Without Simon and Beckman we wouldn't be here today. Who knows where we could have been had we dodged the Beckman bullet, but I don't think anyone has cause for disappointment now. We're talking about Illinois football in March and people seem genuinely excited to see what Lovie can do. It may take a couple of seasons to get things running at high speed, but this is just about as big a miracle we could hope for.
We can sit around forever and discuss how Beckman managed to talk himself into the HC position at a Big Ten school, but that's a waste of time at this point. Although I feel no sympathy for the man (we made him richer than 99% of us will ever be), I don't doubt Beckman wanted the best for the Illini. Unfortunately, he just lacked the experience/knowledge to make us anything but a bottom feeder.
Without Simon and Beckman we wouldn't be here today. Who knows where we could have been had we dodged the Beckman bullet, but I don't think anyone has cause for disappointment now. We're talking about Illinois football in March and people seem genuinely excited to see what Lovie can do. It may take a couple of seasons to get things running at high speed, but this is just about as big a miracle we could hope for.
Shorter version:
To put this hire in perspective. How many college head coaches have taken an NFL team to the Super Bowl?
2. (that I can think of) We got one of them. Michigan got the other and Harbaugh's a former Michigan QB!
This is a rare hire. He took a Rex Grossman led team to the Super Bowl where they came up against Peyton Manning. Manning or Grossman? Who wins that match-up 10/10 times?
We have a head coach who can sit down with any recruit in the country, look them in the eye and tell them that he knows what it takes to succeed in the NFL. "You want to play professionally? I can show you how."
I believe that we are still three years away from having a roster that can compete for BIG West titles. This could be a good year with the talent and experience we have, but the 2017 season will be full of growing pains (we lose a lot of seniors after this 2017 season).
This is a great hire. We just need to be patient while Coach Smith rebuilds the roster. In the meantime, at least there is enough quality to be competitive for the next couple of seasons. Back to back bowl games over the next two seasons is a lofty, but achievable goal. And would go a long way to help build a solid foundation for the program moving forward.
2. (that I can think of) We got one of them. Michigan got the other and Harbaugh's a former Michigan QB!
This is a rare hire. He took a Rex Grossman led team to the Super Bowl where they came up against Peyton Manning. Manning or Grossman? Who wins that match-up 10/10 times?
We have a head coach who can sit down with any recruit in the country, look them in the eye and tell them that he knows what it takes to succeed in the NFL. "You want to play professionally? I can show you how."
I believe that we are still three years away from having a roster that can compete for BIG West titles. This could be a good year with the talent and experience we have, but the 2017 season will be full of growing pains (we lose a lot of seniors after this 2017 season).
This is a great hire. We just need to be patient while Coach Smith rebuilds the roster. In the meantime, at least there is enough quality to be competitive for the next couple of seasons. Back to back bowl games over the next two seasons is a lofty, but achievable goal. And would go a long way to help build a solid foundation for the program moving forward.
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