I know some want to do their, “Ding dong the witch is dead,” thing, and I certainly don’t think Smith should have been retained.
However, I think we should appreciate the mess the football program was in when he got here - the player abuse scandal, the bizarre Cubit extension, the unnecessarily protracted AD search, and the fact that he came in less than a week before Spring practice started.
He didn’t have a first recruiting class, he had to pick from the leftovers for his coaching staff two or three months after the normal hiring cycle had already passed, and he didn’t have an opportunity to fully implement his schemes until the Fall.
There is no other coach of Smith’s quality that would have taken the job when he did. Whitman had to either go with Smith or waste another recruiting year treading water with Cubit.
I think Whitman made the right choice, and while I’m disappointed in Smith’s results, it’s also obvious to me that the program is in better than he found it, and because of that, Illinois will be able to attract a better coach than it did during the last hiring cycle. I don’t think the good Coach Smith did for the program showed up in the Win-Loss record, but I believe it will show up with this next coach that’s hired.
However, I think we should appreciate the mess the football program was in when he got here - the player abuse scandal, the bizarre Cubit extension, the unnecessarily protracted AD search, and the fact that he came in less than a week before Spring practice started.
He didn’t have a first recruiting class, he had to pick from the leftovers for his coaching staff two or three months after the normal hiring cycle had already passed, and he didn’t have an opportunity to fully implement his schemes until the Fall.
There is no other coach of Smith’s quality that would have taken the job when he did. Whitman had to either go with Smith or waste another recruiting year treading water with Cubit.
I think Whitman made the right choice, and while I’m disappointed in Smith’s results, it’s also obvious to me that the program is in better than he found it, and because of that, Illinois will be able to attract a better coach than it did during the last hiring cycle. I don’t think the good Coach Smith did for the program showed up in the Win-Loss record, but I believe it will show up with this next coach that’s hired.