Lovie Smith out at Illinois

#101      

hermie1985

H
hermie1985
I wasn’t in or out when we hired Lovie. It obviously didn’t work out as well as hoped but this is a tough sell. I would like to give Lovie credit for working the transfer portal. I hope the new coach works it too.

I think the 4 team college football playoff has really made recruiting top notch high school prospects tough on schools like Michigan and Penn St and some of the other blue bloods not named Ohio State, Alabama and Clemson. Throw in a few others contending for the fourth spot and they suck up the bulk of the talent with grey shirts, red shirts and out right lies. Illinois was working the disenchanted to our advantage. I hope we keep it up.
 
#110      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Two very different epitaphs from two writers who have had very different views of the Lovie era as it has gone along, but I think they really synthesize together well to express what happened:

illiniboard.com

Couldn't Care Less

This was going to be today's newsletter. But now it's a free post on the site. I will sometimes begin writing something with one idea and then the words take me somewhere else. This is that somewhere else, so you newsletter folks will have to wait a few days for that. I haven't written very much...
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Requiem for a Dream

We expect the greatest point of narrative tension to come in the third act of the movie — the scene is set, the characters are introduced…
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The best line is probably Robert's:
"That's why he lost his job yesterday. It wasn't because he mailed it in. He was simply way too confident in his own ability to implement the plan."

Lovie is a good guy and a good coach, but at the end of the day he was never going to hew to the prevailing standards of college football because he thought he knew better, and in the end he didn't.
 
#111      

Illiniaaron

I
Geneseo, IL
Illiniaaron
I usually enjoy reading Robert's articles, but think this one missed the mark. There's nothing worse than a guy who thinks he's the smartest in the room who is actually grossly incompetent at his job. That was Smith.
 
#112      

Deleted member 29907

D
Guest
Deleted member 29907
illini80 said:
I would have been way more upset with the Miles Smith hiring had I known that. I think J would make a great coach.
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I was so done with Lovie when he hired Miles. Proved he had no serious intention of making this team good again (great was way too much to ask).

This just makes it so much more sickening. This is why you don't give the car, the keys, the title et. al to any coach. Just sickening what he did in hiring his idiot son and his own smug self as DC. Hey, if it works - good for you. If it crashes and burns - you really should pay the university back or get sued for incompetence. Glad he and his idiot son are gone - they put themselves ahead of the team.
 
#113      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
VAIllini35 said:
I was so done with Lovie when he hired Miles. Proved he had no serious intention of making this team good again (great was way too much to ask).

This just makes it so much more sickening. This is why you don't give the car, the keys, the title et. al to any coach. Just sickening what he did in hiring his idiot son and his own smug self as DC. Hey, if it works - good for you. If it crashes and burns - you really should pay the university back or get sued for incompetence. Glad he and his idiot son are gone - they put themselves ahead of the team.
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As the days pass, I’m growing weary of reading so much about how Lovie brought us back to respectability. He is a respectable man and he did run a clean program without scandals, but I don’t believe that respectability translated to the Illinois football program. It stopped with him, personally. Nobody is saying, hey that Illinois is sure a good clean program, I’d like to play for them, anymore than people respected Northwestern 25 years ago for having high academic standards for their players while losing 10 games a year. Not being Beckman does not equal respected. At least in my book. #rantover
 
#114      

CDRUSN

CDRUSN
CDRUSN
I've always liked Lovie as a coach, and still do. He has a lot of character, and his players always respected him. I wish him and his family all the best. After failing to move the program from a Big Ten bottom feeder, it is time to go in a new direction with a new HC. Whoever we choose, I hope he is able to drastically improve recruiting and player development, which have both stagnated for years. There is no reason, given the talent base of Illinois high school football and surrounding areas, that we cannot compete with and match the success of programs like Iowa, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and (recently) Indiana.
 
#115      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
illini80 said:
As the days pass, I’m growing weary of reading so much about how Lovie brought us back to respectability. He is a respectable man and he did run a clean program without scandals, but I don’t believe that respectability translated to the Illinois football program. It stopped with him, personally. Nobody is saying, hey that Illinois is sure a good clean program, I’d like to play for them, anymore than people respected Northwestern 25 years ago for having high academic standards for their players while losing 10 games a year. Not being Beckman does not equal respected. At least in my book. #rantover
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T-minus roughly 10 months until it's okay to admit that Lovie did not leave the roster in better shape than he found it.
 
#116      

jrmarcus

J
jrmarcus
CDRUSN said:
I've always liked Lovie as a coach, and still do. He has a lot of character, and his players always respected him. I wish him and his family all the best. After failing to move the program from a Big Ten bottom feeder, it is time to go in a new direction with a new HC. Whoever we choose, I hope he is able to drastically improve recruiting and player development, which have both stagnated for years. There is no reason, given the talent base of Illinois high school football and surrounding areas, that we cannot compete with and match the success of programs like Iowa, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and (recently) Indiana.
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I have a lot of respect for Lovie. I was so excited when he was hired. I think he did recruit well for the condition the program was in. I'm really disappointed he wasn't able to capitalize on the talent he had. Teams have done more with less. I don't know, at this point, how anyone succeeds at Illinois. Have to beat the cupcakes at the beginning of the year and get some fortunate scheduling in the B1G. But, you have to do that for a few years in order to trick the recruits into believing that the program is evolving. I think I'm usually more upbeat about the possibilities, but then I thought (admittedly wrongly) the program was headed in the right direction only to find out that it's starting over.
 
#118      

bluemountain

B
bluemountain
I just read A Lioneye's write-up re: Lovie, and all I can say is, "what a load of BS" By every account I've seen Lovie did not put the work in required to succeed here. He surrounded himself with incompetents like his son and Hardy Nickerson. What Robert calls confidence I call hubris and arrogance; everybody with two (or even one) eyes could see that his defensive scheme didn't work, yet he made few if any adjustments. He hired unqualified assistants. He made very little effort on the recruiting trail and expected recruits and coaches to kiss his *** because he is Lovie Smith. If he expected us to have an IU type year this year he was delusional and in need of meds. IU succeeded because Allen surrounded himself with good people and worked his tail off. Same with Fleck. Plain and simple, Lovie didn't do what was necessary to succeed here, and that is why he failed
 
#122      

Deleted member 747277

D
Guest
Deleted member 747277
bluemountain said:
I just read A Lioneye's write-up re: Lovie, and all I can say is, "what a load of BS" By every account I've seen Lovie did not put the work in required to succeed here. He surrounded himself with incompetents like his son and Hardy Nickerson. What Robert calls confidence I call hubris and arrogance; everybody with two (or even one) eyes could see that his defensive scheme didn't work, yet he made few if any adjustments. He hired unqualified assistants. He made very little effort on the recruiting trail and expected recruits and coaches to kiss his *** because he is Lovie Smith. If he expected us to have an IU type year this year he was delusional and in need of meds. IU succeeded because Allen surrounded himself with good people and worked his tail off. Same with Fleck. Plain and simple, Lovie didn't do what was necessary to succeed here, and that is why he failed
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So you come to the same conclusion as Robert. This is exactly why he wrote this article. Your perspective of a (rightfully) upset fan is different than his—and his is likely the more informed (that’s not a knock on you, I just assume he just has more access to the program than you).

in the past, a lot of people praised Lovie for being the anti-Fleck. His stoicism and decision not to pressure recruits were seen as virtues. Now that it didn’t work out, it’s easy to look back, pile on, and cast a negative light on everything he did. What you perceive as lack of “effort” Robert saw as “he was who he was.”

The only fair criticism, which I believe was consistent throughout his tenure, was that he wasn’t adjusting to the college game. He gambled by doing things differently and came up (wayyyyy) short. But the idea that he didn’t care, he was a jerk, he was just bilking the university to pad his retirement, etc. is an unfair and biased assessment (from us angry fans). And that’s coming from someone who had a closer seat to the action than most of us.
 
#123      

BashCt

B
BashCt
Bick Dutkis said:
Who did they have scheduled non conference this year?
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They had probably the easiest non-conference schedule in recent memory: Illinois St, UConn and Bowling Green (3-9 in 2019, 0-5 this year). You could make a very convincing argument that ISU is the best team out of those 3.

I know it doesn't shake out like that every year, but it was absolutely +3 in the win column, and why I'm convinced this would've been a bowl team in a normal -- non-covid sitting half our starters for a few games-- year.
 
#124      

ILL_INI

ILL_INI
ILL_INI
3xIllini said:
So you come to the same conclusion as Robert. This is exactly why he wrote this article. Your perspective of a (rightfully) upset fan is different than his—and his is likely the more informed (that’s not a knock on you, I just assume he just has more access to the program than you).

in the past, a lot of people praised Lovie for being the anti-Fleck. His stoicism and decision not to pressure recruits were seen as virtues. Now that it didn’t work out, it’s easy to look back, pile on, and cast a negative light on everything he did. What you perceive as lack of “effort” Robert saw as “he was who he was.”

The only fair criticism, which I believe was consistent throughout his tenure, was that he wasn’t adjusting to the college game. He gambled by doing things differently and came up (wayyyyy) short. But the idea that he didn’t care, he was a jerk, he was just bilking the university to pad his retirement, etc. is an unfair and biased assessment (from us angry fans). And that’s coming from someone who had a closer seat to the action than most of us.
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While his stubbornness is a fair criticism, I would hardly call it the only one. The hiring of his unqualified son to be one of the highest paid state employees is certainly another very fair criticism. With that hire, the message was clear: The Smith family finances were more important than the University of Illinois football program, all the while being paid north of $4 million per year to make that decision. Let that sink in for a while and digest it. It was a jerk move. He was bilking the state by making the hire. He may have cared about Illinois football, but he wasn't "all in." How many people did he interview for the position? (And how many people did he interview to be DC?) Is it really fair to dismiss this lack of effort as "he was who he was?"

Robert may have a closer seat to the action, but that doesn't mean he can see any better. In fact, being closer might have made him more biased.
 
#125      

RedRocksIllini

RedRocksIllini
Morrison, CO
RedRocksIllini
BashCt said:
They had probably the easiest non-conference schedule in recent memory: Illinois St, UConn and Bowling Green (3-9 in 2019, 0-5 this year). You could make a very convincing argument that ISU is the best team out of those 3.

I know it doesn't shake out like that every year, but it was absolutely +3 in the win column, and why I'm convinced this would've been a bowl team in a normal -- non-covid sitting half our starters for a few games-- year.
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On paper, sure. But keep in mind that we struggled to beat UConn last year. With Lovie at the helm, there was no such thing as a guaranteed non-con win.