Would we though? How many actually would have been interested in the Illini job at that time? The program search years before could only muster a Tim Beckman (and the program sank even further since that time); it is possible, and even likely, that Illinois would have been shutout from all of those options.
What’s the link for the sell out tracker?
It's funny to kind of retroactively reapply some of those narratives to that period, because one thing the Lovie hire did was prove a lot of beliefs Illinois' own fans had about the job wrong.
Completely agree; which is why the Lovie hire was so important when it happened. It brought positive attention and press to the program, when it had been ridiculed in media and fanbase by the whole Beckman scandal and subsequent failure of administration to clean up the mess. The program was a literal dumpster fire when Whitman was hired.
I mean, it's not impossible that any of these guys could have been interested in the job. Purdue was in an awful place too, and Jeff Brohm had more of a connection to Illinois than Purdue at the time. Matt Rhule was going from Temple to a Baylor program that was coming out of an awful scandal, and they had an awful first year. Luke Fickell was taking over a Cincinnati program that was nothing special at the time, and maybe he would have taken a bite at being a B1G head coach over a G5 coach. Maybe PJ Fleck was the hotness and went to a better off Minnesota program, but I mean he is an Illinois guy, so it could have happened. And as for Lane Kiffin, maybe he went to FAU for a reason where he could just run a program his way without any interference, and maybe Josh had no interest in bringing in a guy like Lane at that time. But still, you have to consider that maybe he could have accepted a job at a B1G school over FAU.
Minnesota went to five straight bowl games prior to Fleck, so Minnesota was definitely in better program shape at the time. He has kept the boat afloat and sailing for seven years now, but I suspect it is headed for a cliff soon. I personally did not like his schtick at Western Michigan, so I would have been highly disappointed if Illini got him as coach, but that is just me. He has proven able to win, but I am not sure if his persona would have met well here, and I have doubts that his schtick would actually be able to build up a power conference program that was in shambles like Illinois was.
I’m a big believer in Coach Kill
when " Coach Guenther " was here, he wanted all his coaches to look good in a blue blazer , starched white oxford shirt, orange-blue repp tie, and khakis.
It's offline, but I have considered migrating it to Google Sheets for more interactive experience. Perhaps that is an offseason upgrade.
ECI bros (mafia)
I mean the counter-argument or different pathway for this would be if in December 2016 we hire a coach who brings somewhat less excitement (though I don't know how reasonable it is to assume that Whitman would make a hire that bummed people out in the moment, he's literally never done that), but who has the right plan to put the program on the right track, unlike Lovie are we further along the road right now because we didn't so badly waste 2017-18?
Gunther was a dumpster fire!
Guenther was responsible for losing Self and hiring bad football coaches. He was small-minded and failed the University’s sports programs consistently.
No doubt Lovie failed at coaching Illinois (like nearly all recent head coaches here), and you will never see me sign a thank you note to Lovie, as the on-field results speak for themself.
Ummmmm, Illibuck is for playing Ohio State lol...
I dont think anybody is saying Lovie was a successful coach, but just because he was a failure that doesn’t necessarily mean it was a bad or wasted hire.
Sure, but the thing is, we can't forget how bad the situation got once again in November 2018 when we're losing 63-0 to Iowa on Senior Day.
