When Lovie came here we all assumed he would be good at X's and O's and at player development, but weak at recruiting. Turns out he was the worst X's and O's coach we have ever had and was bad at developing players, but had a knack for finding under the radar Floridians.
2026 NFL Draft Thread
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
We just kinda never had the day-to-day operational best practices of college football operating within the building during Lovie's time, and he had no interest or patience in seeing that happen, he always thought he knew better. So whatever he did well (which were many things at various points) constantly sprung leaks because we weren't just doing the basics right.
One killer in that regard was the centerpiece hire of that first staff to be the experienced college hand and recruiting ace who could be a co-HC type was Garrick McGee who was just totally the opposite of that in real life.
All's well that ends well though. We have Mr. Get The Basics Right now.
From his nfl days he knew the physical traits to look for. He said several under the radar hits but he also had a ton of misses. I mean look at his last oline class
geez
I couldn’t wait for Lovie to start coaching for us
and sadly , within 28 months I couldn’t wait for him to leave .
It was the right hire for the right time. He came in on the heels of Beckman's player abuse lawsuits and Cubit's tenure which was always just a bridge to the next guy.
Lovie was beloved in Illinois by being the best Bears coach since Ditka. He had immediate name recognition. He was known as a players coach who really loved mentoring and helping his players. It helped immediately bring some level of credibility and excitement back to a dead program.
While he had a great eye for talent, especially in low ranked recruits, he did not like recruiting and put forth no effort to build the pipelines. I'm assuming once you don't have to entertain and talk to 16-18 kids all the time and can just coach in the NFL, it's probably hard to go back to it, especially as an older coach.
Lovie ended up not being successful, but he got us back to a foundation where someone could build off of it.
Build him a statue with a plaque that reads "Less embarrassing than his predecessor"
I know you're having problems processing your big feelings, but who is coming here to clean up after Mike Thomas and Lasagna Man? We're lucky to be where we are now after it was ran into the ground.
Within 10 years we went from an absolute dumpster fire to nationally successful in football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and continued success in golf, tennis, gymnastics, and track & field.
Whitman found the piece that led to the next piece. Lovie left a lot of talent for Bret to start with and develop. One doesn't happen without the other.
I processed my feeling about Lovie a long time ago. He sucked and I can't perform the mental gymnastics needed to sing his praises or give him credit for where we are today. Yes I guess someone had to occupy the position between Cubit and Bielema but I don't think Lovie did any anything special.
I guess I'm just a simpleton who judges coaches based on W-L.
I’ll acknowledge his recruiting successes, but overall he seemed to me to lack a sense of urgency/purpose/vision and seemed generally disengaged with almost a “What, me worry?” attitude. It felt like he was selling his name when what we needed was someone who knew how to build a college program from rubble. He was completely lost in that respect.
Maybe the contrast with Bret just makes Lovie look bad. Belichick isn’t looking much better.
I think we can agree that he was not a good college coach and probably an NFL coach as well post-Bears. We were such a mess that we weren't getting a guy that comes and fixes us day 1.
He got some good recruits but failed to adapt to the college game on the field and couldn't develop what he brought in. My only praise of Lovie is that he left it better than he found it, which wasn't that hard, lol.