Coaching Carousel
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If you coach in the Big Ten...you have to bring in talent each year and develop it. Illinois being in the Big Ten allows you some talent if you have a good or bad coach. No one is saying Lovie didn't bring any talent in. I don't give Lovie credit for much. Some talent was in place when BB took over but it was very sparse.
Do I think those guys thrive if Lovie is coach here with the system he had in place? No
Do I think Sitkowski would be the starting QB if Lovie was around? Yes
Do I think 90% of the fans would tune out after the non-conference schedule if Lovie was here? Yes
Lovie I thought was decent with the Bears. I think he could be decent DC still with the right pieces. The game has evolved and Lovie not so much...
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Spoon and Quan were both obviously very good and promising players while Lovie was still here. Both got better with Walters and Henry for sure, but it's no great surprise that Lovie Smith scouted defensive backs pretty well.
The upsetting thing about Lovie isn't that there were never any prospects for success, the upsetting thing is that there were, and Lovie himself refused to make good on them.
They were good yes....not close to what they became
Lovie landed a number of guys who became duds or didn't develop
BB can coach, recruit and develop. About time we landed a competent CEO
Lovie's biggest issue was that he had no idea how to properly build a college program. Sure he recruited some diamonds in the rough, but so did Beckman. Lovie was terrible at building relationships with HS coaches and he was terrible at building a coaching and support staff. I don't care how good you are at x's and o's (and he was terrible there as well) you just can't overcome those deficiencies and expect to succeed.
For me the great tell with Lovie was in February 2019 when by then he had enough time and trial and error (mostly error) to have acclimated and educated himself on the particulars of the college game to rework his staff into something befitting a modern P5 program. Instead he named himself defensive coordinator and made his son a position coach. It was not a serious move by a serious HC. It revealed where his head really was. I can only imagine what Whitman must have said about that privately.
I said before that Whitman's two best moves were hiring Lovie and firing Lovie. Hiring him should have proved a choice of genius, but Lovie didn't do the work. That's what I'm mad about; he just didn't do the work.
Having said that, I'm past it. Josh made an excellent course correction, and I believe we're looking to sustained success with Bret at the helm.
Having said that, I'm past it. Josh made an excellent course correction, and I believe we're looking to sustained success with Bret at the helm.
Really? Women’s basketball says hello….
illini80
- Forgottonia
It was a hire that made sense to me. I don't know why it didn't work, but it was a major failure. However, the football trainwreck was far worse and much more costly. It's like buying a bad set of tires vs buying a bad transmission.
Walters doesn’t seem shy about hiring away Illinois staffers. I still want to see him have success, but I’m officially at the “hope we really kick Purdue’s !!!” point.
Edited to correct my dumb mistake 0440 pointed out.
Edited to correct my dumb mistake 0440 pointed out.
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Well considering Henry is Illinois’s DC this seems weird
Oops. Walters.
ILLINIShox24
Orange Krush '04 & '05
Am I wrong for thinking Walters poaching of the Illinois staff indicates he has a pretty limited professional network to pull from? I'm not worried about it.
Was it a more money thing? Good relationship thing?
Walters’ professional network is apparently “a few guys outside of Illinois and the Illinois staff.”
Walters’ professional network is apparently “a few guys outside of Illinois and the Illinois staff.”
That would be my guess too. Don’t know that I’m worried about it per se, but still kind of sucks and probably not doing Illini any favors.
He is going to be the head of operations at Purdue he was the number 2 guy here. Similar to an assistant coach going to get a headjob.
DaChief4ever
- Urbana
Agreed.....all the reach out to people seem to be Illinois. Seems to be limited contacts in the field....
Anytime Walters hires someone away from Illinois, it is a chance for Bret to find someone even better.
I don’t understand any Illini fan wanting “to see him have success” at Purdue. I appreciate what he did for us and I want him to lose every single game at Purdue.
After the LSU party debacle, let’s not have any of our coaches getting headjobs.
A headjob sounds great right about now.
Advancement is great for attracting talent. If the people leaving are getting promoted, that's great. It also allows Bret to promote from within when someone's ready e.g. Henry, or to reach out across his extensive network to bring in somebody he wants from outside, like our new DB coach.
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