Lovie Smith Named Illinois Football Coach

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#276      
217sports
USNIlliniFan said:
Reading Tampa Bay news about Smith the Bucs get part of any salary he may make as a result of some sort of strange contract language after they fired him?
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Apparently (per twitter) there's offset language on that contract that gets Tampa out of paying him (more than 10 million) if he takes ANY job, even a football media job. If true that has to mean we are paying him a pretty penny
 
#277      
illini80
Still not sure I believe it, but wow! For those who know more than me, what kind of scheme would Lovie run? I am under the impression it takes much better athletes than we have to run his cover 2.
 
#278      
orangeswarm76
Count me as excited ,classy guy ,good coach and I'm guessing he will put together a hell of a staff. Great day for Illini !
 
#279      
illini80
217sports said:
Apparently (per twitter) there's offset language on that contract that gets Tampa out of paying him (more than 10 million) if he takes ANY job, even a football media job. If true that has to mean we are paying him a pretty penny
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Whitman made the comment that he would be able to compete for top coaching talent better than we ever have before. Man, he must be one hell of a negotiator!
 
#280      
Fillory
illini80 said:
Whitman made the comment that he would be able to compete for top coaching talent better than we ever have before. Man, he must be one hell of a negotiator!
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He certainly comes off as genuine and was extremely successful in previous positions.
 
#281      
FT35
What a difference 12 hours makes. Who was even thinking about Illinois football at 8 AM this morning?
 
#282      
OneTime3
FT35 said:
What a difference 12 hours makes. Who was even thinking about Illinois football at 8 AM this morning?
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Posted more on the football subforum in the last 12 hours than the last 2 years I think.
 
#285      
Dan
[youtube]etcXGGjyiAs[/youtube]
 
#286      
champaignchris
Lovie Smith is probably the biggest possible name the Illini could hire at this point. He will get us national attention. His name alone will open doors in Chicagoland.

He was a good NFL coach. Not a great one, but definitely a good one. His players loved playing for him. His defenses were always at least good, and were often elite, and always, always forced turnovers. Special teams were also always good.
 
#288      
illini80
I have been thinking that it will probably be a several step process for us to become a good program. This clearly gives us immediate credibility where we had none prior to today. I honestly don't know how we could have done better. JFW. I love it.
 
#290      
IlliniRunIn07
590 viewing the football forum while 212 are on the hoops forum in the first week of March. What a strange time to be alive. I am not complaining though. Josh Whitman definitely knew how to put out the dumpster fire that was our football program.

shotgun-fire-extinguisher.gif
 
#292      
IlliniDrums89
I'm shocked. I was a person who was cautiously optimistic above the JW hire after a seemingly endless string of years of total athletic and institutional mismanagement. I've had little hope for the beloved since graduating.

No longer. This is the most excited I've been in a long, long, long time. Welcome home, Josh Whitman. And welcome to the OTHER orange and blue, Lovie.

:shield:
 
#294      
Dan
Kramer116 said:
Thread name just changed?
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Yeah, there really wasn't much of a "search" phase after Whitman's presser today, thought this title was more appropriate :)
 
#295      
BZuppke
For all the reasons stated by many here and especially Autoposter: Biggest hire in Illinois history. I would have to believe it is a done deal or the Cubit trigger would not have been pulled. Was it in play before JFW was formally hired? If so, yea for Babs Wilson!
 
#296      
MULEDOG35
IlliniDrums89 said:
I'm shocked. I was a person who was cautiously optimistic above the JW hire after a seemingly endless string of years of total athletic and institutional mismanagement. I've had little hope for the beloved since graduating.

No longer. This is the most excited I've been in a long, long, long time. Welcome home, Josh Whitman. And welcome to the OTHER orange and blue, Lovie.

:shield:
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AMEN.
 
#297      
Fillory
IlliniDrums89 said:
I'm shocked. I was a person who was cautiously optimistic above the JW hire after a seemingly endless string of years of total athletic and institutional mismanagement. I've had little hope for the beloved since graduating.

No longer. This is the most excited I've been in a long, long, long time. Welcome home, Josh Whitman. And welcome to the OTHER orange and blue, Lovie.

:shield:
Click to expand...

My heart is saying all of this.

My head is hesitant to believe this is true.
 
#299      
Smacko
Very impressed with Whitman. Moved decisively rather than waiting. Definitely thinking outside of the box to fire a guy in early March, but someone who has a vision and the balls to go out and execute it is a nice change.
 
#300      
scaggs22
This wouldn't be a "home run", this would be a walk-off "grand slam". Oh my Gosh I hope it comes true. WOW
 
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