My fear is that this has all been some incredible and wonderful dream and the alarm is going to go off and it will be morning.
Lovie Smith Named Illinois Football Coach
- Status
My fear is that this has all been some incredible and wonderful dream and the alarm is going to go off and it will be morning.
BZuppke
- Plainfield
Interesting statement from the Bleacher Report:
"If Smith is named the next coach, he will take over an Illinois team that has been in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten for the last eight seasons."
Didn't know we were even middle of the pack. This is how reporting goes when you hire someone like Lovie. You will be taken seriously and not ridiculed as "bottom of the barrel'. The article ends with something about our "return to prominence". Again a positive spin. What a great move to jumpstart our program and what a move by JFW. Wow. Wow. Just wow.
"If Smith is named the next coach, he will take over an Illinois team that has been in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten for the last eight seasons."
Didn't know we were even middle of the pack. This is how reporting goes when you hire someone like Lovie. You will be taken seriously and not ridiculed as "bottom of the barrel'. The article ends with something about our "return to prominence". Again a positive spin. What a great move to jumpstart our program and what a move by JFW. Wow. Wow. Just wow.
No thanks.
Why not ? just curious.
I'll just say that from some people I've talked to he's not very respected by fellow coaches he's worked with.
Yeah, 39-60 over the last 8 years is not "middle of the pack". That's 12th of 14 Big 10 teams, 57th of the 65 "Big 5" schools, and 95th of the 124 FBS schools.
Assuming Lovie is the new coach, here's the real question (and I apologize if someone already asked this)...is Rex still their starting quarterback?
My guess is that this was a done deal before Whitman even signed on and it was part of the prerequisites. The BOT had their say behind the scenes, it is a diverse hire, one of the deep-pocket donors will pick up Cubit's tab and it gives a jump start and positive spin to a program AND a school that have been a laughingstock for quite a while. Defense wins in the B1G and Lovie is a defensive coach. Get ready for the Tampa 2 D. We need LBs that can run sideline to sideline and big, fat DTs to keep the blockers on the line of scrimmage. BTW - the Birmingham TV sports broadcast just mentioned Illinois and Lovie Smith which is definitely the first time they have EVER talked about Illinois football in the state of Alabama since 1982.
Who are you? CIA? Jason Borne?
This would be great news if it indeed happens.
As much as I was annoyed by a couple things about Lovie Smith as a coach for the Bears, he always seemed to have the respect of his players and his teams were always competitive.
The fact that he would be the first African-American head coach for either revenue sport at Illinois is a bonus.
This would be a home run hire, imo, especially given the circumstances.
As much as I was annoyed by a couple things about Lovie Smith as a coach for the Bears, he always seemed to have the respect of his players and his teams were always competitive.
The fact that he would be the first African-American head coach for either revenue sport at Illinois is a bonus.
This would be a home run hire, imo, especially given the circumstances.
ilphotog
The camera never lies
- Champaign
An example from my last post about hopefully a bump in Season ticket sales. My brother in law who has season tickets (lives locally, from Chicago area) tonight told me that 6 of his friends have already texted him about getting season tickets, once Lovie's name was mentioned as the probable new coach. This is the type of buzz that JW I'm sure was hoping for, by pulling the trigger now, rather than waiting for a year. Way's to go to see if this pans out, but IMO it's a step in the right direction. Season ticket sales are what I'm interested in watching from now until the opener.
Doesn't matter if you win.
Two thoughts:
1) I'm still waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under us. It seems to good to be true to get Lovie. I'll breath easier once a contract is signed. Speculation means nothing without a signature, although this is some of thickest smoke I've ever seen.
2) If Whitman can pull of hiring Lovie Smith (which is a grand slam in my mind), does Whitman already become at the very least a home run hire? I swear this guy is exactly what we as fans have been wanting for so long. Someone who believes so much in what we can and should be that he is willing to push all the chips forward and bet on Illinois!!!
1) I'm still waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under us. It seems to good to be true to get Lovie. I'll breath easier once a contract is signed. Speculation means nothing without a signature, although this is some of thickest smoke I've ever seen.
2) If Whitman can pull of hiring Lovie Smith (which is a grand slam in my mind), does Whitman already become at the very least a home run hire? I swear this guy is exactly what we as fans have been wanting for so long. Someone who believes so much in what we can and should be that he is willing to push all the chips forward and bet on Illinois!!!
They were talking about Illinois football in 2003 -- Northern Illinois football.
(Sorry, shameless plug for one of my Alma maters.)
Nope! There is a concept that Lovie wants to win too.
I seriously doubt that would be true. If it were, he has the worst agent in the pro sports.
Last edited:
Deleted member 4333
D
Guest
Why would Lovie want to come to Champaign, when he's sitting on a $10 million severance package? Doesn't make sense. I think Whitman has been talking to Lovie to get his take on Frazier.
Redfoxdogs
- Gurnee, IL
Did I just hear Jim Rose say that hiring Lovie Smith will make Illinois tax payers angry??
One person that may be in play for OC is Jeff Tedford. Former coach at California. He was supposed to be Lovie's OC at Tampa originally, but he got very sick. Then last year he coached in the CFL I believe.
BZuppke
- Plainfield
Jim Rose on abc 7 said it as a done deal then finishes with a BS statement about the taxpayers of Illinois having to pay for all these fired coaches. Do these geniuses do any research. I swear they are ignorant of everything.
More importantly, just watch presser. JFW said he needs to understand the hiring process better to give an idea of timing. He's a pretty clever guy. He's not trying to 'understand' anything. He's made a deal with Lovie and he and his lawyers are trying to figure out the quickest way to announce it and not run afoul of the posting requirements etc. In my mind, the main mistake made in the Cubit hiring was not giving him a 2 year K, but taking the interim tag off. Should have given him the interim tag for another year. This might have gotten us around the posting requirement.
More importantly, just watch presser. JFW said he needs to understand the hiring process better to give an idea of timing. He's a pretty clever guy. He's not trying to 'understand' anything. He's made a deal with Lovie and he and his lawyers are trying to figure out the quickest way to announce it and not run afoul of the posting requirements etc. In my mind, the main mistake made in the Cubit hiring was not giving him a 2 year K, but taking the interim tag off. Should have given him the interim tag for another year. This might have gotten us around the posting requirement.
I think this is fairly probable. Tedford had heart surgery and stepped down in Tampa, recovered and coached last year in the CFL, stepped down after one season as HC (in which he made the playoffs), and has been rumored to want to return to the college game. After the heart troubles, I think there's a decent chance he wants to avoid the stress of a Head Coach position. Offensive Coordinator at a P5 school with relatively low expectations and a high profile HC could make a ton of sense.
I'd be excited about a Tedford hire, but he was criticized at Cal for his vanilla play calling and Byzantine playbook. Nonetheless, he's a big name with an impressive resume.
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
Jim Rose is a vacuous, talking head.
- Status