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OT: Lovie Smith

ben

ben

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Nice hire for Illinois.

"Smith is likely to bring his two sons to the coaching staff. Mikal Smith was coaching safeties for his father at Tampa Bay. Miles Smith was an offensive intern. A third son, Matthew Smith, is Lovie Smith’s agent."

Lovie Smith to take over Illini football | Illini | stltoday.com


Sounds like Paul Williams may be outta Illinois before he even coaches a game.
 
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Nice hire, in what way? As a football school the Illini are near the bottom of the conference and will remain that way. Give them Meyer or Saban and not much would change.
 
I think their defense will be tougher; but then again, when Monte Kifffin (the father of the Cov 2) took his act to Tennessee and USC, both defenses failed b/c the college game is much different than the NFL. We shall see.
 
INCaneFan said:
Nice hire, in what way? As a football school the Illini are near the bottom of the conference and will remain that way. Give them Meyer or Saban and not much would change.
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I think if you gave them meter he would improve them because of the system he runs and knows how to find talent.

I don't think the Buc cover 2 can work in college. I think this is just a big name hire. Shows the school cares about football. Must be nice lol
 
INCaneFan said:
Nice hire, in what way? As a football school the Illini are near the bottom of the conference and will remain that way. Give them Meyer or Saban and not much would change.
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So Ron Zook( who's not even close to love smith) didn't take them to the rose bowl in 2007.?
 
While I wouldn't want to live in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois is not a terrible job. They need to upgrade facilities and really improve in-state recruiting, but they have two things to work with. First, they are in the Big 10 West. That is a winnable division in a Power 5 conference; that's a nice combination. Second, the state of Illinois has solid annual talent, sometimes very good talent. Illinois' product has just been so bad, for so long, that it has no clout currently. I think 247 has them with 2 commitments among the top 50 in the state. That's bad.

I'm not saying Illinois is a great job and I have no idea how Lovie Smith will work there, or in the college game at all but, on paper, both sides could have done worse.
 
As an AA I'm happy he's given a chance. As a Bucs fan and honest evaluator, he was horrible. I went to many practices, starving for football, and he did absolutely nothing from a coaching detail or motivational stand point. He rode that Tony Dungy/Monte Kiffin protege thing until the wheels fell off. The Tampa Two is yesteryear's defense. He lacks the personality to recruit a sloth or even less, motivate young people. Illinois has never been a football school and will fall even farther behind with Lovie Smith trying to recruit with his drab personality.
 
Zbrod95 said:
INCaneFan said:
Nice hire, in what way? As a football school the Illini are near the bottom of the conference and will remain that way. Give them Meyer or Saban and not much would change.
Click to expand...
So Ron Zook( who's not even close to love smith) didn't take them to the rose bowl in 2007.?
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He took them to the Rose on a flukie 9-3 season. It was his only time his entire career the Illini finished with a winning record under him. They were crap before the Zookster got there and have been since as well.

Some schools just don't have a shot and Illinois is one. Sure, they could potentially put together a season or two here and there, but that's not even the case in 30 to 40 years of recent football. It's a dumpster fire of a job.
 
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Congrats to Lovie Smith on the hiring. it helps being in the BIG West compared to the East. Lovie knows he has to upgrade the talent level across the board. Illinois was 79th in recruiting among P5 teams only Ks, BC and Colo were worst.
I just feel this is not a good fit for Lovie or illinois. Hope I am wrong. An up and coming young coach with midwest ties like PJ Fleck to me would've been an idea hire.
 
Another retirement job where he is just trying to get some money and get his kids into the business. This should work out about as well as the last one.
 
INCaneFan said:
Zbrod95 said:
INCaneFan said:
Nice hire, in what way? As a football school the Illini are near the bottom of the conference and will remain that way. Give them Meyer or Saban and not much would change.
Click to expand...
So Ron Zook( who's not even close to love smith) didn't take them to the rose bowl in 2007.?
Click to expand...

He took them to the Rose on a flukie 9-3 season. It was his only time his entire career the Illini finished with a winning record under him. They were crap before the Zookster got there and have been since as well.

Some schools just don't have a shot and Illinois is one. Sure, they could potentially put together a season or two here and there, but that's not even the case in 30 to 40 years of recent football. It's a dumpster fire of a job.
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but that's proof that they can be competitive if they hire the right guy. I'm not saying Ron Zook or Lovie is a good coach but Baylor was in the same place for a long time but they hired the right guy for the job and Now they're always top 15 in the country in poll rankings and usually in recruiting as well
 
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I wonder if Coker re-surfaces at Illinois as OC or if he is completely done with coaching.

Asking because Coker shares similar coaching tree (John Cooper@Tulsa,OSU) with Lovie.
 
Gator Hatar said:
As an AA I'm happy he's given a chance. As a Bucs fan and honest evaluator, he was horrible. I went to many practices, starving for football, and he did absolutely nothing from a coaching detail or motivational stand point. He rode that Tony Dungy/Monte Kiffin protege thing until the wheels fell off. The Tampa Two is yesteryear's defense. He lacks the personality to recruit a sloth or even less, motivate young people. Illinois has never been a football school and will fall even farther behind with Lovie Smith trying to recruit with his drab personality.
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**** during the actual games, Lovie would do nothing but just stand there with the same smug look on his face all game. You would never see him coaching someone up or showing any emotion. Me and my people noticed that in his first game or two in Tampa.
 
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Gator Hatar said:
As an AA I'm happy he's given a chance. As a Bucs fan and honest evaluator, he was horrible. I went to many practices, starving for football, and he did absolutely nothing from a coaching detail or motivational stand point. He rode that Tony Dungy/Monte Kiffin protege thing until the wheels fell off. The Tampa Two is yesteryear's defense. He lacks the personality to recruit a sloth or even less, motivate young people. Illinois has never been a football school and will fall even farther behind with Lovie Smith trying to recruit with his drab personality.
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This.....
I think Lovie's resume will draw some uptick in recruiting and I'll assume he should immediately make the existing players "better" just from the initial buzz.
That said, as a longtime Bears fan, I know Lovie is renowned for just hiring his pals, and in this case, his kids. Maybe the college scene will re-ignite his old fashioned football desire but I think we'll see that in his hires.
 
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Gator Hatar said:
As an AA I'm happy he's given a chance. As a Bucs fan and honest evaluator, he was horrible. I went to many practices, starving for football, and he did absolutely nothing from a coaching detail or motivational stand point. He rode that Tony Dungy/Monte Kiffin protege thing until the wheels fell off. The Tampa Two is yesteryear's defense. He lacks the personality to recruit a sloth or even less, motivate young people. Illinois has never been a football school and will fall even farther behind with Lovie Smith trying to recruit with his drab personality.
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I can't imagine anyone out-recruiting Meyer, Harbaugh, and D'Antonio in the Big 10.
 
Where I could see this helping a lot for Illinois - is that some of the other Big Ten bottom/middle teams pull quite a bit of kids from Illinois.

For example - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa typically have quite a few of their better players from Illinois. Maybe he gets some of those kids stay home now.

I don't think it will make Illinois into a powerhouse by any means - and the Big Ten will always be run by Ohio State and Michigan as long as Coach Urban Meyer and Harbaugh are there - but his hire could boost Illinois above some of those other mid-tier schools in the short term.
 
canesfanmpls said:
Where I could see this helping a lot for Illinois - is that some of the other Big Ten bottom/middle teams pull quite a bit of kids from Illinois.

For example - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa typically have quite a few of their better players from Illinois. Maybe he gets some of those kids stay home now.

I don't think it will make Illinois into a powerhouse by any means - and the Big Ten will always be run by Ohio State and Michigan as long as Coach Urban Meyer and Harbaugh are there - but his hire could boost Illinois above some of those other mid-tier schools in the short term.
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Illinois has all it needs to be the best of the B1G West! Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Purdue can all be had when Illinois has the right coach.

If Lovie wins the West, is competitive in the B1G championship and his bowl games, and he'll see the end of his contract.
 
Gator Hatar said:
As an AA I'm happy he's given a chance. As a Bucs fan and honest evaluator, he was horrible. I went to many practices, starving for football, and he did absolutely nothing from a coaching detail or motivational stand point. He rode that Tony Dungy/Monte Kiffin protege thing until the wheels fell off. The Tampa Two is yesteryear's defense. He lacks the personality to recruit a sloth or even less, motivate young people. Illinois has never been a football school and will fall even farther behind with Lovie Smith trying to recruit with his drab personality.
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Im a Buccs fan also. What ****ed me off the most is why come in and get rid of Revis, Barron, Goldson, and Foster. Lovie forcing the Tampa 2 was his doom. The Tampa 2 was great when you had Sapp, Booker, and Rice getting after the QB.
 
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