Illinois banking on Smith’s NFL approach
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Since he was hired at Illinois in March, football coach Lovie Smith’s calendar has been full.
He’s been busy coaching, recruiting and, every chance he gets, preaching the power of possibility to a team and fan base hungry for wins after years of mediocrity on the field and turmoil off it.
Smith insists, so far, it has not been different than what he grew accustomed to as coach of the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But a coach’s path to college from the NFL isn’t always straightforward. Some who have made that move say coaching college teams is like being a general manager, with a hand in every aspect of the program. Coaching pro football, they say, almost is purely football.
“So it’s almost like a college coach taking a sabbatical and just dealing with football rather than fundraising and recruiting and discipline,” said Rich Brooks, who went from the top job at Oregon to coaching the St. Louis Rams in 1995 before eventually taking over at Kentucky.
While big-name coaches such as Nick Saban and Pete Carroll who have moved from the NFL to university campuses have set the standard for winning in college, pro experience is relatively rare. While coaches with experience as NFL coaches tend to win in college, many of those who have only been pro assistants do not.
Smith is one of six head coaches at the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision schools who have been in charge of NFL teams, along with Alabama’s Saban, Jim Mora at UCLA, Bobby Petrino at Louisville and Smith’s fellow Big Ten coaches Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and Mike Riley at Nebraska. Their combined college record is 466-226-1, a 67 percent winning rate.
Another 18 FBS coaches have been NFL assistants. They have won 54 percent of their college games. But take away Kirk Ferentz at Iowa, David Shaw at Stanford and LSU’s Les Miles, and that drops to 46 percent.
Smith took over after Illinois fired two coaches in less than a year. Tim Beckman, who was fired a week before the 2015 season started after an investigation concluded he interfered in player medical decisions, and his replacement, Bill Cubit, was let go when Smith came to the Illini.
Hiring Smith, who took the Bears to a Super Bowl in 2007, was a bid to score big after four consecutive losing seasons and the embarrassing collapse of the Beckman era.
Smith insists, recruiting aside, what he is doing so far is not different than what he did during his 11 seasons in the NFL. That includes an emphasis on creating turnovers Bears fans would recognize. It also means Smith, just as in his pro days, never yells or screams.
“Not even once,” quarterback Wes Lunt said. “But when he does raise his voice just a little bit over just talking, it’s powerful.”
On the practice field, Smith appears comfortable delegating most of the communicating to his coordinators and position coaches. He stands back, watching, sometimes at a distance, and only occasionally coming in close to address something he’s seen.
“I’ve run a lot of NFL practices, and this is no different from that,” Smith said. “So I think that’s kind of appealing to them, too.”
Part of that appeal is who Smith draws to campus: more NFL scouts and former players.