An Illinois love- in starring Lovie
Desperate for hope, players, students embrace Smith hire
CHAMPAIGN — It didn’t take long for Lovie Smith to channel his inner Lee Corso.
“There is nothing like game day on a college campus,” Smith said Monday in opening remarks after being introduced as the head coach at Illinois. “I had an opportunity to go the ‘ U’ [ the Illinois Student Union]. Had a chance to hang out with some of the students. They’re excited. I got chill bumps upmy body listening to our students — ‘ What can I do, Lovie, to help our football team win?’
“Had a chance to see the Fighting Illini marching band — put chills up your body listening to them. The Block ‘ I’ — seeing them at Memorial Stadium. Having the chance to walk my football team down [ Red] Grange Grove, all those things are appealing to me.”
But Smith’s excitement at being named Illinois’ coach was dwarfed by the euphoria of a collective campus desperate for hope. After a tumultuous episode under Tim Beckman ( 12- 25) and the awkward firing of Bill Cubit ( 5- 7) on Saturday, Smith is a celebrity hire and savior that Illinois football is desperate for.
He was mobbed by students at the Union. The news conference at the Bielfeldt Athletics Administration Building was packed with statewide media and adoring, cheering friends of the program. The football team gave Smith a standing ovation — lasting “two or three minutes,” according to one player — when he was introduced at a 7 a. m. meeting.
“Just to have him as a head coach is kind of surreal,” quarterback Wes Lunt said. “It just kind of gives us a name with Illinois football — a big name like Lovie Smith. I was on ‘ SportsCenter’ — I haven’t been on ‘ SportsCenter’ that much. Just to have that kind of recognition is special.”
“When you see the success he’s had on [ the NFL] level and to bring that down to Illinois— that’s beautiful,” defensive lineman Chunky Clements said. “Just happy, excited and optimistic. And ready to be coached again. We had good coaches before, but this is a great coach.”
All that remains to be seen is if all the fuss is worth it. Smith could be a “home run hire” — an honorable father figure with an NFL cachet who gives Illinois football instant credibility and can parlay connections to Chicago, St. Louis, Texas and Florida into a recruiting boom.
Or he could be an ill- fitting retread who doesn’t hire well, hasn’t evaluated and recruited high school athletes in 20 years, has never tweeted and will be crushed by Urban Meyer, Jim Harbaugh and Mark Dantonio in recruiting.
The hire is a referendum on the intuition of newly hired Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman, whose belief in Smith is so great that he engineered the awkward and illtimed firing of Cubit to get his man. On his first official day on the job, Whitman signed Smith to a sixyear, $ 21 million contract.
“Lovie’s going to be a great recruiter,” Whitman said. “There’s not a living room in America that’s not going to open their doors to 2016 ILLINI SCHEDULE Sept. 3 vs. Murray State Sept. 10 vs. North Carolina Sept. 17 vs. Western Michigan Sept. 24 BYE Oct. 1 at Nebraska Oct. 8 vs. Purdue Oct. 15 at Rutgers Oct. 22 at Michigan Oct. 29 vs. Minnesota Nov. 5 vs. Michigan State Nov. 12 at Wisconsin Nov. 19 vs. Iowa Nov. 26 at Northwestern Dec. 3 Big Ten Championship Lovie Smith and his coaching staff.”
It’s that kind of faith that is at the root of the hire. With Smith as his coach, Whitman is planning on the football program staying clean, graduating its players, winning with honor, dignity and integrity — and contending for Big Ten and national championships. That’s a tall order for anybody.
“Football is football,” Smith said. “’ I’ve been recruiting and selling every year I’ve been a football coach — selling the way we’re going to win football games, asking free agents to come on board. And recruiting is just that. You go into homes. And people will trust you or they won’t and buy into what you believe. I feel like I can do that. I’m anxious to embrace that.”
‘‘ Just to have him as a head coach is kind of surreal. It just kind of gives us a name with Illinois football — a big name like Lovie Smith.’’ — Wes Lunt, Illini quarterback