Lovie Smith is poised to be the next Illinois football coach, according to a report.
Ryan Baker of WBBM-TV in Chicago reported on Saturday that Smith was the choice of Illini athletic director Josh Whitman, just hours after the announcement of Bill Cubit’s firing.
Some credible sources are telling me Lovie Smith will be the next #Illini head football coach. @cbschicago
— Ryan Baker (@RyanBakerMedia) March 5, 2016
Smith had been chattered about even before this news broke.
According to a source, a name to watch: Lovie Smith.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWernerScout) March 5, 2016
Given the circumstances of Cubit’s firing and how abrupt it was, it makes complete sense that the Illini athletic department had a candidate in mind when they made that decision.
This is a bit of a surprise. Smith was abruptly fired by Tampa Bay earlier in the offseason and, if this report is to be believed, was hired pretty much just as abruptly by the Illini. He has a fair amount of experience as a college position coach, but hasn’t worked in the college ranks since 1995. He was the coach of the Chicago Bears between 2004 and 2012, so he has ties to the state.
For whatever faults he has as a coach, Smith would doubtlessly be a big name hire for a program that hasn’t finished in the top 25 since 2007 and hasn’t won ten games since 2001. His players, at least in the NFL ranks, also liked him very much. All in all, for a program of Illinois’s stature and the late timing of the replacement process, it’s hard to imagine a better hire for the school.
