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Illinois fired their head football Bill Cubit today on the first official day of work for the new Illinois AD.

Strong sources are saying Illinois is poised to hire Lovie Smith, recently fired as head coach at Tampa Bay.

If true, this is truly a big name hire for Illinois.

Who fires their coach right before spring practice?

Agree the timing is really odd....who or what did he get caught with?

Obviously a live boy or dead girl.

(03-05-2016 05:59 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  Who fires their coach right before spring practice?

You don't, unless you know for certain somebody like Lovie Smith is willing to take the job.

None of the other potential candidates available would be worth firing their current coach just 1 week before spring practice.

It is obvious the AD was already doing the coaching search and got a yes from Lovie Smith so he is doing it now instead of prolonging it for another 9ish months.

Great hire if true

Lovie Smith would be a Homerun Hire for the Illini...also makes me think the AD already had this lined up.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...nois-coach

Big name. But has to be able to recruit.

Why would Lovie Smith go to that dumpster fire?

(03-05-2016 08:21 PM)jaredf29 Wrote:  Why would Lovie Smith go to that dumpster fire?

If he wins there he can get back to the NFL-(should not have been fired in the 1st place from Chicago...his final year with the Bears they were 10-6 and Tampa which was ridiculous).

As far as his ability to recruit...he spent many years in the B1G and SEC as a assistant coach and High School players would be very impressed with his NFL resume and the fact he was a HC in the Super Bowl.

I don't know. I think it's a good fit for slimy things. Lovie won't stay if he does well, and Illinois should have canned Cubit earlier, Smith's availability notwithstanding. Caveat emptor to both.

Actually, that it took this long after Smith's firing, I wonder who else was talking to him, or is Illinois that bad at this? Last I heard of Smith, he was interviewed for the Eagles HC gig. Again, four days after he was fired. Almost two months ago.

In the comments section someone wrote that this is a 'home run hire'. I disagree. Chip Kelly is a home run hire. Lovie Smith is an unknown for a college that needs to right the ship.

Good luck, Lovie. It is all a recruiting game now. Can you out recruit Nebraska and Wisconsin?

(03-05-2016 10:05 PM)chess Wrote:  In the comments section someone wrote that this is a 'home run hire'. I disagree. Chip Kelly is a home run hire. Lovie Smith is an unknown for a college that needs to right the ship.

Good luck, Lovie. It is all a recruiting game now. Can you out recruit Nebraska and Wisconsin?

He was known as a player's coach in the NFL. He will be coaching in the state where he took a team to the Super bowl. I'm sure his recruiting will be fine. He no longer has to worry about a salary cap either and might get some of his Chicago groupies in Urlacher and Briggs to come in and do some work or drills with the young guys.

Also i hate the Illini so i say all these things remorsefully but i will acknowledge facts

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As a Chicago-native and huge Bears fan (but admitted non-fan of the Illini), I am continually puzzled how Lovie Smith continues to fail upwards in life. Smith, no doubt, is a nice, caring man - but as a football coach has been completely outmatched for the last several years - mostly due to his own stubbornness and refusal to change and/or update his schemes and personnel.

For starters, Smith is married (and yes, he will never abandon it) to the Cover-2 base defense - a scheme that is no longer applicable in the NFL due to the number of offensive schemes that can exploit it. The defense worked marvelously 10 years ago (with guys like Tony Dungy, Rod Marinelli, Mike Tomlin and Monte Kiffin), but could not be more of a misfit in today's NFL (with the spread, read-option and other high passing offenses).

Smith also was a terrible judge of coach and talent evaluations. Smith fired Ron Rivera, who is unquestionably now a better coach than he is, after his Super Bowl run in 2006 for his best buddy and friend, Bob Babich - who was demoted, fired from Chicago and fired from Jacksonville this past year. He was notorious for his hirings of his "buddies" and "family" - his sons, Rod Marinelli, among others - over other qualified coaching candidates that were willing to work here. He demanded that the team trade Thomas Jones so that Cedric Benson (his #4 overall draft pick) could get more carries. He refused to ever bench Rex Grossman, despite one of the highest turnover ratios in NFL history, and rarely made adjustments in-season or in-games - a big reason why he was never able to get over the hump in Chicago.

A big reason he failed in Tampa Bay was because, once again, he refused to change or adapt his Cover-2 defensive system and brought along numerous former Bears acquaintances that were bad in it - Conte, Melton, Jennings, Wright, Frey, among others. However, his biggest failure is as follows...

Lovie Smith, after being a head coach in the NFL for 11 years, never figured out, or more importantly - never hired someone else to figure out - how to run a consistent NFL offense. He had seven offensive coordinators in Terry Shea, Ron Turner, Mike Martz, Mike Tice, Jeff Tedford, Marcus Arroyo and Dirk Koetter, during his tenures as head coach. The man doesn't know what to look for in an offense. If you look at those seven individuals, all brought seven different offenses - which made it impossible for a team to ever get consistency and continuity.

If Lovie changes his schemes and, more importantly, rids himself of his coaching buddies to bring in qualified collegiate coaches and recruiters, he has the potential to build a winner in Champaign. However, if his coaching staff is revealed to include Babich, Les Frazier, Larry Marmie, Gil Byrd and Mikal Smith (his son), among others, then it will be another long tenure before Illinois can hire another coach to turn things around.

(03-05-2016 11:10 PM)Stay Cool Wrote:  

(03-05-2016 10:05 PM)chess Wrote:  In the comments section someone wrote that this is a 'home run hire'. I disagree. Chip Kelly is a home run hire. Lovie Smith is an unknown for a college that needs to right the ship.

Good luck, Lovie. It is all a recruiting game now. Can you out recruit Nebraska and Wisconsin?

He was known as a player's coach in the NFL. He will be coaching in the state where he took a team to the Super bowl. I'm sure his recruiting will be fine. He no longer has to worry about a salary cap either and might get some of his Chicago groupies in Urlacher and Briggs to come in and do some work or drills with the young guys.

Also i hate the Illini so i say all these things remorsefully but i will acknowledge facts

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You failed to mention that the Chicago Public league and the Chicago Private leagues turn out some pretty decent talent. Smith could get some of those kids at Illinois.

(03-06-2016 10:02 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  As a Chicago-native and huge Bears fan (but admitted non-fan of the Illini), I am continually puzzled how Lovie Smith continues to fail upwards in life. Smith, no doubt, is a nice, caring man - but as a football coach has been completely outmatched for the last several years - mostly due to his own stubbornness and refusal to change and/or update his schemes and personnel.

For starters, Smith is married (and yes, he will never abandon it) to the Cover-2 base defense - a scheme that is no longer applicable in the NFL due to the number of offensive schemes that can exploit it. The defense worked marvelously 10 years ago (with guys like Tony Dungy, Rod Marinelli, Mike Tomlin and Monte Kiffin), but could not be more of a misfit in today's NFL (with the spread, read-option and other high passing offenses).

Smith also was a terrible judge of coach and talent evaluations. Smith fired Ron Rivera, who is unquestionably now a better coach than he is, after his Super Bowl run in 2006 for his best buddy and friend, Bob Babich - who was demoted, fired from Chicago and fired from Jacksonville this past year. He was notorious for his hirings of his "buddies" and "family" - his sons, Rod Marinelli, among others - over other qualified coaching candidates that were willing to work here. He demanded that the team trade Thomas Jones so that Cedric Benson (his #4 overall draft pick) could get more carries. He refused to ever bench Rex Grossman, despite one of the highest turnover ratios in NFL history, and rarely made adjustments in-season or in-games - a big reason why he was never able to get over the hump in Chicago.

A big reason he failed in Tampa Bay was because, once again, he refused to change or adapt his Cover-2 defensive system and brought along numerous former Bears acquaintances that were bad in it - Conte, Melton, Jennings, Wright, Frey, among others. However, his biggest failure is as follows...

Lovie Smith, after being a head coach in the NFL for 11 years, never figured out, or more importantly - never hired someone else to figure out - how to run a consistent NFL offense. He had seven offensive coordinators in Terry Shea, Ron Turner, Mike Martz, Mike Tice, Jeff Tedford, Marcus Arroyo and Dirk Koetter, during his tenures as head coach. The man doesn't know what to look for in an offense. If you look at those seven individuals, all brought seven different offenses - which made it impossible for a team to ever get consistency and continuity.

If Lovie changes his schemes and, more importantly, rids himself of his coaching buddies to bring in qualified collegiate coaches and recruiters, he has the potential to build a winner in Champaign. However, if his coaching staff is revealed to include Babich, Les Frazier, Larry Marmie, Gil Byrd and Mikal Smith (his son), among others, then it will be another long tenure before Illinois can hire another coach to turn things around.

I stopped reading when I got to the bolded part. Lovie Smith is only the second Bears coach to ever lead the Bears to the Superbowl. A whole bunch of Bears coaches have never even got the organization to the playoffs. Smith lead the Bears to the Superbowl with Rex Grossman at quarterback. Think about that a minute. Rex Grossman.

And exactly how well do you think that any coach can do with Jay Cutler at quarterback? Cutler is the reason for all of the different offensive coordinators. None of them could stand Cutler.

Smith finished 10-6 in his final year in Chicago despite being saddled with pathetic Jay Cutler. That is actually overachieving. Ask John Fox and Mark Trestman about it.

Lovie Smith made the playoffs in just three of his nine seasons in Chicago (and 11 seasons overall). Let THAT sink in. If he's such a great coach, why did his teams rarely make the playoffs?

Lovie Smith is no different than Jeff Fisher. A career .500 head coach who took one team to a Super Bowl years ago, that struggles to get teams into the playoffs.

(03-06-2016 10:41 AM)PirateMarv Wrote:  

(03-05-2016 11:10 PM)Stay Cool Wrote:  

(03-05-2016 10:05 PM)chess Wrote:  In the comments section someone wrote that this is a 'home run hire'. I disagree. Chip Kelly is a home run hire. Lovie Smith is an unknown for a college that needs to right the ship.

Good luck, Lovie. It is all a recruiting game now. Can you out recruit Nebraska and Wisconsin?

He was known as a player's coach in the NFL. He will be coaching in the state where he took a team to the Super bowl. I'm sure his recruiting will be fine. He no longer has to worry about a salary cap either and might get some of his Chicago groupies in Urlacher and Briggs to come in and do some work or drills with the young guys.

Also i hate the Illini so i say all these things remorsefully but i will acknowledge facts

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You failed to mention that the Chicago Public league and the Chicago Private leagues turn out some pretty decent talent. Smith could get some of those kids at Illinois.

Also good points to add, thank you

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(03-06-2016 11:04 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Lovie Smith made the playoffs in just three of his nine seasons in Chicago (and 11 seasons overall). Let THAT sink in. If he's such a great coach, why did his teams rarely make the playoffs?

Lovie Smith is no different than Jeff Fisher. A career .500 head coach who took one team to a Super Bowl years ago, that struggles to get teams into the playoffs.

At least we can remember the last winning season Smith had....I can't remember the last time Fisher finished over .500.


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