{"id":1911,"date":"2016-03-07T16:11:16","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T23:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/?p=1911"},"modified":"2016-03-07T21:08:39","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T04:08:39","slug":"lovie-smith-hire-makes-illini-relevant-before-a-game-is-played","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/football\/1911\/lovie-smith-hire-makes-illini-relevant-before-a-game-is-played","title":{"rendered":"Lovie Smith hire makes Illini relevant before a game is played"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New<\/a>

New coach Lovie Smith and new AD Josh Whitman are building Illini excitement.<\/p><\/div>\n

Go ahead, Illini Nation. Get excited.<\/p>\n

You deserve it after a seemingly endless stream of bad news coming out of Champaign in the last year.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t start planning on Pasadena yet.\u00a0But in hiring Lovie Smith, new athletic director Josh Whitman has knocked it out of the park.<\/p>\n

With Lovie, Whitman has made Illinois football relevant. People are going to pay attention for a season or two\u2014just to see how this all turns out. And by then, if Smith\u2019s NFL pedigree helps him lure the right talent, the Illini should be competitive enough to carry the ball from there.<\/p>\n

Almost lost in the excitement of Smith\u2019s stature is the fact that he is the first minority coach in football or men\u2019s basketball at Illinois. That was a concern for many alumni\u2014and that has now been addressed with a coach whose profile is so high he overshadows the minority issue.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are going to be questions to answer.<\/p>\n

@ How will a 57-year-old coach who last coached in college in 1995 handle the rigors of recruiting? That\u2019s especially true at a place like Illinois, which has not been a great draw for football recruits.<\/p>\n

A lot will depend on Smith’s interest level, but he’s saying the right things going in. Recruiting also will depend on his staff. We’ll know a lot more about that very soon.<\/p>\n

@ Illinois football also comes with a big warning label:<\/p>\n

Since Dwight Eisenhower left the White House, Illinois has had 11 head coaches. Only two of them have left Champaign with a winning record\u2014Mike White, who ran afoul of the NCAA, and John Mackovic, who ran off to Texas.<\/p>\n

But there are reasons to think Smith can buck that trend. For one, he\u2019s a proven winner, a defensive cover-two wizard. Even those who would prefer a coach with more of a flair for the dramatic need to admit that Smith can coach, if he has talent.<\/p>\n

For another, his nine-year run as Bears coach gives him a profile in Chicago, where he\u2019ll need to lure recruits and excite Illinois\u2019 alumni and other fans. And his low-keyed, family-oriented style ought to play well Downstate.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the dilemmas of Illini Nation, uniting its two geographically distinct fan bases.<\/p>\n

Another plus for Smith is being in the Western Division of the ever-expanding Big Ten. Although Smith was asked at his introduction when and how he\u2019s going to beat Ohio State and Michigan, he won\u2019t have to do that until the conference championship game\u2014which would be a major achievement in itself.<\/p>\n

The Big Ten is top-heavy in the East. The Buckeyes and Wolverines are juggernauts. Michigan State is flourishing. Penn State could regain its mojo at any time without shocking the world.<\/p>\n

The West? Not so formidable. Nebraska has lost its way. Wisconsin is transitioning to a new coach who may or may not build a perennial power. Iowa and Northwestern are very good at what they do. But the East is the side that\u2019s perilous for a new Big Ten coach.<\/p>\n

Skeptics\u2014and I\u2019m going to include myself in this category\u2014want to see whether Lovie can turn the Illini from an after-thought to an actual Big Ten success.<\/p>\n

Some of his staff moves\u2014such as firing Ron Rivera as Bears defensive coordinator\u2014are easy to second-guess.<\/p>\n

In addition, in more than 20 years of being around Illinois football, I\u2019ve seen all the ups and downs.<\/p>\n

Ron Turner looked like a pretty good hire because of his dynamic offense and NFL background. He seemed poised for greatness when Illinois reached the Sugar Bowl in his fifth year. Surprisingly, he couldn\u2019t translate that into recruiting success\u2014and was gone three years later.<\/p>\n

When master recruiter Ron Zook guided Illinois to the Rose Bowl in his third season, he too looked like the answer. That also got messy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more difficult to recruit to Illinois than at many Big Ten schools. There are many reasons for that, which I will save for another day. It just hasn\u2019t happened down there. Will Smith be able to turn that around? We\u2019ll find out.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is, Whitman deserves the highest praise for acting quickly and decisively.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s excitement surrounding Illini football.<\/p>\n

There are no guarantees that Lovie Smith will restore Illinois\u2019 football program. But he has already created interest that would have been unthinkable a week ago.<\/p>\n

And if it doesn\u2019t work out, Whitman can stand up and say, “I went out and got the best available candidate\u2014someone who fit all the criteria we were looking for.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

And he\u2019ll be right.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @HerbGould<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go ahead, Illini Nation. Get excited. You deserve it after a seemingly endless stream of bad news coming out of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":1913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,334],"tags":[1011266,977357,979722,152664],"class_list":["post-1911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-commentary","tag-illini-football","tag-big-ten-football","tag-josh-whitman","tag-lovie-smith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2016\/03\/JoshLovie.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}