The slow start. The bad finish. All the penalties. The eight wins in two seasons. The wasted money in free agency.
Evidently, the University of Illinois wasn’t paying attention to any of it.
The Illini are set to hire former Tampa Bay Bucs‘ head coach Lovie Smith, who was dismissed after his team’s 6-10 finish this season. Illinois fired coach Tom Cubit in anticipation of the move on the first day of new athletic director’s Josh Whitman’s tenure.
Smith did draft Jameis Winston, and he tripled his wins in his second season. It was not enough to satisfy the team’s owners, however.
Smith had coached the Chicago Bears for eight seasons, so he should be used to the Big 10 program. He will have an uphill battle to make Illinois matter in a conference that features Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh as head coaches.
Smith has never been a head coach in college, and hasn’t been an assistant in 20 years.
