Lovie Smith’s name has reportedly come up as a candidate for the recently opened Illinois Fighting Illini football team after Bill Cubit’s firing Saturday.
According to David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune, at least two NFL sources have told the columnist that former Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith will emerge as a candidate for the recently available head coaching gig with the Big Ten’s Illinois Fighting Illini.
Early in process and situation fluid but 2 NFL sources in past hour texted to say they've heard Lovie Smith will be candidate at Illinois.
— David Haugh (@DavidHaugh) March 5, 2016
In his first day on the job as the new athletic director of the University of Illinois, Josh Whitman decided to fire head football coach Bill Cubit Saturday morning. It seems that Whitman wants to turn around the Illini’s football team immediately in the Big Ten West and Ryan Baker of CBS Chicago tweets that Smith will indeed be the next head coach of the Illini.
Some credible sources are telling me Lovie Smith will be the next #Illini head football coach. @cbschicago
— Ryan Baker (@RyanBakerMedia) March 5, 2016
If Baker’s report is true, than this is a huge gain for the Illinois football program that has been very much irrelevant in the Big Ten since Rashard Mendenhall was their star running back a decade ago. Smith is a defensive-minded guru notorious for using the Tampa 2 Defense as a disciple of the Tony Dungy coaching tree.
At this time, the Big Ten is massively overhauling its collective football programs with top flight coaches joining the conference in recent years. Should Smith have the wish to rebuild Illinois football from the ground up, this team could become a dominant force in the weaker of the two divisions in the Big Ten.
This is good news for Illinois and bad news for Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and arch rival Northwestern in the Big Ten West, if Smith is does become the next head coach of the Illini.