Lovie Smith shaved his glorious beard and Twitter didn’t recognize the Illinois coach

Lovie Smith shaved off his glorious gray beard and we didn’t recognize him.

All good things must come to an end.

Unfortunately, some beloved gray facial hair in college football met its end this week due to some combination of a buzzer and a razor. It breaks our hearts, but Lovie Smith lopped off his most distinguished and luscious gray beard. The Illinois Fighting Illini head football coach is clean-shaven these days and we didn’t even recognize him. We thought that was a forever beard!

Since the former Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach arrived in Champaign-Urbana, he’s sported a thick old man beard we all loved. It may have made him look 10 years older, but it was a majestic masterpiece. From the moment a teenager grows his first follicles on the corners of his upper lip, deep down he aspires to grow a beard as extravagant as what Smith was rocking.

Without his signature look, Smith looks like another guy. He tweeted out a picture of his newly exposed cheeks, jaw and lips and nobody had any idea who the man was. Sometimes depressed men grow a beard to hide from their problems. Others get rid of the damn thing to hide in plain sight. I know it’s Lovie Smith, but that’s not the Lovie Smith we’ve come to love in the Big Ten.

Lovie Smith shaved his beard and we have no idea who this man is

For many of the Illini faithful, the day Smith went clean-shaven was the saddest day in Illinois athletics since Deron Williams and company couldn’t beat the North Carolina Tar Hells back in 2005 on the hardwood. That’s not to say he doesn’t look great because he always looks great, but why did those distinguished Dumbledorian whiskers have to fall into poor, poor bathroom sink?

As a man who’s had a beard for six years, anytime you bring a buzzer or a razor to your face for trimming purposes, you go through all the stages emotionally. Do you really want to do this? One bad move with your wrist and it’s game over for facial masculinity for the time being. Yeah, you can grow it back, but you will wear the regret and shame on your face for a month without a beard.

While it is debatable if Smith will regret his decision to go clean-shaven, he has time to grow something spectacular. It’s the end of May and football season doesn’t start until early September. If he lets it go like Gandalf, Smith will have the beard we’ve loved seeing on Lovie for the last several years. If it’s a new beard for a new day, then we’ll feel pretty, pretty good about it.

Though we cannot believe it’s gone, we must respect the Lovie Smith facial hair grooming process.

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