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Lovie Smith . . . a good coach?

WaveJumper

WaveJumper

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Mar 13, 2002
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Read several posts in the greatest fear thread that claimed Lovie Smith is a good coach. He may have been as an assistant, but his head coaching record is pretty mediocre.

His overall record in the NFL including playoff games is a luke-warm 92-90. With Illinois, a dismal 5-19. Overall as a head coach, he is 97-109. That is far from good, more like C-.

Not only looking at his record at Illinois, but also his recruiting and talent development, he falls short there also. He seems to have trouble competing with us in his home state. If you were an Illinois fan, I'm sure you wouldn't think that the state's flagship university should play recruiting second fiddle (and a distant one at that) to NU.

Overall, I'm thinking that this was NOT a good hire for Illinois, but it's OK s far as I'm concerned!
 
He has not been successful at the college level, hell he just hired a HS coach. This is on the AD, he is in way over his head.
 
The jury is out on his College career for a couple of more years IMO. The program was in terrible shape when he arrived. The Bears organization is no prize either. I could see where a lot of guys who couldn't get into NU would want to play for Lovie at least on the local level. Out side of a 7 hour drive, I can't think of any reason to choose Illinois if you have other P5 offers.
 
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Can’t judge Lovie until after the 2019 season. Hes had one class play a collegiate game. ILL is the least of my concerns from competition standpoint, but to say he’s in over his head is a stretch. Turning around that mess would take almost coach 3-4 years at least.
 
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Lovie is building the program the right way. The biggest issue with Zook and Beckman was how both of them would plug holes though the JUCO ranks in the hopes to save their job. Lovie is letting his recruits take their lumps in now in the hopes that they break through as upper classman.
 
BigNUFan51 said:
Lovie is building the program the right way. The biggest issue with Zook and Beckman was how both of them would plug holes though the JUCO ranks in the hopes to save their job. Lovie is letting his recruits take their lumps in now in the hopes that they break through as upper classman.
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But they’re not very good players.
 
BigNUFan51 said:
Lovie is building the program the right way. The biggest issue with Zook and Beckman was how both of them would plug holes though the JUCO ranks in the hopes to save their job. Lovie is letting his recruits take their lumps in now in the hopes that they break through as upper classman.
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yes that's a better way to build a program but don't think he will be around to see if it works. First I'm thinking that the administration led by an inexperienced AD is losing patience. Secondly, it sure sounds like the family, especially his wife are not big fans of living in Champaign. If a NFL spot opens for him, he's gone.
 
willycat said:
yes that's a better way to build a program but don't think he will be around to see if it works. First I'm thinking that the administration led by an inexperienced AD is losing patience. Secondly, it sure sounds like the family, especially his wife are not big fans of living in Champaign. If a NFL spot opens for him, he's gone.
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I 100% agree with this.

Lovie isn’t the long term answer over there IMO. He’s got way too much money at this point in his career to put up with the rigors of a job like the Illinois Head Football Coach. I do feel however he will leave the program in a decent spot compared to what Zook left Beckman and Beckman left Smith.
 
Well, he hasn't committed blatant sideline interference yet as far as I am aware, which is how I justify the skill of my lolIllini coaches. Did have a player bean a ref with a flag though, so I guess that counts for something...
 
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Fitz51 said:
Just like Beckman, I hope they never let him go.
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I miss Beckman. The entertainment value was great any time he opened his mouth. I’ll
always remember Beckman getting caught and sanctioned for chewing tobacco on the sidelines. I wish there was a Beckman highlight film of some of his thoughtful ramblings.
 
Lovie needs to show real progress this season and have a breakout year next season or the answer probably is that he indeed, is a mediocre or worse HC.
 
LeftyLarry said:
Lovie needs to show real progress this season and have a breakout year next season or the answer probably is that he indeed, is a mediocre or worse HC.
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How many mediocre coaches can say they coached a team to the Super Bowl? Add another NFC Championship Game to that and an overall winning record in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys haven't even played in one NFC Championship Game since Lovie coached his first NFL game (and many years before that).

I suppose you could make a case that he's a mediocre NCAA coach since the demands in NCAA are different from NFL. I don't think we can say that at this point, however, given the state of the program that was handed to him. The team was dominated by freshmen last season, but I would expect to see some improvement next season if he's going to turn it around.
 
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Winning record? I guess you can say that - barely! His overall record in the NFL is 92-90. To me, that screams mediocrity at best. "You are what your record says you are."

OK feral, would you want him at NU?
 
WaveJumper said:
Winning record? I guess you can say that - barely! His overall record in the NFL is 92-90. To me, that screams mediocrity at best. "You are what your record says you are."

OK feral, would you want him at NU?
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I would not fire Fitz to hire Lovie. If we had an opening for some reason, though, I would consider him. Would he be a good fit with our academic restrictions? That I don't know.

As a long-suffering Cowboys fan, I would love to have some Lovie-style mediocrity of making the NFC Championship twice and the Super Bowl once during this millennium. His record with the Bears is 81-63, which I consider very respectable. Then he went to the Suckaneers.
 
WaveJumper said:
Winning record? I guess you can say that - barely! His overall record in the NFL is 92-90. To me, that screams mediocrity at best. "You are what your record says you are."

OK feral, would you want him at NU?
Click to expand...

I would not mind seeing him at Northwestern as long as he was sitting in the stands, wearing purple and yelling Go Cats!
 
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I was a big Lovie fan at the Bears and think karma stung that organization good for firing him. How does 10-6 look now? :)

I admire he’s sacrificing reputation and job security to build Illinois the right way, instead of the perpetual lipstick on pigs employed by many used car salesmen to scrape 5-7 or 6-6.
 
Good pro coach does not necessarily transfer to good college coach and vice versa. Different skill sets.
 
ashley0623 said:
I was a big Lovie fan at the Bears and think karma stung that organization good for firing him. How does 10-6 look now? :)

I admire he’s sacrificing reputation and job security to build Illinois the right way, instead of the perpetual lipstick on pigs employed by many used car salesmen to scrape 5-7 or 6-6.
Click to expand...
The right way? I think that very much remains to be seen. The faithful all point to the number of Freshman playing, but there is a huge leap of faith to think that group is littered with all B1G players just because they started as Freshman. It is not like they are all starting over 4-5 stars, they are starting because he has run a bunch of inherited players out. Was it 12 transfers after last season?

How about his coaching hires? The one thing they can’t blame on Becky or Cubit. Plenty of shake up there including his OC that was sold as the bridge between the Pro and College team. Now he has hired a HS School out of STL with the hope he secures the vaunted prospects of metro STL. Hope can not be a strategy. Has he erected the fence around the state that they promised? Hardly, in fact, his initial slow reach to power programs in the State have left some dismayed. He has offered and accepted commitments from guys that eventually wouldn’t be accepted. He has recruited over guys that have given a verbal commitment. Oh yeah, did I mention he was winless in the B1G his second year into this.

Lovie seems like a decent enough fellow and he has demonstrated his ability to coach in the NFL. However, the college game is different and he has made a ton of mistakes so far. They could have had Fleck or Brohm and been in the better spot. I won’t bring up Frost because he wasn’t going there. The Fighting Undies are in a much better spot to succeed.

Yes they likely will start winning a few B1G games at some point, but I just don’t see improving over that 5-7, 6-6 mark very often if at all with the way the conference is shaking out. They better schedule plenty of WIU’s.
 
ashley0623 said:
I was a big Lovie fan at the Bears and think karma stung that organization good for firing him. How does 10-6 look now? :)

I admire he’s sacrificing reputation and job security to build Illinois the right way, instead of the perpetual lipstick on pigs employed by many used car salesmen to scrape 5-7 or 6-6.
Click to expand...

“The right way” requires getting good players. I’ve seen no evidence that he’s getting enough good players.
 
ashley0623 said:
I admire he’s sacrificing reputation and job security to build Illinois the right way, instead of the perpetual lipstick on pigs employed by many used car salesmen to scrape 5-7 or 6-6.
Click to expand...
I think he didn't want to be a coordinator and took the head job that was available. If he earned a better offer, I think he'd take it.

But he's 13-43 between his years in Tampa and Champaign, and I think his next move is TV or La-Z-Boy.
 
This is Smith's last job. His next stop will be retirement and it won't be in Chumpaign.
 
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Beason was a huge get for Illinois and now they are the favorite to land 5* Isaiah Williams. Hopefully they can make the LoL an actual rivalry now.
 
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