Lovie Smith at Illinois?

The University of Illinois fired their head football coach over the weekend (the first move by the new athletic director), and word is that former Bears coach Lovie Smith has been hired to take his place. Not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, Lovie is a twice-failed NFL coach. On the other hand, Illinois hasn't been able to recruit legitimate coaches there in the past twenty years.

Barry Rozner of the Daily Herald put it this way in his column this morning...

It takes most college coaches several years to put a system in place and bring in the talent necessary to be successful. If Smith sticks around that long, he might just elevate Illinois football to a place that is something less than a campus humiliation.

In the meantime, Illinois football is no longer irrelevant.

That's something, anyway.

UPDATE: They have been moving fast in Champaign. Here's the new banner ad...