Lovie out at Illinois

[BFo8]

I thought last year’s strong finish might have bought him an extra couple years, but he is done after this season’s 2-5 record. Pretty much the usual cast of characters mentioned as his replacement, with Bret Bielema being the most interesting. Not sure why they would consider him other than his being an Illinois native. He’s not a very good coach and has some kind of lawsuit hanging over his head from his brief tenure at Arkansas.

I would think Lance Leopold or Jeff Monken would be better options from their list of possibles.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Marcus Freeman and Sean Lewis are the 2 best realistic choices from what I’ve seen.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

One of the studio shows was showing highlights of their game against Northwestern yesterday and they were trying to talk up Northwestern by saying that Illinois has been pretty good this year. And all I could wonder was if the guy who said that has paid any attention at all to college football this season. They have two wins this year, against two of the Big Ten powerhouses, Rutgers and Nebraska.

Smith was 17-39 in five seasons, 10-33 in the Big Ten. Ouch.

 

[HailToPitt725]

Marcus Freeman and Sean Lewis are the 2 best realistic choices from what I’ve seen.

Assuming we move on from Mark Whipple, I hope we’d try to pluck Kent State’s offensive coordinator (Andrew Sowder) if Illinois hires Lewis. I happen to know someone associated with the KSU program and he is just as high on Sowder as he is on Lewis.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Assuming we move on from Mark Whipple, I hope we’d try to pluck Kent State’s offensive coordinator (Andrew Sowder) if Illinois hires Lewis. I happen to know someone associated with the KSU program and he is just as high on Sowder as he is on Lewis.

I completely agree. I mentioned Sowder about a month ago as an OC. I’d like to see him bring Crum with him as well.

 

[anon_vmuicqnzlyp3u]

Assuming we move on from Mark Whipple, I hope we’d try to pluck Kent State’s offensive coordinator (Andrew Sowder) if Illinois hires Lewis. I happen to know someone associated with the KSU program and he is just as high on Sowder as he is on Lewis.

You are correct. I've come close to the Kent program over the last few years and actually send my donations to the program. I like the direction of that program

 

[pbrad]

Illinois is and will always be a coaching graveyard. Lovie is not a college coach and should not have been offered or taken that job. In order for teams like Illinois to compete they have to take marginal students and somehow get a very good QB every 5 years or so. They are the reason the big used to be called the big 2 and little 8.