COLUMN: Sure, Lovie Is Married To His Scheme But That's Not The Problem

The Illini defensive guru isn’t the problem. Not the scheme. It’s the lack of quality pass rushers keeping Lovie Smith’s defense from good to great.

So, we’re really going to keep doing this every single time huh?

It’s the classic step-by-step ordeal with evaluating Illinois head coach/defensive coordinator Lovie Smith that is getting confusing, irritating to see and quite frankly, is the definition of futile as we conclude the 2019 football season.

Here is, as I see it, the mind-numbing process:

Step 1) A quarterback has a good day against Illinois through the air.

Step 2) Illinois fans and individuals in the media shout so loud and so long about the outdated Tampa-2 scheme and how the 61-year-old (Lovie Smith) in charge of it that you think those windmills all over central Illinois wouldn’t ever even need Mother Nature’s help rotating. Examples: He’s has lost touch with modern-day football! The Tampa-2 scheme doesn’t work in college! Lovie doesn’t blitz enough!

Step 3) Lovie refuses to change the scheme he’s used since he was hired as Tony Dungy’s linebackers coach with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23 years ago.

Step 4) Go back to Step 1.

For a lot of people, the 2019 Redbox Bowl will be remembered for California quarterback Chase Garbers taking the Pacific 12 Conference’s worst passing offense and carving up an Illini secondary for 272 yards and four touchdowns through the air.

So, of course, it’s the scheme’s fault. Right?

“We just didn’t do our jobs today on the front end (or) on the back end as well,” Illinois linebacker Dele Harding said. “Communication could’ve been a factor as well.”

Oh, so maybe based on Harding's answer Illinois doesn't have the depth either up front or in the secondary to build the kind of competition needed to have an elite defense. 

Plenty of programs run the Tampa-2 or a Cover-2 or a 2-high safety scheme as a form of its base defense and win at the Power 5 Conference college football level. 

Well, why don’t we ask the Illini defensive boss himself what went drastically wrong Monday night in Levi’s Stadium?

“Started up front, didn’t get a whole lot of pressure today,” Smith said. “We’ve got to win some 1-on-1s. We’ve got to be able to cover better. There were a lot of opportunities today. Basing our season on today, there’s a lot we could talk about. Basing it on what happened this season, I like a lot of pieces we have coming back.”

Some things to keep in mind. Smith has had philosophical control of his team’s defense since the turn of the century. Calling defensive plays and specifically, defenses in this scheme have allowed him to be a multi-millionaire several times over and it’s worked at the highest level of football for over a decade with at least two different NFL franchises.

I would argue that "people don't want to talk about it" because what is being suggested here is a head coach change because @LovieSmith isn't going to hire a DC to run a different system than he believes in. https://t.co/es9mVU9G7o

— Matthew Stevens (@matthewcstevens) December 31, 2019

What’s more important neither Smith or his boss at Illinois, Josh Whitman, are going to tell the leader of Illini he’s going about this all wrong. Smith has already said earlier this month he’ll be the defensive play-caller in the 2020 season.

“I’ve liked it, but every year I’ve coached I’ve liked it and I’ve been involved,” Smith said. “I was involved a little bit more, a lot more this year, yes. I don’t plan on making any changes at all. As I moved to a more hands-on in this role, as you become a head coach, there’s a reason you become a head coach. You have an expertise. You should have an expertise on one side of the ball. So why quit doing it? Why quit doing it? Yes, I intend on continuing to do that.”

Whitman isn’t going to tell him to stop. He’s more assure that his fourth-year head coach is putting together the proper slow build.

“We had to get back into the bowl business,” Whitman said. “It’s huge for us to be back and be a part of this really exciting part of the college football season.”

In the ‘Football For Dummies’ version of the basics of the Tampa-2 scheme, a major key is being able to get pressure with four defensive linemen so your linebackers can cover the middle of the field. Once again, Illinois proved they don’t have the talent near the line-of-scrimmage to handle that responsibility.

Good news: Illinois got credited with three sacks Monday. Bad news: That’s three more sacks than they got in the final three regular season games combined.

Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith (left) and California Golden Bears head coach Justin Wilcox embrace after the 2019 Redbox Bowl at Levi's Stadium :: Stan Szeto/USA TODAY Sports

Illinois has failed to acquire the talent at the line-of-scrimmage capable of being disruptive forces to the passer. The recruiting rankings suggest this as much. Going back through Lovie Smith’s last three full signing classes, the only defensive lineman who has made a significant impact is Bobby Roundtree - a young man is now desperately and triumphantly fighting to, God willing, one day walk again. Over the last three years, nobody named something other than Bobby Roundtree or Oluwole Betiku Jr. has more than 2.5 sacks in a season.

Want to see a more active-looking defense? Start recruiting players that can get to the quarterback without being forced to blitz every play. Until you do that, the scheme is nothing more than X’s and O’s on a dry erase board.

What's more, if you’re an Illini fan who wants a new defensive scheme and you want a new defensive play-caller, understand what you’re actually asking for. You’re asking for a new head coach. Because those two jobs are now married to each other until Lovie Smith leaves the Champaign-Urbana campus. What you’re asking for this program to be blown up again. 

And my question to you is: Hasn’t Illinois seen enough of that lately?