Big Ten Daily (Dec. 13): Illinois Fires Lovie Smith After 5 Years

Lovie Smith coached at Illinois for five years and never had a winning season. He reached just one bowl game and struggled to make inroads in recruiting, especially in-state.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Lovie Smith era never really took off at Illinois, and it came to an abrupt ending on Sunday when the veteran coach was fired after five years.

Smith was 17-39 overall in five seasons at Illinois and only earned one bowl bid. That came a year ago, when the Illini finished the regular season 6-6 and then lost the Redbox Bowl to California. Illinois athletic director Josn Whitman announced the decision on Sunday.

Smith never had a winning season at Illinois and never once beat in-state rival Northwestern. In his final game on Saturday, the Illini lost to the Wildcats 28-10 and  guaranteed a ninth straight losing season.

Smith was Whitman’s first hire as athletic director in March of 2016, with the popular former Chicago Bears head coach agreeing to a six-year, $21 million contract. He received a two-year extension in 2018 that pushed his deal to 2023. Reports say he is due a $2 million buyout.

“Lovie Smith led the Illinois football program with unquestioned integrity during his nearly five years of service,” Whitman said in a university statement. “I have tremendous respect for Coach Smith and will always be grateful to him for providing a steady, experienced hand at a time when our program required stability. His unshakeable leadership, never more needed than during this pandemic, will be forever remembered.

Nonetheless, based on extensive evaluation of the program’s current state and future outlook, I have concluded the program is not progressing at the rate we should expect at this advanced stage in Coach Smith’s tenure,” Whitman continued. “To achieve our competitive objectives, I believe new leadership of the football program is required. I will always look fondly on the time Lovie and I have spent together. I wish him and MaryAnne nothing but the best.”

Offensive coordinator Rod Smith will coach the Illini during its to-be-announced Big Ten Champions Week game next week.

According to the statement, Illinois athletics "beginning immediately ... will launch a national search to identify Coach (Lovie) Smith’s successor."

Smith struggled to recruit at Illinois. According to Rivals.com, Smith's Illinois recruiting classes ranked 48th, 50th, 73rd and 90th for 2017 through 2020. It rates his current 2021 class at No. 72. Those stats are equally dire within the Big Ten: 10th, 12th, 14th, 14th and 13th.

In what was supposed to be the breakout season for Illinois under Lovie Smith, the Illini are 2-5 in this 2020 season that started with a deflating 45-7 loss at Wisconsin in the season opener and has included embarrassing blowout home defeats to Minnesota and Iowa.

According to Sports Illustrated's IlliniNow site, the candidate list for this Illinois job includes Buffalo head coach Lance Leipold, Kent State head coach Sean Lewis, Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester, Army head coach Jeff Monken, former Wisconsin and Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema and Nevada head coach Jay Norvell.

Spartans hard to figure

Michigan State has had some nice wins this season, but also some very ugly losses. They've been consistently inconsistent.

On Saturday against Penn State, they were both good and bad. They looked great in building an 11-point lead, but then were horrible in losing 39-24 to the Nittany Lions.

"We're building a football team; it's a process. As I mentioned earlier this week, we needed to play complementary football. We have to do it for four quarters," Michigan State coach Mel Tucker said after the loss. "It was crystal clear today, what we've been talking about and what we're striving for. In the first half, we played complementary football … in the second half, we did not do that.

"At the hotel before the game and in the locker room before the game, I told them, 'All we're asking you to do, all I want you to do is go out there and play as hard as you possibly can, be as physical as you possibly can, trust your training and execute … I felt like they played hard," said Tucker. "But I told them, that's not a moral victory – it just goes to show you what we're capable of doing."