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Lovie Smith Hire Officially Announced By Illinois
The Lovie Smith hire was officially announced by the Illinois Fighting Illini on Monday morning.
March 7, 2016Welcome to the Lovie Smith era, Illinois fans. The Fighting Illini officially announced his hiring on Monday morning.
It’s official: Lovie Smith is the new head coach of the Illinois Fighting Illini.
“I am extremely excited to be named head coach of the Fighting Illini,” Smith said in an official press release. “Josh approached me about this possibility, and I immediately seized on the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the young men who are part of the program today and in the future. I take this responsibility very seriously and can’t wait to get a staff in place to start our move to make Illinois a contender for Big Ten titles. We will play an exciting brand of football that will make our fans, alumni, student body and members of the University community extremely proud.”
While it remains the be seen if Smith can make Illinois football relevant in the win column, he’s already made the program more interesting. Smith is a big-time coach with an NFL resume, one who knows the Chicago area thanks to his nine-year run with the Bears. He also likely has some semblance of a recruiting pipeline to Florida due to his recent tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If anyone can inject life into the Illini and trade blows with the likes of Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer, it’s Smith.
“Naming Lovie Smith as the Illinois head football coach is the first step in taking this program to a place of national prominence,” Illinois Director of Athletics Josh Whitman said. “We will build a program that contends annually for Big Ten and national championships. The timing for this move was extremely tight, and we needed to move quickly. A coach of Lovie’s caliber would not have been available to us if we had waited until after the 2016 season. Lovie’s reputation as a coach, and even more so as a person, made it clear it was an awesome opportunity for the University of Illinois.”
Whitman and Smith announced the news on Twitter with a bold new hashtag.
#WEWILLWIN pic.twitter.com/eIC379IiyD
— Josh Whitman (@IlliniAD) March 7, 2016
Smith is the 25th coach in program history.
