Lovie Smith has brought a level of excitement and interest to the Illini football program that we haven’t seen in many years. The Illinois football community believes and hopes that he can bring a level of consistent winning which hasn’t been achieved in Champaign since the John Mackovic era.
Lovie’s first spring practice period is now about halfway through, so let’s assess where things are at the stroke of halftime.
Sure you want to “get off the bus running,” but you know another cliche, “it all starts with the quarterback.” Smith has been very impressed by what he’s seen from Lunt thus far.
“We feel good about him, he’s a winning quarterback,” Smith said of Lunt.
“He can lead us to a lot of wins, I like his demeanor, his personality. He’s liked on the football team. There’s nothing to dislike.”
-Crootin’
The main question everyone seems to be asking is “can and will Lovie Smith recruit to Champaign-Urbana?” or “Can a NFL coach adjust to the college world and its recruiting demands?” Or some variation of that query.
Lovie hails from one of the most fertile, if not the most fertile, states for recruiting, so that’s obviously a plus.
“I’m from Texas, I make that known most of the time that we have Texas ties, so we’ll hit it,” Smith said on the Big Ten spring football teleconference.
Lovie also said that the state of Illinois will be priority number one, with the Chicagoland area being primary priority. Smith also mentioned St. Louis as being possibly the second area most emphasized. He then pointed out how Illinois had only player coming in from the STL this fall. Smith said that badly needs to change.
He also mentioned Indianapolis, and described the triangle that the three cities form around the campus location. This then brought back flashbacks of the famous Illini basketball “bus trip map” through the 2005 NCAA Tournament, as those were their three destinations.
Lovie Smith also mentioned his staff’s ties to Florida, Georgia and other “hot beds.”
-You can hear the Big Ten call at this link
-We also had a Lovie Smith media session, along with three or four other reporters, and you can listen to that audio below:
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/lovie-smith-talks-illini-football-recruiting-bears
The Illini players have certainly bought into the new staff and the new scheme.
It’s spring ball, everyone is 12-0 right now!
“I think of football like going to school, you’re never going to have the same teacher every year, and it’s a business at the end of the day, but these guys are great and hopefully they’re here to stay,” said sophomore receiver Desmond Cain.
-There will be no spring scrimmage game this year. Saturday’s practice, April 16th, will be the session open to fans. It will include the annual fan fest, and it begins at 1 PM. Admission and parking are free.
–Hardy Nickerson is a tremendous upgrade over Tim Banks as well at Defensive Coordinator. You just don’t hear that as much, because people don’t write, talk about and feature their show around defensive coordinators. We did in this post on and Nickerson here though.
–WRs Cain, Malik Turner, etc, look to step up to replace Dudek.
Also, in case you missed by appearing on CLTV talking Lovie Smith, Hardy Nickerson and Illini recruiting, you can watch that below:
https://wgntv.com/2016/03/18/paul-m-banks-joins-sports-feed-on-thursday/
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram