CHAMPAIGN – Lovie Smith has been around the block a few times. He knows the cardinal rule of football coaches.

Don’t over promise and under deliver.

So he was busy soft-balling it during the preseason, even if he felt the Illini were ready to show a pulse this fall.

“Year 3 will produce results,’’ Lovie said during his Big Ten Conference media day appearance in Chicago. “I don’t think (I) should say, ‘I think this is how many wins we’re going to get.’ I just know, behind the scenes, they’ve gotten much better. You look at what happened during the course of last year. There were about three games we didn’t have a chance to win. The rest of the time, we played competitive ball. I just know that we’re a better team.’’

He spoke about playing so many freshmen last season, but Lovie hinted toward the progress needed to be seen by his boss, Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman.

“In an ideal world, we wanted to have more wins right now,’’ Lovie said months ago, “but I like where we are. Now that’s behind us. I like how we’re sitting in Year 3, and this is when we expect to see some results.’’