CHAMPAIGN – Josh Whitman made the call and pulled the trigger to attempt a reboot with Illini football.
His splash hire of Lovie Smith failed, and when Whitman fired Lovie Sunday, it came perhaps a week or more quicker than expected.
“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 said in a statement released Sunday morning.
In that one-man coaching pool that led Whitman to Lovie, the fit was never right. It was a pro coach hired to lift an underdog college program, normally a challenge that would take enthusiasm, salesmanship, recruiting energy, local connection and generally a workaholic who’s stoked about the challenge of coaching in the Big Ten.
That appeared to be nothing that Lovie truly accepted.
Call me crazy, but the logical choice was P.J. Fleck, the former Western Michigan coach who parlayed some wins and some schtick – Row the Boat and made-for-TV sideline theater – into a good paying job at Minnesota. But let’s not drive from the back seat.
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From here, the challenge for Whitman is catching lightning in a bottle, finding the right guy who can lift a program that teased and disappointed the fan base for essentially a lifetime of graduates. This is a hard job that’s already produced a long list of sending them packing since the last guy left on his own, when John Mackovic took off for Texas.
Lou Tepper. Ron Turner, Ron Zook. Tim Beckman, Bill Cubit, Lovie Smith. It’s the kind of history that keeps qualified guys disinterested.
It’s going to take savvy to pick the right guy and probably a heaping pinch of luck to really work. Raise your hand if you thought Indiana made the right pick when hiring Tom Allen for the job. Three years later, Indiana is the Cinderella story of the Big Ten.
Mike White provided the blueprint. He came here from California with his own recruiting pipeline, bringing Cali kids and JUCOs to supplement the leftovers he was able to grab locally. It’s the toughest thing about the job, he once told me. There’s no real recruiting base for Illinois, so the new hire has to bring one with him. Chicago is cut up so many ways, with Big Ten powers, Notre Dame and the rest of the country feasting on the best in Chicagoland. That leaves Downstate Illinois, which isn’t known as a football factory.
But White also excited the Illini crowd by mingling with them, engaging with fans and boosters and leading his team on to the field in a show of charisma that plays well in the college setting. He didn’t hide from the job. He lived here, could be seen around town and didn’t shy away from Average Joe Illini.
After the boondoggle on Lovie that cost $20-25 million – the numbers are staggering so let’s just generalize – it’s also important for the AD to be in charge and hire a guy who will take direction, because there must have been numerous times when Whitman was disappointed in Lovie’s failure to work the state’s high school coaches and his disinterest in joining the community (Lovie spent much of the COVID shut down in Scottsdale, Ariz., rather than earning his keep on campus).
So who makes sense is more about where the Illini fit in the national picture than just throwing some money around. If Whitman is doing it the right way, he’s already well into hiring the replacement, because successful college administrators will tell you not to fire the guy until knowing who will be his replacement.
If finding a coach on his way up is critical, then scratch guys like Bret Bielema off the list. Unable to keep his boss happy at Wisconsin, he made the move to Arkansas, an SEC bottom feeder that chilled his career. Former Penn State assistant Joe Moorhead is interesting, even though he lost a job at Mississippi State (following Dan Mullen wasn’t the right choice). Moorhead is showing his offensive skills in Oregon.
The search may take the Illini to the MAC. If so, let it happen, even if that’s been attempted before here and seems overworked in the Big Ten. It’s a great recruiting ground. Back in the day, Ohio State found Woody Hayes and Michigan grabbed up Bo Schembechler from the MAC. Iowa State’s Matt Campbell was the guy Mike Thomas should have hired, instead of going for his boss, Tim Beckman.
So that leads us to two intriguing names – Buffalo’s Lance Leipold from Buffalo and Kent State’s Sean Lewis.
Leipold likely grabbed Whitman’s attention during Josh’s days as AD at Division III Wisconsin-LaCrosse. Leipold had built a dynasty up the road at Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he was 109-6 with six national titles in eight seasons on the job. Part of this job is Whitman selling what the Illini have to offer, and perhaps he’s already built a relationship with Leipold, who guided Buffalo to the MAC title game two years ago and eight wins last season before producing an entertaining team this year behind running back Jaret Patterson.
Lewis is doing a lot with very little tradition at Kent State, which makes him sound right for the job here. At one of the MAC’s worst jobs, he led Kent State to its first bowl win last year. The former Wisconsin quarterback would probably like a shot at the Big Ten.
Critics say it’s best to find a guy who would want to make this a destination, such as Army’s Jeff Monken, whose family is well known as high school coaches all across the northern half of Illinois. Monken would be an interesting hire, but selling his work with an option offense at a service academy sounds like big work in that first press conference.
There’s also Todd Monken, the former NFL offensive coordinator serving in the same position at Georgia this fall. It would be interesting to pair up the cousins, Jeff as the head coach and Todd and the coordinator.
With COVID likely to allow for many openings, the Illini may have a shot at a fast riser, because the market is expected to be tight.
No matter the hire, the challenge of building a winner that spans the test of time here is daunting. It will likely take some luck, hard work, patience and just the right bounces.
Whitman’s first choice didn’t work. This time, he needs an up-and-comer, a salesman with personality, enthusiasm and aggressive recruiting.
Let’s see where the next few days take it.
