Lovie Smith hired as Illinois football head coach

The Illinois Fighting Illini hired former Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith to replace Bill Cubit as the school’s new head coach.

Lovie Smith was officially named the Illinois football head coach on Monday morning, two days after the firing of Bill Cubit. This is the first college head coaching job for Smith who signed a six-year deal worth $21 million.

Smith returns to the college game after spending the last 19 years in the NFL, including the last 11 as a head coach with the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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“I am extremely excited to be named head coach of the Fighting Illini,” Smith said. “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.”

Smith went 81-63 in nine seasons as the head coach of the Chicago Bears, including a 2006 season where he became the first African-American head coach to advance to a Super Bowl. He spent the last two seasons in Tampa Bay, compiling an 8-24 record.

“Naming

Lovie Smith

as the Illinois head football coach is the first step in taking this program to a place of national prominence,” 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.”