Lovie Smith is just 9-27 in three seasons as the head coach at Illinois. The Illini concluded a 4-8 season with a 24-16 loss to No. 20 Northwestern on Saturday, just a week after falling 63-0 to Iowa. Smith is just 4-23 in Big Ten play, and 2-22 against everyone in the conference not named Rutgers.
Given those figures, one would expect that Illinois might announced today it had fired Smith.
Instead, Illinois did the opposite. The Illini have announced a 2-year contract extension for its head coach, keeping him employed through the 2023 season.
In a lengthy statement by AD Josh Whitman, he explained the reasons he decided to double down on the Smith tenure:
- We doubled our win total from the 2017 campaign and compiled two more Big Ten wins than in the prior year. In addition, we were minutes away from an upset against South Florida that could have propelled our season in an entirely different direction and, just yesterday, we had several chances to beat a good Northwestern team before losing a one-score game.
- Our offense was one of the nation’s most improved units, making significant advancements in national rankings for total yards and scoring per game.
- We emerged as one of the most dynamic running attacks in football, with more than 240 yards rushing per game, an improvement of almost 140 yards from the previous season. We were among the nation’s leaders in explosive runs, and running back Reggie Corbin recorded the first 1,000-yard season by an Illini runner in the last eight years.
- For the second consecutive season, we fielded one of the youngest teams in college football, with only nine seniors and 24 total upperclassmen, both the fewest in the nation.
- On the other end of the spectrum, underclassmen accounted for nearly 80% of the roster and 60% of the total starting lineup. In the last two seasons, we have played 41 true freshmen who, in total, have accounted for 118 starts – numbers unprecedented in our program’s history.
- More than 30 starters and significant contributors are expected to return in 2019.
- The team was riddled with injuries during the 2018 season. Players missed a total of 114 games due to injury, including more than 65 combined games by projected starters.
- In terms of our roster, this staff has successfully attracted more top tier talent to Champaign than we have seen in a decade, with several players in each class choosing Illinois over tradition-rich Power 5 programs.
- In July 2019, we will open the doors on the Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Center, the new 110,000-square-foot home of the Illinois football program. This building, which will be among the finest facilities of its kind anywhere in the country, represents the most sweeping upgrades to player and staff spaces in generations.
“The University of Illinois is an incredible place to coach and teach,” Smith said. “We love living here in Champaign-Urbana and representing our state’s flagship institution. We will continue working every day as we move our football program forward. Our new football performance center, the Smith Football Center, which will be completed next summer, will be among the best in the nation. I want to thank Josh Whitman and Chancellor Robert Jones for continuing to believe in what we are working to accomplish. Those of us around the program see the progress being made each and every day and we expect to be competing for championships very soon. Our incredible fans and everyone on our campus deserve nothing less.”
Contract figures for Smith’s extension were not disclosed. Smith made $5 million in 2018 according to the USA Today coaching salary database, making him the 13th highest-paid coach in college football.
