Illinois Head Coach Lovie Smith had about as great a debut as one could have hoped for. The Illini jumped all over FCS opponent Murray State right from the get go, forcing turnovers on the Racers first two drives and running away to a 35-3 halftime lead. The 52-3 final matched Bill Cubit’s debut as Illini head football coach versus Kent State in the season opener last year.
The Illini out-gained the Racers 515-165 for the game.
Illinois held Murray State to -10 yards rushing, the lowest total in the nation by a very wide margin. The last time an opponent had negative rushing yards against Illinois was Western Michigan (-6) in 2012. That Broncos team was led by…..Bill Cubit.
The Illini opponent in the week after this one? WMU. Yes, everything is relative.
Before the Fighting Flecks of WMU come to Champaign in week three though, Illinois has a huge test in the North Carolina Tar Heels. UNC had a very competitive loss in week one which will likely cost them their spot in the first AP poll. The Heels were impressive in a tightly contested loss to #18 Georgia.
We’ll learn a lot more about Lovie Smith and the Illini Saturday night in prime time. Now we’ll see more of just what kind of positive instant impact he can bring to the program.
Where will he take the Illini this season, and beyond in the big picture? We asked six of the leading national college football pundits/announcers.
CBS Sports
Rick Neuheisel: “With Lovie Smith, the NFL game and the college game, especially on the defensive side of things, you have a lot of carry-over, with run fits, gap integrity and so forth. Certainly with his expertise and all that he’s accomplished, if you’re a young guy and you can look up and say hey our coach is Lovie Smith and he’s been in a Super Bowl that’s a pretty good place to start.”
“Offensively, there’s going to be some adjustment, but I think he can take them a step forward.”
Verne Lundquist: “It’s been a very tough spot for a long long time, and I think it would be significant, for the B1G to have Illinois relevant again. I know he’s succeeded at the highest levels, and it’s all about getting the young athletes committed to coming to Champaign-Urbana, and if he can do that, and I think he can, he’s going to be very successful there. “
Gary Danielson: “A lot of Athletic Directors at the down schools like Illinois or Purdue, when you’re trying to compete with Ohio State or Michigan, you’re looking for something to sell, and I think Lovie kind of fits that blue print of what he could bring to Illinois and their team.”
“They’ve really tried to fool some people there in playing finesse football and (now) I think they’ve decided to play defense, they have to learn to run the ball better and what better guy to bring in there than Lovie Smith who really built his resume on defense and running out from there.”
FOX Sports
Robert Smith: “I think he’s going to do well there.”
“This year because of the timing of bringing him in in the spring and getting rid of Cubit as they did, and with the roster, it looks like he may struggle initially, but this once he starts to get his classes in there, he’s going to have a pretty good chance to turn things around; especially playing in the West.”
Matt Leinart: “Any time you’re an old NFL coach and the players you’ve coached are successful (on the pro level) and all those things, it does open the eyes of recruits, opens the eyes of the team and it’s just a different feeling.”
Leinart also said that Pete Carroll’s previous NFL experience, before he got to USC, was a big reason why he chose to play for him at Southern California.
Joel Klatt: “I think you could see Illinois rise pretty drastically in the next couple years. He’s got a great name in that area, it’s a great recruiting area, not many people talk about it, but it is.”
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 radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.