When May arrives, football season temporarily goes back down the sports pecking order until late July when football talking season starts up again with authority. In the meantime, we have quasi-news items, or pseudo news items like this one below regarding Lovie Smith and Brian Urlacher.
Don’t you love April’s sort-of kind-of football season? Between the NFL Draft and spring college football practice, the sport returns to the top of our mental que for about a month after being pushed aside since early February.
As it’s not really football season though, with actual football being played, so every time coaches talk to reporters it’s like a preseason media day- all topics are on the table.
At the end of practice on Saturday, Lovie was asked if he attended the wedding of his former superstar Linebacker, Brian Urlacher.
The former Chicago Bears stalwart married onetime “America’s Next Top Model” contestant Jennipher Frost during the weekend of March 12th-13th.
“Something came up,” Lovie Smith responded. “There’s only a few things that could trump that, but we had to be here.”
Smith then displayed the stellar, dry sense of humor for which he is known.
“What do you give a man like that?” Smith asked the group of reporters attending practice that day in response.
The presence of Lovie has given Illini football something it hasn’t had in this generation, a rock star head coach. He will be signing autographs and posing for pictures on Saturday when the Illini hold their one spring practice that’s open to the public. (As you can see from the photo above, there are indeed a plethora of Lovie Smith t-shirts for sale on campus)
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/lovie-smith-talks-illini-football-recruiting-bears
Smith was also asked if he anticipates any of his former Bears players showing up to Illini practice soon. He replied affirmatively, but said that it hasn’t happened yet.
“There are guys that I have a lifetime relationship with, and people that I have a lifetime relationship with, in time, will be coming through,” Smith said.
“And I look forward to talking with them. It’s safe to say that a few of the guys will be down.”
On a side note, there will be no spring scrimmage game this year. Saturday’s practice, April 16th, will be the session open to fans. It will include the annual fan fest, and it begins at 1 PM. Admission and parking are free.
About 40 recruits came to watch practice on Saturday and some of them stayed for two hours.
Also, in case you missed by appearing on CLTV talking Lovie Smith, Hardy Nickerson and Illini recruiting, you can watch that below:
https://wgntv.com/2016/03/18/paul-m-banks-joins-sports-feed-on-thursday/#ooid=hjZW80MjE6p5XYwyPKqrvxYQoTY6WX18
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 talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram