Illinois Football: Lovie Smith Hangs with Chicago Fans Before Big Ten Media Days

Before turning their attention to the Big Ten Media Days this week, new Illinois football coach Lovie Smith and AD Josh Whitman stopped by Schoolyard Tavern on the north side of Chicago for a meet and greet/Q&A with fans.

I casually showed up to the gathering with my wife, mom and dad on Sunday to check out the scene. (Lie. I reserved a table three days in advance and arrived an hour early because I was so excited.)

It was a great crowd, as it should be. Chicago has a large, prominent Illinois alumni base, and the fans here are legitimately thrilled at the prospect of having a good football program to support.

The feeling in the room was, appropriately, “Please, just bring our team back into the conversation, and we’re with you 100 percent.”

This isn’t where I give you more commentary on why Illinois can and should do this and that, spend money here, increase recruiting there, etc.

I’ll leave that to the folks in charge. What filled the bar on Sunday was hope, excitement and pride. The Chicago Illini network is ready for this.

It helps, too, that Lovie is still a well-regarded figure in Chicago, having been the last Chicago Bears coach to get to the Super Bowl and basically not be Marc Trestman. (Jury’s still out on John Fox.)

As calm, cool and collected as he’s always been, Lovie walked through the crowd shaking hands, taking photos and speaking with fans.

Lovie’s lack of “fire” can occasionally irk fans on the field, but his professional demeanor sure seems likely to help in building rapport with fans, boosters and recruits off it.

Lovie’s done this before. He’s big time. He can handle this pressure. And he immediately struck the room as a figure who can lead this program.

What took place on Sunday in Chicago never happened with Tim Beckman, and for good reason.

Everything I’m telling you right now isn’t anything necessarily new, but seeing it firsthand was a treat.

Aside from the meet and greet, both he and Whitman addressed the crowd with some nice speeches.

Whitman’s was purely motivational and fairly brief, allowing most of the attention to stay on Lovie, but it was good to hear from the man that pulled the strings to make all this happen. (And, let’s not forget, on his FIRST DAY as athletic director.)

Lost in all of this commotion is perhaps the greatest story of all: we have a competent director that’s managed to pull the athletic department out of the dumpster fire it was in 2015 in less than six months.

There’s work left to be done, but it’s happening.

Lovie spoke on topics including the new coaching staff, player fitness regimens and gearing up for the new season.

There was a Q&A session, too, where fans ribbed him about his son attending Northwestern, asked about the Cover 2 and suggested that he *might get some ex-Bears players on staff.

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You can check out some extremely professional (amateur), high-quality (iPhone) videos here and here.

My takeaways:

• It won’t happen overnight, but we will see many aspects of the Cover 2 during Lovie’s tenure as head coach. It’s flamed out a bit in recent years in the NFL, but if you have the personnel and discipline to run it, it can work wonders.
• Lovie’s made a lot of friends over the years, and many of them (Tillman, Briggs, Urlacher, possibly?) have expressed interest in coming down to Champaign to check out some games this year. Hey, they all have the time on Saturdays now. As far as coaching? All we got was a wink and a smile.
• The new coaching staff, especially Garrick McGee and Hardy Nickerson, are going to be a big boost to this team. Lovie spoke about them first; there’s a reason for that. He’s excited about them, and we should be, too. These guys can sell recruits on getting to the NFL, and that’s half the battle with kids choosing where to go.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been a complete day without a nice photo opp.

Lastly, for anyone interested, give CBS Chicago’s Ryan Baker a follow on Twitter at @RyanBakerMedia. He MCed the event on Sunday and, more importantly, is a great advocate for the University of Illinois here in Chicago.

So, my Chicago brethren, I leave you with this. Take some time this year to head south on I-57 and see a couple games at Memorial Stadium.

We don’t have to put up with the BS of past regimes, but we can be supportive.

Next: Lovie Smith Nailed Big Ten Media Day Presser

As Whitman said, “Nobody needs to do everything, but everybody needs to do something.”