Illinois linebacker coach Tim McGarigle announced his departure from Champaign, and a week later, Lovie Smith will have another vacancy to fill on his support staff. Per multiple reports, Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting Coordinator Josh Sternquist has parted ways with the football program; the news was first reported by Illini Inquirer’s Jeremy Werner.
A week after Signing Day, #illini Lovie Smith is making a change to his recruiting staff. Josh Sternquist is out.https://t.co/zZVccE3Wv2
— Jeremy Werner (@JWernerScout) February 9, 2017
Sternquist was hired in April after spending the past four years at New Mexico, where he served as the Lobos’ director of football recruiting.
National Signing Day was less than two weeks ago so it is fairly surprising that such a move has been made already, especially because Sternquist seemed excited about switching focus to class-of-2018 prospects.
According to the News-Gazette, Lovie Smith was involved with meetings related to the Memorial Stadium renovations on Thursday and he’s been unable to comment as a result. Smith has a press conference scheduled for Friday — hopefully he’ll have some more information on both openings.
In the meantime, feel free to update your resumes for the official assistant coach position that the university posted on Wednesday; applications are due February 13.