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Hey there, reader! Do you currently think Lovie Smith is on the hot seat? If so, I would like to sincerely congratulate you for reading this whole sentence, because it’s quite an accomplishment considering what a mouthbreathing idiot you are.
Time and time again we’ve been over this in excruciating detail. Illini fans feared a complete football apocalypse in the wake of the 2-year Bill Cubit head coaching contract drawn up by the interim administration in November 2015. What does a football apocalypse look like? 5-19.
Everyone knew this would be a horrible stretch of football. This is why we applauded a coach being fired without cause in March. Lovie Smith was brought in to scrub the fallout from our nuclear holocaust and shorten what at that time seemed certain to be a five-year period in the wilderness. Everyone who’s been anywhere near Illinois football knows this.
Except for the hopelessly stupid:
Who is on the hot seat in college football this year? A thorough look at the coaches in trouble and analysis of whether they will get fired. From Lovie to Beaty to Fedora to Coach O, we touch all the bases. https://t.co/jGYeWKyeDr
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 9, 2018
The ratio on that tweet proves my point. It’s entirely possible that Illinois goes 1-11 and looks worse than last year and needs to find a new coach, but the same can be said of such coaches as Chris Ash and DJ Durkin. The only intellectually honest reason a writer could have for placing Lovie on the hot seat right now is that they think the Garrick McGee hire was a bigger mistake than Lovie could afford to make AND Rod Smith will not be an improvement in his first year at the helm. However, I’d be willing to bet that no nationally published writer who’s loudly farted out an “IS LOVIE ON THE HOT SEAT? CLICK TO READ THE RESULTS OF 2 SECONDS READING GOOGLE RESULTS” take would even know who those two people are.
None of these concern-trolling takes (“Illini fans can’t be happy...”) ever mention anything beyond Lovie’s record and buyout. Not one that I’ve read pays any attention to the context in which this has all happened. His contract was drawn up as insurance against the idea that Lovie is just going to cash a paycheck for a year or two before returning to the NFL. Some of these morons probably even parroted that hot take back then.
Illini fans, there can no longer be any doubt that anyone who publishes a “Lovie Smith is on the hot seat” take before the 2018 season starts has done so either because they are a world-class idiot or for the express purpose of pissing us off. There really is no other reason. As fans, we aren’t necessarily owed everything, but we should at least demand that the writers of these takes identify which camp they fall into. Therefore, I urge you to ask the question: “Troll or idiot?”