The firing of Bill Cubit and subsequent hiring of Lovie Smith one day later at Illinois was a bombshell nobody but new athletic director Josh Whitman saw coming. Suddenly, the Illini have renewed credibility and have demonstrated they are serious about competing in the Big Ten West.
Smith, the former Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach, still has numerous tasks ahead of him. But Illinois now has the league's attention. Smith is the third new Big Ten head coach to be named since the 2015 season ended. In this roundtable, the Big Ten reporters address which school that hired a new head coach this offseason positioned itself to improve the most over the long term:
The Scarlet Knights needed a jolt of energy, a fresh set of eyes on the program and some innovation, and the hiring of Chris Ash certainly appears to have provided that in the early stages of his overhaul.