Illinois coach Lovie Smith took the dais during Big Ten media days and offered a simple message to the university's fans: "Come back."
"Don't worry about what's happened in the past," he said. "It's about today."
Well, at today's midpoint, Smith is trying to recapture the excitement that initially followed him into Champaign as the Fighting Illini (2-4) have so far fallen short of expectations. Illinois' student paper welcomed fans in early September to "take a seat on the Illinois football bandwagon," and more than 60,000 fans packed Memorial Stadium for Week 2's matchup against North Carolina.