Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman certainly made a splash when, on his first day in charge, he fired football coach Bill Cubit and proceeded to hire Lovie Smith. Smith's name resonated across the state for his work with the Chicago Bears, but he had not coached at the college level since serving as a defensive assistant at Ohio State in 1995.
Whitman noted that hiring Smith marked "the first step in taking this program to a place of national prominence." But, at least after Smith's first season, obtaining that objective seems quite a ways off. Illinois completed a 3-9 season, which included a 2-7 conference record.