Heading into his third season as head coach, the general consensus in Champaign is that Lovie Smith needs to provide on-the-field results, and Smith knows that too.
On Tuesday at Big Ten Media Day in Chicago, Smith said that this season will provide some results for his young football team.
“When you start 15 true freshmen and one redshirt freshman, it kind of tells you where you are and what you’re doing with your program, and that’s where we are” Smith said. “Those players got a lot of valuable experience last year. We’ve seen them get bigger, stronger, faster off the field and just their football minds have grown quite a bit.