Fighting Illini football practiced in shoulder pads for the first time on Saturday, but there was one huge absence from the sideline. Lovie Smith left campus prior to the third training camp session in order to travel to Canton, OH, where he supported Tony Dungy and Orlando Pace at the 2016 NFL Hall of Fame ceremony.
Smith was accompanied by athletic director Josh Whitman, and they apparently had time to met up with Aaron Moorehead and Leslie Frazier prior to the speeches.
Smith coached Pace with the St. Louis Rams and Chicago Bears; he also instructed him in college during a brief stint one-year stint at Ohio State.