I don’t think it is arguable. Becktard, Moeller were demonstrably worse. Not necessarily their overall record but in just being generally embarrassing in multiple other ways.
Tepper’s teams didn’t even have the viewer benefit of being funny-bad, they were just boring af. In the context of the past 30 years, Zook was a pretty good Illinois football coach. Turner had a couple good teams and then mailed it in.
I think the Smith hire has to be looked at through a somewhat different lens. Whitman had to do something about football right away because Groce was somewhat safe for another year given the recruiting class he was putting together. Illinois was on the list of programs without a minority HC for WAY too long. There was enormous pressure to hire a minority head coach. And in March 2016 there was a newly available minority coach that just happened to have taken the “local” NFL team to a Super Bowl in relatively recent memory. That’s the kind of hire you basically get a free pass for. Especially when you’re the new UI Golden Child AD.
Lovie got enough leash to get us to a bowl and got a quick hook when it was time to go. He was replaced with a proven B1G coach with local ties. I’m optimistic, but he’s got a lot of work to do. He has been doing a lot of things right thus far. I’m fairly certain Josh himself wrote most of the speeches/press releases for all the coaching hires. Everything that was said and done publicly reeked of his direct involvement, from the woeful shortcomings of the Lovie staff right down to the style of writing and punctuation.
Obviously I’m a huge fan of the guy. Everyone that thought he was Gunther-lite really missed the mark. He seems to strike a balance between the few things Gunther did well with the forward looking mindset of someone steeped in the era of modern for-profit college athletics. I like his hands-on approach and accessibility to players. At the same time, he runs a pretty tight ship. His communication is a little robotic and corporate attorney-like at times, and he has the annoying habit of whistling when he says words that have the letter S in them. But the overall messages he conveys shows that he “gets it” at a much higher level than ADs previous. That doesn’t mean he’s going to turn Illinois into a perennial powerhouse in all the sports. He is still working with limited resources relative to our conference foes, let alone nationally, but it’s a huge step in the right direction from a leadership perspective.
When Whitman was interviewing with Illinois, he undoubtedly asked his future bosses whether he would have free reign to hire the next football coach. So I don't necessarily agree with your position he was under tremendous pressure (internally) to hire a minority candidate. That being said, I don't doubt there were discussions about what a minority hiring would mean for the university. Regardless, there were several questions about Smith when he was hired. First and foremost was whether he would be able to successfully recruit players after being away from the college game for @20 years (off the top of my head). Recruiting is the lifeblood of college football. In the end, those concerns proved to be 100% accurate; his recruiting of high school football prospects was poor at best. It didn't help matters that his coaches were long on NFL experience but largely lacked meaningful college recruiting experience. Smith's relationships (rather, lack thereof) with high school football coaches in the state is well documented. In addition, today's game is about offense and putting lots of points on the board in order to win. Fans love it, too. Even Nick Saban has had to adjust.
https://saturdayblitz.com/2019/09/29/century-scoring-trends-in-college-football/Unfortunately, Smith's expertise was defense. Because of the program's lack of recruiting success (and given most college players aren't NFL-caliber players), the Illini defense never could successfully implement Cover 2 on a consistent basis. A similar problem exists at Nebraska, where Scott Frost's offense has sputtered in part because of a lack of talent (e.g., highly accurate QB who doesn't turn the ball over, speedy WRs who can get open) and perhaps an overly complicated playbook.
We all know how this sad chapter in Illini football ended. I'm optimistic Bielema will be more successful...or he'd better be, given the low threshold Smith set.
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