Lovie Smith showed that he is aware of Illinois' defensive struggles at Big Ten Media Days
The 2019 Big Ten Media Days have begun and Illinois head coach Lovie Smith has been to the podium.
He’s spoken with the media. He’s been asked questions and he’s made statements. To start off, Smith brought up the fact that he knows Illinois has had one of the worst-ranked defenses in the entire country.
#illini Lovie: Offensively, I felt we did enough to win more football games. Defensively we did not. We were one of the worst defenses in college football. We went to work to correct that.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
He continued that thought a few hours later when being asked about improvements his defense can make by the members of the BTN staff:
“Where do we begin?” Smith asked, while laughing.
That isn’t necessarily a great sign, but it could be seen as a positive one. Smith is in his fourth season as the man in charge of the Fighting Illini. He’s been around the block now and has seen the positives and negatives.
If there’s something positive to be taken here, it’s that Smith knows that his defense has been a negative. Hey, he acknowledges it. Now, it’s just a matter of changing what happens on that side of the ball.
Here are some other things Smith said at Big Ten Media Days:
#illini coach Lovie Smith on Bobby Roundtree: Has a long road ahead of him but he is fighting to get back.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie: We knew there were some challenging things here and we attacked it. Overhauled football program. Freshmen who started two years ago are juniors now.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie: There will be a team that comes from nowhere and has an outstanding year. We plan on that being us.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie: There's a reason for change. Normally turnaround doesn't happen immediately. What we want to do is be in the best position to compete.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie: We've also taken the graduate transfer route. We have five players coming in that will really solidify that coming in. It's all about this year.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie: We have to be a lot better in so many areas (on defense). Our signature is taking the ball away and scoring. A few times that happened last year.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie: We have more depth. When you lose a player, you have more guys ready to step up.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie: We're a better football team. That should make the conference a lot better.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie on transfers: More transparency on why some players are denied immediate eligibility would help.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie Smith talked about USC transfers Wole Betiku and Josh Imatorbhebhe and then said, "We're going to add a little bit more too, I might add, that I really can't talk about yet."
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
#illini Lovie Smith on how to change perception of football: “By winning. There’s no slogan I could give.”
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) July 18, 2019
