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Lovie Smith on players leaving: ‘Divorce is good sometimes’

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Lovie Smith isn’t too sad about a group of players who have decided to leave Illinois. He’s not afraid to speak his mind about it, either.

Monday night, Illinois tight end Louis Dorsey announced his decision to transfer out of the program. He joined a list of other Illini players who have also decided to leave or have been booted from the team.

Cam Thomas and Reuben Unije also left the program and Bennett Williams was kicked off the team. Smith was asked how he felt about the players departing the program and he was very candid in his response.

“Players leave,” Smith said. “We want players that want to be here, our focus is on that. Divorce is good sometimes.”

The Illinois head coach was asked if he was concerned about the number of players who have decided to leave.

“Not at all,” Smith said. “Those are players that don’t need to be in our program and they’re not here anymore. We’re pumped up about the guys who are in program now.”

Illinois is 3-3 and 1-2 in the B1G.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB