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Lovie Smith says player performance, coaching ‘not good enough’ in loss to Eastern Michigan
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Lovie Smith wasn’t interested in pointing to an individual or group following Illinois’ 34-31 loss to Eastern Michigan on Saturday. Instead, he painted with a pretty broad brush.
Illinois dropped to 2-1 on the season, losing to Eastern Michigan in heartbreaking fashion. The Eagles knocked down a game-winning field goal as time expired to win their third B1G game in as many years. After the game, Illini head coach Lovie Smith said that the way the players performed, and the way the coaches called the game, simply wasn’t good enough.
Here are a few quotes from Smith’s press conference, as posted by Jeremy Werner of 247Sports:
#illini Lovie: Peters played the way most of us played today, how I coached … not good enough. I have to coach better. Brandon has to play better. I'll go across the board.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 14, 2019
#illini Lovie on end-of-half clock management: "Coaching mistake. That's on me." Should've called timeout.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) September 14, 2019
Saturday’s game was sloppy for the Illini on both sides of the ball. Illinois had two turnovers and committed nine penalties in the loss. There were several mishaps throughout the course of the contest, too.
The loss was disappointing, but it’s a long season. Illinois did show some fight down the stretch, but just didn’t play well early enough to overcome a two-touchdown deficit.
Illinois will attempt to bounce back next Saturday, when it hosts Nebraska.
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