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Illini's Lovie Smith: ‘Eventually, We’re Going to Have Football. If That’s the Spring, So Be It’

Illinois head coach Lovie Smith would obviously like to start football this fall but if the season was postponed to the spring, he says he has an adjustment plan for that.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Lovie Smith is taking a day-to-day mentality toward the football practice schedule at Illinois.

The Illini fifth-year head coach confirmed Saturday that the Big Ten office contacted his staff “about an hour and a half” with the news of the league’s halt to physical contact practice with shoulder pads.

“The approach that we take each day is whatever we’re presented with is what we’re going to do,” Smith said.

The league office announced Saturday morning football practices throughout the 14 schools will not be permitted to consist of full-contact workouts/scrimmage with pads. Until the Big Ten gives further notice, players will only be allowed in helmets and shorts until league officials deem it safe to progress to the final stage of full-padded contact practices.

Illinois head coach Lovie Smith said Saturday his staff was informed by the Big Ten Conference about 90 minutes before the team's third preseason practice time that the Illini couldn't be in shoulder pads until further notice. 

Illinois head coach Lovie Smith said Saturday his staff was informed by the Big Ten Conference about 90 minutes before the team's third preseason practice time that the Illini couldn't be in shoulder pads until further notice. 

By that adjust-on-fly mentality, Smith is assuming Sunday's practice session will be the same as the previous three at Illinois, where players are working with just helmets, jerseys and shorts. Smith said Saturday that he’s given the go-ahead to start padded practices, he and his staff will adjust to an already prepared different schedule that will include some physical team sessions.

“If our opponent(s) were operating under different rules, it would be different. They’re not,” Smith said Saturday in his third Zoom video conference with statewide and local media. “We’re all operating under the same rules and dealing with the same issues. So, however many (contact preseason practices) we get, that’s how many it’ll be.”

After the Saturday morning news of the Mid-American Conference postponing football until the spring (the first FBS conference to do so), Smith was asked about his views of playing a college football season this spring. The Illini head coach obviously said he’d prefer to start the season on the Thursday night of Sept. 3 when Illinois is now slated to host No. 2 Ohio State, but just like getting the notice 90 minutes before this last practice session, he’ll be prepared to adapt to a seemingly non-stop changing world due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re practicing football right now (and) we want to play,” Smith said. “I want to play. They (the players) want to play. If they tell us we can’t play, when is the next time we can play? If that is the spring, so be it. Eventually we’re going to have football so we’re going to embrace that time whenever it comes. If things change and they tell us it’s the spring, we’ll look forward to the spring. We missed it last year so we need to get spring football in some kind of way.”

Smith mentioned his background in the NFL has allowed him to easily prepare for a shortened preseason schedule and now less physical contact before the first game. Smith returned to college football for the first time since 1996 after spending 19 years in the NFL, including 11 years as a head coach where he owned an 89-87 (.506) career record with the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Smith is the last head coach to take the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl as he faced his mentor in the business Tony Dungy in a Super Bowl XLI loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

In regards to Smith’s NFL background, the Illini coach also referenced the 2011 NFL lockout when he was the Chicago Bears head coach and his team’s Hall of Fame preseason game was cancelled due to the inability of a new collective bargaining agreement being reached between the players union and the owners.

“Remember my background in the NFL had us having 15 practices before our first padded (preseason) game,” Smith said. “We still have time (now) to get ready for football. For us, as I told the guys today, let’s not look too far in advance. It’s about today. They went to bed last night ready to do a little bit of hitting but they adjusted.”

The Illini have less than a month to prepare for a scheduled season opener on Thursday night Sept. 3 against Big Ten defending champion Ohio State, who was ranked No. 2 in the preseason USA Today Coaches poll released Thursday morning.