REPORT: Illini To Hire Junior College Coach Alfred Davis As DTs coach
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Multiple reports have confirmed Illinois head coach Lovie Smith has found a replacement to coach his team's defensive line next season.
A tweet from Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Richard Davenport first confirmed the news of former Arkansas player and graduate assistant Alfred Davis will be part of Smith’s staff at Illinois. Davis, who has spent the last three seasons at Hutchinson Community College but has already had his biography page deleted on their athletics website. Davis also confirmed on his Instagram that he’s accepted the job of defensive tackles coach with the Illini.
“I want to thank Coach Smith for giving me this opportunity,” Davis wrote on Instagram. “Time to work. BIG 10 here I come! I'm so thankful and I'm so blessed! God is AMAZING!!!”
A University of Illinois athletics spokesperson was unable to confirm or comment on the reports of Davis' hiring because the transaction has not been officially approved by the university human resources department.
As a player, Davis appeared in 49 games, including the final 44 of his career, with 16 starts and collected 78 tackles, 5.0 for loss with 1.0 sack, two quarterback hurries, one pass breakup, and one forced fumble. He made eight starts in his senior season and recorded 38 tackles, including 2.5 for loss, two quarterback hurries, one forced fumble, and one pass breakup. As a junior, Davis played in all 13 games and recorded 14 tackles while helping lead Arkansas to an 11-2 final record and a No. 5 ranking in the final Associated Press poll of the year, the Razorbacks’ first top-five finish since 1977. The 11 wins matched the most in school history and Arkansas finished the season with a win in the Cotton Bowl. In 2010, he made seven starts in 13 appearances and finished the season with 24 tackles, including 2.0 for loss with 1.0 sack while Arkansas won 10 games and made the program’s first BCS appearance with an invitation to the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
If the reports are accurate, the interesting element of this move by Smith and the Illini staff is normally defensive tackles and defensive ends are split up in a 3-4 scheme where a traditional nose tackle is required. However, Illini Maven/Sports Illustrated spoke Friday to a FBS defensive coordinator who explained "major FBS programs are moving toward this on their staffs regardless of if you run a 3-man or 4-man front. The reason is by doing this, you'll only have six to eight players in your positional group or positional meeting room instead of 13-16 at a time."
Illinois has been in the market for a new defensive assistant coach after now-former defensive line coach Austin Clark accepted the outside linebackers coaching position with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins last week.
Davis, a 29-year-old native of College Park, Georgia (which is 10 miles from downtown Atlanta) is expected to help Illinois recruit junior colleges and in the Atlanta area. Illinois currently has three junior college players on its roster (Dominic Stampley, Nick Walker and Nolan Bernat) but with such a small 2020 early signing class of 12 players, the Illini could certainly be in the market for instant impact graduate transfers or junior college transfers to sign before next month.