‘We need to shake some things up a little bit’: Lovie Hints at Changes Before Game at Rutgers
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Lovie Smith is apparently a believer in Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity and the Illini’s fifth-year head coach knows some things with his program have to change.
Smith hinted that after watching the film of his team’s 41-14 loss to Minnesota this past weekend, the Illini program’s 10th loss by 20 points or more under his leadership, that personnel changes could be coming for his lineup as they approach a road contest at Rutgers Saturday (11 a.m., BTN).
“When you play the way we played this past Saturday, you can’t continue on that same path,” Smith said. “You have to make changes and so, we need to shake some things up a little bit and play a lot better.”
Defense, which has always been a calling card of success for Smith until he arrived at Illinois in 2016, has been a frustrating struggle for the Illini in the first three losses to Wisconsin, Purdue and Minnesota. Currently Illinois ranks in the bottom 10 percent of college football teams in the statistical categories of total defense, scoring defense, rushing defense, passing defense, opponent’s third down percentage, turnover margin and time of possession.
Changes could be coming from Illinois personnel after a 0-3 start to the 2020 season and the likely target is a secondary that is consistently allowing completions and deep passes.
Patrick Gorski/USA Today Sports
These humbling and sobering numbers for the program’s head coach, who also serves as the Illini’s defensive coordinator, would certainly suggest some personnel changes could be coming on that side of the ball. However, according to Pro Football Focus, only five players who have played 100 snaps or more this season have an acceptable grade of 60.0 or better.
Some of those defensive personnel changes could result in practically brand new secondary as both starting safeties Sydney Brown and Derrick Smith have been poor in pass coverage that is giving up 278.3 yards through the air per game, which is good for 11th in the 14-team Big Ten Conference.
“We react to anything bad that we feel like we need to change," Smith said. "We immediately react to it, try to get a plan for that and that’s what we’re doing right now. We’ve evaluated the video. Things I feel like we need to adjust, change, we’re going to do that. There’s no panic. We’re disappointed in three games we’ve played and we need to play better this fourth game of the football season. There’s a lot of football left to go."
Nate Hobbs, who missed last weekend’s loss due to a shoulder injury, was one of only two projected starters who was inactive Saturday and therefore, Smith isn’t able to point to the laundry list of Illini players out due to COVID-19 protocols and contract tracing.
However, Smith could simply be hinting at changes occurring back to normal with the offensive starters (such as center Doug Kramer and redshirt freshman quarterback Isiah Williams) back from contract tracing and having a fully healthy roster for the first time since the 2020 opener against Wisconsin, which they lost 45-7.
“Nobody wants to hear about who we don’t have or anything like that," Smith said. "We expect to play better and we need to play better. I expect our record to say that we’re going to play better when we have our best guys on the football field. This is kind of the reality of what’s happened with us. I think when we get our guys together, you’re going to see a different ball club there. In the past? Three disappointing losses. We expect them to play a lot better this week. It’s as simple as that."
Illinois offensive coordinator Rod Smith suggested that the Illini offense may need to figure out more efficient ways to get its dynamic athletes the football more often. More than anybody else on the Illinois roster, this points to sophomore tailback Chase Brown having more responsibility after the Western Michigan transfer had just four carries Saturday and has only been on the field for 90 of 191 snaps in the three games this season.
“We definitely need to get Chase the ball more,” Rod Smith said. “He’s a guy, to me, who has home run type of ability because once he hits a crease, there’s a good chance that he’s not going to get caught (from behind). Definitely a guy we need to get more involved and that’ll be the plan moving forward.”
Rutgers (1-2), which snapped a 21-game losing streak in conference play by beating Michigan State on the road in the season opener on Oct. 24, has opened as a 7-point home favorite vs. Illinois (0-3) this weekend marking the first time since 2015 that Rutgers is a favorite against a Power 5 Conference opponent.
“The disappointment we felt after the game Saturday is, of course, still there,” Smith said Monday when he addressed local and statewide media. “Don’t have a whole lot of answers to why we played that way but when you don’t play the way you think you should, you evaluate the video, which we’ve done and you make the necessary corrections that you feel you need to make.”