VIDEO: Illinois AD Josh Whitman Addresses Firing of Lovie Smith

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman addressed the media via Zoom on the firing of head football coach Lovie Smith.

Smith is 17-39 overall in five seasons at Illinois that produced one bowl bid (2019 Redbox Bowl loss to California) and didn’t post a single winning season. If Smith’s final game as the Illini head coach was Saturday, he exits after a disappointing 28-10 loss to in-state rival Northwestern, which is the program’s sixth straight loss to the Wildcats and guaranteed a ninth straight losing season.

Smith was Whitman’s first hire as the program’s athletics director on March 7, 2016 as the former Chicago Bears head coach agreed to a $21 million contract over six years. In Nov. 2018, Illinois agreed to an extension with Smith for two more years, which gave him an annual salary of $4 million and kept him under contract through 2023. According to the details in that extension, Illinois is authorized to pay Smith a $2 million buyout if terminated after the 2020 season unless the university and Smith’s representatives could come to a settlement.

The first full four years of Whitman’s tenure saw Illinois Athletics make steady progress in the high-profile sports of football and men’s basketball. During the 2019 season, the Illini football team posted two of the biggest wins in program history with an upset victory over sixth-ranked Wisconsin and an incredible come-from-behind win at Michigan State. The victory over the Spartans made Illinois bowl eligible for the first time since 2014 and resulted in the Fighting Illini playing California in the Redbox Bowl. During 2019, Whitman also negotiated an appearance by the Fighting Illini in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland, to open the 2021 season. In men’s basketball, the 2020 Fighting Illini team posted one of the largest turnarounds in the country, improving by nine total wins. The squad competed for the Big Ten regular-season title until the final week of the season and was primed for a deep postseason run until games were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team finished the season ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2006 and is widely viewed as one of the nation’s top teams heading into the 2020-21 season.