Selfies, calls from recruits and football: Welcome to Lovie Smith's life at Illinois

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Other than a small sign with his name outside the door, Lovie Smith's office contains nothing that would signify to visitors who occupies the space.

There's no 2005 NFL Coach of the Year trophy or pictures of Smith from his time as head coach of the Chicago Bears or Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In fact, outside of a couple Illinois football images and a flat-screen TV, there's very little on the walls.

Smith does plan on redecorating. Eventually. Sprucing up the office sits low on the list of priorities right now. He and the Fighting Illini are racing against the clock for much more important things, like scrambling to get players and coaches on the same page.

It has been just 39 days since Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman stunned everybody by hiring Smith as his new head coach. Whitman himself has only two more days of tenure than Smith, and his first official act upon assuming his post on March 5 was to fire Bill Cubit, a little more than three months after Cubit was given a two-year contract.

The Illini then pushed the start of spring practice back to buy some more time for Smith and his quickly assembled staff. The Illini have been undergoing a crash course ever since, trying to learn a new system and one another. Fans can get their first glimpse of the new-look team at an open practice in Champaign on Saturday.

"We have to get it rolling as fast as possible," senior defensive end Dawuane Smoot said. "We're behind a lot of other schools right now."

In some ways, that has always been the case for Illinois. Despite a strong history that includes Red Grange and Dick Butkus, the program has only been to six bowl games since 1995. That two of those bowls were the Sugar (2002) and Rose (2008) illustrates potential. That the team has gone 94-154-1 and churned through five head coaches in the past 20 years cements its underachiever status.

That's why Whitman decided to aim high with Smith, hoping he could be the coach who finally drags the school out of its football doldrums. Smith's hire has already accomplished a noteworthy goal: People are actually interested and excited about Illinois football.

Twitter pictures of empty rows at the 60,000-seat Memorial Stadium -- especially in the student section -- have become a weekly Saturday staple in the fall. Since Smith was named coach, the school sold 2,800 new season-ticket packages. There's national media curiosity about the program for the first time in years, and alumni and fans are optimistic again.

"The enthusiasm and renewed sense of hope from our fans has been profound," Whitman said.

On the day he was named head coach, Smith was toasted by hundreds of undergrads on campus at the student union. Smith said that every day since, he has been stopped by a student or parent or fan on the sidewalk outside the football complex. That has led to a new phenomenon: the Lovie selfie.

"Every time I get a chance to pose for a selfie, I get to spread the message about Illinois football," Smith said. "So I love doing it."

Smith's message to fans is a simple one: Trust us. We know what we're doing. And in time, we'll build a football team you can be proud of.

To do more than just make the occasional bowl game, however, Smith will have to overcome the challenges that faced his predecessors. It all starts, as it always does, with recruiting. Especially on the home front.

Consider that in the past four signing classes (2013-2016), ESPN Recruiting has rated 121 prospects from the state of Illinois with three stars or more. The Illini have signed just 13 of those players, including only one out of 24 in 2016. The problems are particularly acute in the Chicago area, where other Big Ten teams like Michigan State have had more success plucking blue-chippers.

Smith hopes to change that with his high name recognition in Chicago. He coached the Bears for nine years, leading them to the Super Bowl in 2006.

"I hear from a lot of recruits who tell me, 'Hey, Coach, we feel like we know you because you've been in our homes on Sundays quite a bit,'" Smith said.

His name will get Illinois in the door. Smith and his assistants are confident that his reputation as a mentor and his ability to relate to people will close the deal.

"We say in our staff room that if we can get 'em to Coach, we've got a shot at 'em," offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said. "I think it's going to be to his advantage when he goes into a home and talks about how players are treated as men on a daily basis. There's no profanity on our practice field at all. Kids are different nowadays, and parents are definitely different in watching how their kids are treated."

Smith can't go on the road recruiting yet because of NCAA regulations, but he can talk to recruits who call him. His assistants say he has been working the phones feverishly the past month, even with all the other things he has to catch up on. About 50 prospects visited an Illinois practice last weekend.

"Everyone who has come through here so far has been starstruck," defensive coordinator Hardy Nickerson said.

Getting players to visit campus and getting them into school are two different things. Former Illinois coach Tim Beckman complained that the school's admissions standards kept the program from signing some top recruits. Smith says he hasn't asked for any changes to those policies.

"Won't be an issue," Smith said. "I knew what the University of Illinois was when I came here. We can sell our university with the standards we have right now."

Smith is recruiting for the first time since 1995, when he was a defensive backs coach at Ohio State. The game has changed at warp speed since, and he acknowledged how much earlier coaches must get in on prospects than they did 20 years ago. Smith is trying to adjust to the times, signing up for his first Twitter account and beefing up the recruiting support staff. An old conference room in the football complex is being repurposed to house recruiting staffers.

But Smith mostly bristles at suggestions that he will face much of a transition in going from the NFL to his first college head coaching job. Many of his assistants have extensive pro experience. That includes Nickerson, who played in the NFL for 16 years and is embarking on his first college coaching gig.

"It's all about teaching football," Smith said. "I've always considered myself a stern teacher of men, of athletes. That hasn't changed.

"We had credibility coming in the door [because of the NFL backgrounds]. We've been there. We know what it takes, we know what an NFL guy looks like. And we're going to push that, too."

Defense as always been Smith's calling card, and he has favored the Tampa 2 cover scheme in the NFL. That defense has mostly fallen out of favor in college because of the proliferation of spread offenses. But Smith said his system is flexible enough to adapt and change to any attack.

"That's if we run that system," he adds, "since nobody knows what we're going to run."

The element of surprise is one thing Illinois has going for it after the late coaching hire, so Smith doesn't want to give much away about personnel. Not to mention that he and his coaches are still figuring out that personnel.

Nickerson studied a roster on his flight from the West Coast to Champaign. During the first team meeting, he sat in the back of the room with a book containing head shots of all the defensive players. He spent the meeting trying to place names with those faces. Smith admits he is still using a cheat sheet during practices to help him recognize players.

Practices so far have featured extensive walk-through sessions without helmets so the players can figure out the new systems on both sides of the ball.

"Meetings and walk-throughs are helping us get a lot of things done," safety Taylor Barton said. "They've been patient with us, and we're just trying to learn."

Far from a detached CEO, Smith is surprisingly hands-on during practice. During a session earlier this week, he worked one-on-one with three of the team's defensive backs, showing them proper coverage techniques. Smith doesn't waste many words and rarely raises his voice. When he gets mad, McGee said, he "speaks in a real quiet voice."

Smith's presence and track record commanded immediate respect from the team. That helped the players embrace him despite the jarring March coaching change.

"What helped us it get through it is we got Lovie," defensive lineman Chunky Clements said. "So you can't be too upset about that."

Smith inherits a talented senior quarterback (Wes Lunt), a veteran defensive line and some intriguing young running backs. But the team's best offensive playmaker, receiver Mikey Dudek, suffered a torn ACL last week for the second straight spring. There's little experience at linebacker and virtually no depth to call on if more injuries strike.

Even after a whirlwind six weeks, so much work remains. But Smith is confident he will succeed where so many others have failed. Eventually.

"Every game, one team scores first and the other team is behind, but that doesn't necessarily determine who will win," Smith said. "If you're behind, you've got to catch up, and that's how I look at it.

"We will change the fortunes of the University of Illinois."