This is shaping up to be a critical offseason for the future of Lovie Smith’s tenure at Illinois and, thanks to a variety of factors, the veteran head coach has a big task ahead of him in reshaping his staff following several departures.
At least Smith has found one replacement, raiding Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic staff to hire defensive backs coach Keynodo Hudson. The news was first reported by FootballScoop and subsequently confirmed by a number of outlets.
It will be interesting to see what Hudson’s exact role is when the school announces the news because Smith’s son Miles was elevated to defensive backs coach prior to the 2018 season as the program’s 10th assistant. There’s still two more opening left for the Illini to fill after running backs coach Thad Ward left for Temple this week, including the rather big hole at defensive coordinator.
As for Hudson, he leaves the Owls after spending two years on campus in Boca following six in an off the field role at USC prior to that. Given the huge change in climates, hopefully he’ll be catch in a few more rays of sunshine before heading up to the frozen Midwest a few days before signing day.