Lovie Smith
Lovie Smith
Lovie Lee Smithis the head football coach at the University of Illinois. He was previously the head coach of the Chicago Bears from 2004 to 2012, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2014 to 2015. Smith has been to the Super Bowl twice, as the defensive coordinator for the 2001 St. Louis Rams and as the head coach for the Bears in 2006...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth8 May 1958
CityGladewater, TX
best players work
You have to play rookies, they're the best players we have. That's how we look at it. We're going to play the best players. We'd like for the best to have a lot of experience, but it doesn't work like that always.
bit coming farther good improving individual players position third wondering
It's good to have our players. We know who they are. Third year, we're not wondering what position to put players in. We're just concentrating on improving each individual player and going a little bit farther this coming season.
feeling minus players sorry step
We're not feeling sorry for ourselves. We're minus one of our players but we have a lot of other players who will step up to the plate.
best core next players reason squad stand year
That's what we would like to think. I do think our core players are in place. They're established, and they're young. I don't think this is our best squad that we'll have. I think next year will be a better squad than we had this year. There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to make a stand for a long time.
consider definitely deserve football good opportunity players
Some players deserve an opportunity to play and Roberto is definitely one of those. He's a good football player. We consider him a starter.
add area bring case couple few game players return talked type
The return game is an area that we talked about improving, and we did add a few guys, a couple players that can do that. You can make a case for every player that we have to bring us some type of help.
came charles early eventually football good huge players spell tough
Charles has been through a lot this year. He had a tough spell early in the season. He came back after that. Good football players eventually play that way. That's just a huge play.
continue talk
We talk a lot about their defense, and I'm going to continue to talk a lot about our defense,
defense defensive pressure
Our defense is about four-man pressure and now we feel like we have a 'bell cow' at defensive end,
good league liked player
I've always liked him. I think he'll be a very good player in the league someday.
asked team thomas
Team leader, he's done everything we have asked him to do. Thomas is our guy.
assume far game injuries late outcome sure
Sometimes late in the week, injuries happen. It had no outcome on the game as far as we're concerned. I assume everybody's going by the rules, which I'm sure they were.
definitely exactly nickel putting return rush whether
We're definitely comfortable with putting him out there. We don't know exactly how much. We won't rush him back. We don't know yet whether he'll return kickoffs and how much he'll play in nickel coverage. But we feel like he'll play.
field football goals good
We're a good football team, and I know we'll show that on the field this year. Our goals ... you know what our goals are. We're a good team, here are our goals, let's see what happens.