![]() ![]() If the bridges between the Illinois prep programs and the Fighting Illini weren't completely burned, they were at least badly singed and heavily damaged. ![]() Maybe Illinois products could have helped win more games? Hard to imagine that they could have produced less! ![]() ![]() Pouring salt into the festering wound was that Smith managed just 17 wins in his five seasons as head of the Illini football program. If this was lost on the Illini faithful - and in many circles, it wasn't, it's a phenomenon that Illinois high school coaches and players knew very well. And even as Smith and his assistants were busy recruiting for the class of 2021, still there were no in-state players committed to the Illini at the time of his dismissal last December. In his recruiting class for the fall of 2020, Lovie Smith and his staff didn't have a single scholarship player come to campus from the state of Illinois. It seems so far-fetched that I have a hard time even writing it. Future Illini football teams are already taking on a different look than the current or past squads. ![]()
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