The Illinois football coaching staff will lose one of its key assistants with running backs coach Thad Ward set to join Temple as wide receivers coach, according to 247Sports. Ward will reunite with former Northern Illinois coach Rod Carey after they worked together with the Huskies from 2013-15.
Ward may be best known in Illinois sports circles for coining the term “Littyville,” which became popular in the community over the past couple years. You can search the phrase as a hashtag on Twitter just to see how much it’s been embraced by Fighting Illini fans.
Illinois now has three openings on its coaching staff under ex-Bears coach Lovie Smith for the 2019 season. The program also lost cornerbacks coach Donnie Abraham and linebackers coach Hardy Nickerson since the conclusion of last season.
Prior to coaching at NIU and Illinois, Ward served as an assistant at Western Michigan and FCS programs Gardner-Webb and Western Illinois.
