March 09--A busy second day on the job for Lovie Smith included sending his first tweet, but the main order of business was working quickly to assemble a coaching staff.
A clearer picture of Smith's assistants at Illinois began to emerge Tuesday with several coaches who have histories with Smith.
Garrick McGee and Hardy Nickerson are Smith's top targets as offensive and defensive coordinator, according to reports, while a source confirmed to the Tribune that Smith will retain Mike Phair as defensive line coach and is expected to hire Andrew Hayes-Stoker as wide receivers coach. Another report said former Illini center Luke Butkus will coach the offensive line.
Nickerson, Phair and Hayes-Stoker coached under Smith with both the Bears and Buccaneers, and Butkus did so with the Bears. McGee, meanwhile, was recruited by Smith to play quarterback for Arizona State in the early 1990s. Though he transferred to Oklahoma after a stint in junior college, the two reportedly have remained close.
McGee has been offensive coordinator at Louisville for two seasons after two years as head coach at UAB, where he went 5-19. He was an assistant at Northwestern for four years (2004-07) under Randy Walker and Pat Fitzgerald, the last two years as offensive coordinator. Sports Illustrated reported he is Smith's top target as coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
The potential hiring of Nickerson was reported by FootballScoop.com. The five-time Pro Bowl linebacker spent the last two seasons as Smith's linebackers coach for the Bucs before new 49ers coach Chip Kelly hired him in January for the same job.
Phair was the Illini's defensive coordinator last season and will stay on as line coach. Hayes-Stoker, the Bucs wide receivers coach the last two seasons, was hired by the Colts last month as assistant to the head coach.
Sports Illustrated also reported the expected hiring of Butkus, the nephew of Illini and Bears legend Dick Butkus. Luke Butkus also coached the Illinois offensive line in 2012 under Tim Beckman before spending the last three seasons with the Jaguars as assistant line coach.
The buzz Smith's hiring has created around Illinois football is palpable. The oft-forgotten Big Ten team has been discussed at length in local and national media, and a school spokesman said about 1,700 new season tickets had been sold as of Tuesday afternoon since Smith's introduction Monday. Illinois sold about 28,000 season tickets last year.
Smith also fulfilled a promise Tuesday evening with the first tweet from @LovieSmith, a seven-second video in which he said: "I told you I'd be on Twitter. Here I am."
sryan@tribpub.com
