Top 25
1-12
- Games
- 13
- Win rate
- 7.7%
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Coach ProfileBalancedSteady Profile
Coach Profile
Lovie Smith
2016-2020 • Illinois
One defining program at Illinois.
Lovie Smith's coaching record is 17-39, highlighted by seasons at Illinois from 2016 to 2020.
Lovie Smith coached 5 seasons, won 30.4%, and posted an average SRS of -8.0. Best season: 2019 Illinois. The profile was balanced with a very steady week-to-week shape. One primary stint defined the run.
- Career record
- 17-39
- Career win rate
- 30.4%
- Average SRS
- -8.0
- Peak SRS
- -0.4
Career Dossier
One glance at the full arc.
The profile below keeps the headline numbers visible, then moves into tenure shape, school impact, and full season detail.
- Seasons coached
- 5
- Career span
- 5 years
- Best finish
- —
- Consistency
- 84.3
Primary school anchor
Illinois
Balanced profile with 1 program stop and a peak score of 34.0.
Quick Answers
Records fans search first
Headline records use countable season rows after completed-game fallback. Partial seasons and provisional placeholders are called out separately.
- Overall record
- 17-39
- Illinois record
- 17-39
- Full-season record
- 15-34
- Partial-season record
- 2-5
- Vs AP Top 10
- 1-5
- Vs AP Top 5
- 0-2
- Vs Northwestern
- 0-4
- Postseason / bowl record
- 0-1
- CFP record
- 0-0
- National titles
- 0
56 countable games, 30.4% win rate.
5 countable seasons at Illinois.
4 full season rows; partial and backfilled current rows are separated.
Rows where the coach-season record covers fewer games than the team's completed season.
6 games using AP ranking at game time.
2 games using AP ranking at game time.
Illinois-Northwestern games in this dataset.
1 scored postseason games in this dataset.
0 College Football Playoff-labeled games since 2014.
Matched by coach team-season against the national championship dataset.
Record definition and data status
Career records use countable coach-season rows. Zero-game placeholders are excluded from aggregates until a completed-game fallback can verify the record.
Completed-game fallback uses scored games joined by coach, team, and season; advanced ratings are left blank when the season summary has not supplied them.
Latest completed coached game in this dataset: Dec 19, 2020. Current and future zero-game placeholders are kept visible but excluded from headline records.
Career Arc
Track how the coach's season-to-season performance changed over time, where the peak landed, and where each school stint appears.
Focus on where peaks separate, where floors hold, and how the shape of each career changed over time.
Lovie Smith
EliteStrongAverageLean
2016Actual season year • SRS range -11.4 to -0.42020
Active comparison point
Lovie Smith • 2019
2019 Illinois
Best seasonBiggest improvement6-7 • SRS -0.4 • SP Overall 0.6
Win %
46.2%
YoY SRS
+10.1
SP Off / Def
24.4 / 25.8
Finish
Unranked
Comparison context
Focus a point to inspect how it stacks up against the rest of the field.
Ranked opponent record
Track career record against ranked opponents with switchable poll source and ranking timing.
Using AP Top 25 rankings at the time of each game; week-one games use the week-one ranking release when available.
Top 10
1-5
- Games
- 6
- Win rate
- 16.7%
Top 5
0-2
- Games
- 2
- Win rate
- 0.0%
View ranked game results13
Tenure map
Each stint expands by seasons coached. Deeper color signals a stronger average SRS over that stretch.
Length = seasons coachedDeeper color = stronger stint
Illinois
2016-2020 • 5 seasons
Avg SRS -8.0 • Win % 30.4%
- Longest tenure
- Illinois • 5 seasons
- Best tenure
- Illinois • -8.0 SRS
- Best tenure win rate
- Illinois • 30.4%
Style and Strength Profile
Compare strength, identity, steadiness, and ceiling through normalized bars with raw SP and SRS context underneath.
These bars are normalized against the full coach dataset. Raw SP and SRS values stay visible so the profile reads as evidence, not decoration.
Overall Strength
Start with total quality before splitting style and variance.
Lovie Smith sets the reference point in overall strength.
Overall Strength
Decisive edgeLovie Smith sets the reference point in overall strength.
Normalized score; raw SP overall stays underneath for reference.
Lovie Smith
Mixed
- Raw avg SP Overall
- -5.4
- Percentile
- 41th pct
Mixed
Normalized against the full tracked coach pool.
Impact by school
See how each stint compared with what that program usually looked like outside that same span.
Illinois
2016-2020 • 17-39
Compared with this school's baseline outside that stint over the prior 5 seasons (5 baseline seasons found).
Avg SRS -8.0Win % 30.4%
Avg wins
Higher is better
3.8 during vs 4.6 baseline
-0.8
Avg SRS
Higher is better
-8.1 during vs -4.9 baseline
-3.2
Avg SP Overall
Higher is better
-5.3 during vs -0.8 baseline
-4.6
Ranked finish rate
Higher is better
0.0% during vs 0.0% baseline
+0.0%
Career highs and lows
High Points
Best Season
Illinois 2019
6-7 • SRS -0.4
Biggest Improvement
Illinois 2019
6-7 • 10.1 SRS
Best Offensive Season
Illinois 2018
4-8 • SP Off 29.1
Best Defensive Season
Illinois 2019
6-7 • SP Def 25.8
Setbacks
Lowest SRS Season
Illinois 2017
2-10 • SRS -11.4
Biggest Drop
Illinois 2020
2-5 • -7.0 SRS
Season-by-season results
Full transparency into every season in the coaching record. Positive YoY values indicate improvement from the prior season.
| Illinois | 2020 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 28.6% | — | — | -7.4 | -5.4 | 23.9 | 29.4 | -7.0 | -17.6% | Partial season |
| Illinois | 2019 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 46.2% | — | — | -0.4 | 0.6 | 24.4 | 25.8 | +10.1 | +12.8% | Season summary |
| Illinois | 2018 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 33.3% | — | — | -10.5 | -7.9 | 29.1 | 38.6 | +0.9 | +16.7% | Season summary |
| Illinois | 2017 | 12 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 16.7% | — | — | -11.4 | -7.4 | 21.6 | 29.9 | -1.3 | -8.3% | Season summary |
| Illinois | 2016 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 25.0% | — | — | -10.1 | -6.7 | 22.7 | 29.5 | — | — | Season summary |
Similar coaches
Popular comparisons are fan-facing matchups. Statistical comps are matched by style, strength band, volatility band, peak range, and career length.
Statistical comps
Boozer Pitts
same balanced identity • avg SRS within 1.2
Avg SRS -6.8 • Peak SRS -2.3 • 3 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 4.3
Open profile →Cleo ODonnell
same balanced identity • avg SRS within 0.1
Avg SRS -8.1 • Peak SRS -4.0 • 2 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 4.0
Open profile →Doc Newton
same balanced identity • avg SRS within 0.6
Avg SRS -8.6 • Peak SRS -5.7 • 2 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 2.9
Open profile →Jim Criner
same balanced identity • avg SRS within 0.2
Avg SRS -8.2 • Peak SRS -3.8 • 4 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 2.9
Open profile →Hank Garrity
same balanced identity • avg SRS within 0.7
Avg SRS -7.3 • Peak SRS -3.2 • 3 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 4.2
Open profile →Bob Gibson
same balanced identity • avg SRS within 0.3
Avg SRS -8.3 • Peak SRS -3.4 • 3 seasons
Best finish Unranked • Volatility 3.5
Open profile →