Lovie Smith says he always considered himself a college coach

Lovie Smith’s tenure as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ head coach was massively disappointing: 8-16 in two seasons just is not good enough in today’s NFL. Or, really, yesteryear’s NFL. He’s now moved on to being the head coach of the Illinois Illini, though, and it seems like he fits right in — what with giving easily-ridiculed quotes to the media.

That’s an ehm.....amusing quote, one that plenty of people immediately seized on to ridicule. After all, it implies that he was in over his head in the NFL, and is an easy explanation for his failure to turn around the Tampa Bay defense.

I think people are making a little too much of this. After all: Lovie Smith was in the NFL for 20 years before returning to college. And he had a lot of success while doing so, even if his last two years were disappointing. He’s not talking about just his tenure in Tampa, as far as I can tell, but about his entire NFL career. Which was pretty successful, really, both as a position coach and a head coach.