Tate: Can positive coach vibes find gridiron?

Lovie Smith's First Day » moreIn little more than an overnight span, positive expectations — hope, realistic or otherwise — swept away rank pessimism among Illini football fans.

For those who fumed that the UI administration didn’t care about sports, the March 7 arrival of coach Lovie Smith verified a fresh attitude, a full commitment.

In the face of a university-wide financial crunch forcing departments to scrimp, the DIA handed Smith a $21 million, six-year contract bubbling with incentives, and boosted the pay of staff assistants from $2.4 million to roughly $4 million.

Illinois is clearly all-in with Lovie.

And in a collegiate world in which athletic directors lose their jobs when their…