List of Illinois Fighting Illini head football coaches

The following is a list of Illinois Fighting Illini men's football head coaches. The Illinois Fighting Illini football team has had 27 individuals that have maintained the title of head coach. The current coach is Lovie Smith.^[1]

Coach	Years	Conference Record	Winning Pct	Overall Record	Winning Pct	Conference Titles	Bowl Appearances	National Championships
Scott Williams	1890	–	–	1–2–0	.333	0	0	0
Robert Lackey	1891	–	–	6–0–0	1.000	0	0	0
Edward K. Hall	1892–1893	–	–	12–5–5	.706	0	0	0
Louis Vail	1894	–	–	5–3–0	.625	0	0	0
George Huff	1895–1899	2–7–1	.222	21–16–3	.563	0	0	0
Fred L. Smith	1900	1–3–2	.500	7–3–2	.667	0	0	0
Edgar Holt	1901–1902	8–4–0	.667	18–4–1	.818	0	0	0
George W. Woodruff	1903	1–5–0	.143	8–6–0	.571	0	0	0
Clyde Matthews*	1904	3–1–1	.778	9–2–1	.818	0	0	0
Fred Lowenthal*	1904–1905	0–3–0	.000	5–4–0	.555	0	0	0
Justa Lindgren*	1904, 1906	1–3–0	.250	1–3–1	.250	0	0	0
Arthur R. Hall*	1904, 1907–1912	17–9–2	.666	27–10–3	.730	1	0	0
Robert Zuppke	1913–1941	76–66–8	.548	131–81–11	.618	7	0	4
Ray Eliot	1942–1959	54–55–7	.496	83–73–11	.532	3	2	1
Pete Elliott	1960–1966	22–26–1	.464	31–34–1	.477	1	1	0
Jim Valek	1967–1970	5-23–0	.178	8-32–0	.200	0	0	0
Bob Blackman	1971–1976	24–23–1	.516	29–36–1	.439	0	0	0
Gary Moeller	1977–1979	3-18–3	.200	6-24–3	.227	0	0	0
Mike White	1980–1987	40-26–2	.612	47-41–3	.533	1	3	0
John Mackovic	1988–1991	22-9–1	.714	30-16–1	.663	1	3	0
Lou Tepper	1991–1996	17-21–2	.461	25-31–2	.456	0	3	0
Ron Turner	1997–2004	20-44–0	.312	35-57–0	.380	1	2	0
Ron Zook	2005–2011**	18–38–0	.321	34-51–0	.400	0	2	0
Vic Koenning	2011**	0–0–0	–	1-0–0	1.000	0	1	0
Tim Beckman	2012–2014	4–20–0	.167	12–25–0	.324	0	1	0
Bill Cubit	2015***	2–5–0	.286	5-6–0	.454	0	0	0
Lovie Smith	2016-	0–2–0	0.000	1-4–0	.200	0	0	0
Totals	27 coaches	339-409-32	(.453)	598–565-53	(.514)	15	18	5

*Hall, Lindgren, Lowenthal and Matthews shared the title of "Head Coach" for the 1904 season.
**Zook was fired at the end of the regular season; defensive coordinator Vic Koenning was appointed as interim head coach and coached Illinois in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.
***Cubit served as interim coach for the most of the 2015 regular season after Tim Beckman was terminated in August 2015, one week before the season-opening game. The "Interim" portion of Cubit's title was removed on November 28, 2015, a few hours before the last game of the season, and he was named permanent head coach--a tenure that lasted exactly one game, as the following March he was relieved of duties in favor of Lovie Smith by new Athletic Director Josh Whitman.

Hall of fame

Illinois has had five coaches inducted into the College Football Foundation Hall of Fame. Edward K. Hall (1892-1893),^[2] George Woodruff (1903),^[3] Robert Zuppke (1913-1941),^[4] Bob Blackman (1971-1976)^[5] and Pete Elliott (1960-1966).^[6]

References

1. 2014 Illinois Football Record Book pg. 123
2. Ed Hall at the College Football Hall of Fame
3. George Washington Woodruff at the College Football Hall of Fame
4. Robert Zuppke at the College Football Hall of Fame
5. Bob Blackman at the College Football Hall of Fame
6. Pete Elliott at the College Football Hall of Fame