TAMPA — When Tim Beckman was fired as football coach at Illinois just seven days before the first game of the 2015 season, former Tampa Catholic linebacker and redshirt freshman Tre Watson admits he didn't really bat an eye.
For Watson, who had four different head coaches during his four-year high school career at Tampa Catholic and Tampa Bay Tech, it was simply keeping with the trend he had always known.
"Honestly, I'm not really used to a whole lot of stability as far as coaching," said Watson, who had a team-high 90 tackles as a senior for the Crusaders. "It definitely was a shock — especially at this level, you don't really see that happening all the time — but with time, I don't think it changed how we did things or anything like that."
On Monday, the Fighting Illini announced the hiring of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith, a man who spent eight years coaching the Chicago Bears just two hours north of Champaign, Ill.
To Watson, the hire represents an opportunity for the kind of stability he never has known in football.
To high school players in the Tampa Bay area, it could also mean the bolstering of an already active recruiting pipeline to Champaign.
East Bay coach Frank LaRosa met Smith in September when he was named the first high school coach of the week by the Buccaneers. The honor came with a $1,000 grant for the Indians' program and a meet and greet at One Buc Place with Smith and the staff.
LaRosa said he relished the chance to interact with Smith, whom he hopes will keep his old home in mind when it comes time to recruit the newest class to Illinois.
"It's going to be really his philosophy — if he wants to come into Tampa and kind of how deep. Is he going to put one guy or is he going to put three or four guys? Different coaches have different philosophies when it comes to that," LaRosa said.
"The Cincinnatis and the Marshalls, those guys are loaded with Florida talent and they value it, but they've got a lot of coaches on staff that come in and recruit the state."
Already, Illinois' presence has been felt when it comes to recruiting. Watson, who graduated from TC in 2014, became the eighth Tampa Bay product to play for the Illini in the past decade, joining Geronimo Allison (Spoto), Jevaris Little (Lakewood), DeJazz Woods (Robinson), Justin Lattimore (Gaither), Fred Sykes (Chamberlain), Jarred Fayson (Hillsborough) and Will Bergen (Middleton).
On Feb. 3, East Lake linebacker Jake Hansen signed to become the ninth, a move he's all the more excited about now that Smith is on board.
"I'm really looking forward to playing under a coach with that reputation," Hansen said. "All I have heard is great things about him. I think it will definitely help recruiting in the Tampa Bay area just because of his name."
The idea of teaming up with more players from his area gets Watson excited. The redshirt freshman said he looks forward to sharing his Tampa background with Smith once he gets a chance to talk to him more in depth. So far, Watson has only heard Smith's first message to the team, which finished 5-7 last year, but it was one that already gives him hope for the future.
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Explore all your options"I think the thing he really stressed was that we're going to move forward, we're not pausing, we're not trying to fix anything. We're going to make it happen," Watson said of Smith, who was fired in January by the Bucs after going 8-24 in two seasons. "And not in the future, we're going to make it happen now."
Could other Tampa Bay players be a part of that winning equation? LaRosa doesn't see why not.
"It will definitely be interesting to see really what he decides to do. I would assume having been here … that Lovie would dip back down here," LaRosa said. "Of course, my opinion is biased, but he'd be crazy not to. The talent here, it just seems like it gets better and better every year."
Times staff writer Bob Putnam contributed to this report. Contact Kelly Parsons at kaparsons@tampabay.com. Follow @_kellyparsons.