The only question is -

Is Smith gone before the season ends or will Fleck wait until the end of the season? Which by the way is only 3 weeks away.

Can the D be any worse without a coordinator? 645 yards to Illinois? Can him now and start looking for a real D coordinator. Give Smith a chance to land on his feet too. He can likely be quite useful somewhere.

The only real question is how many Season Tickets will be sold for next year if they go 1-8 in the Big Ten?

diehard said:

Can the D be any worse without a coordinator? 645 yards to Illinois? Can him now and start looking for a real D coordinator. Give Smith a chance to land on his feet too. He can likely be quite useful somewhere.

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There is little to be gained by firing him now. All that does is make things even harder on the remaining defensive staff. In the case of Illinois, Lovie Smith is a defense guy so I am sure it was pretty easy for him to jump over to that side of the ball and become more involved with Nickerson leaving. Fleck is an offense guy so it wouldn't work the same way for us.

If they do in fact decide to make a move it will be after the season when all the coach hiring and firing typically takes place.

If it happens, I would be willing to bet it will be a 4 - 3 man.