John Mackovic will be named head football coach at the University of Illinois Wednesday, unless Athletic Director Neale Stoner was overruled by the university`s Athletic Association Board of Control in a meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening.
”No decision has been made,” Illinois` interim Chancellor Morton Weir said early Tuesday. ”Our original plan was to set up a press conference for tomorrow. We hope we can stick with that schedule but, if not, we will delay.”
After the closed meeting, the board will make its recommendation to Weir, who will forward the recommendation to university President Stanley Ikenberry.
Weir also said the board will be interviewing one more coaching candidate before its Tuesday night meeting.
Sources in Champaign indicate that candidate is former Northwestern coach Dennis Green. Green, currently a member of the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff, is also considered a leading contender for the vacant Los Angeles Raiders head coaching position.
Green is the fourth candidate to receive an interview, joining Mackovic, current Illinois defensive coordinator Howard Tippett and Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Collette on the list.
Feb. 3 has been the school`s target date for naming a successor to Mike White, who resigned under the cloud of an NCAA investigation, two weeks ago. Stoner had hoped to have a coach on board before the school goes before the NCAA Committee on Infractions Friday in Orlando and before Feb. 10, the earliest date high school recruits can sign a national letter of intent.
Mackovic, a former Wake Forest and Kansas City Chiefs coach who has been out of a job since he was fired by the Chiefs after the 1986 season, has long been a Stoner favorite. He was a finalist for the Illinois job that White got in 1979.
Mackovic could not be reached at his Winston-Salem, N.C., home early Tuesday.
The board, however, is not sold on Mackovic. Tippett, who has no head coaching experience, has drawn considerable support among board members, Illinois players and the high school coaching community throughout the state. One source in Champaign described the rift between Stoner and the board as a ”very ugly situation.”
Illinois spent two years on NCAA probation during White`s tenure and the football program was a source of almost constant controversy from the day White arrived until the day he left. For that reason, Stoner and Weir have publicly insisted the next Illini coach must have a reputation above reproach. Stoner has also indicated the coach must have both head coaching experience and a widely-recognized name in the business, a factor which has worked against Tippett from the beginning.
”I don`t want our coach to have to spend six months explaining why he`d just been fired from his last job,” Stoner said the day after White resigned. Mackovic, however, may have to do just that. The 44-year-old Mackovic left college coaching to become quarterback coach at Dallas in 1980. He spent two seasons there before taking over at Kansas City.
In 1986, Mackovic coached the Chiefs to their first playoff appearance since 1971, but was fired shortly after that season, in large part because he had lost favor of many Kansas City players.
Tippett, 49, joined White`s staff before the 1987 season. He had previously spent six seasons as linebacker and special teams coach for the Tampa Bay Buccanneers. He had also spent 16 seasons as an assistant coach at eight universities.
