After a six-year stay in the desert, Rod Smith is returning to the Big Ten. Lovie Smith on Friday officially named the former Arizona co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach his new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Rod Smith is a Rich Rodriguez protégé. He played quarterback for Rodriguez at Glenville State from 1993-96 and has spent 10 seasons on Rodriguez's offensive staffs, specifically as a groomer of quarterbacks.

“Rod Smith brings terrific and exciting offensive experience to our staff at Illinois,” Lovie Smith said in a statement. “His background and development of dual-threat quarterbacks and multiple-threat offenses is the direction we are going here. Rod has developed explosive quarterback play and offensive performance at each of his coaching stops.”

In 2017, the Arizona offense finished fifth among 129 FBS teams in scoring offense (41.3 points per game), third in rushing offense (309.3 yards per game) and 12th in total offense (489.5 yards per game).

Rod Smith, a West Virginia native, now will be tasked with sparking an anemic Illini offense that finished 126th in scoring offense (15.4 points), 126th (280.4 yards) and 122nd in rushing offense (105.6 yards) during Lovie Smith's second season (2-10 overall, 0-9 Big Ten) -- which led to offensive coordinator Garrick McGee's dismissal.

Before his Arizona tenure, Rod Smith previously spent four years in the Big Ten: as co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Indiana (2011) and quarterbacks coach at Michigan (2008-10).

He also served on the USF staff for six years (2001-06), the last two as the primary playcaller under Jim Leavitt.

Rod Smith has spent more than half his tenure running Rich Rodriguez's spread, up-tempo offense. During the last decade, he has developed some of the more dangerous dual-threat quarterbacks in the college game.

Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate passed for 1,591 yards and ran for 1,411 yards last season, so Smith has plenty of experience working with dual-threat quarterbacks, which Illinois has recruited since Lovie Smith arrived. But Smith also had success with a pass-first quarterback at Arizona. Anu Solomon finished his Arizona career third on the all-time passing yards list after three years as a starter. During the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Solomon combined for 6,448 yards, 48 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.

At Michigan, Rod Smith also helped develop Michigan great Denard Robinson, who passed for a career-high 2,570 yards (18 touchdowns) and ran for a career-high 1,702 yards (14 touchdowns) in Smith's final season in Ann Arbor.

In Rod Smith's one season at West Virginia, quarterback Pat White finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. That season, the Mountaineers great passed for 1,724 yards and 14 touchdowns and ran for 1,335 yards and 14 touchdowns.

As a recruiter, Rod Smith has spent a lot of time in California, Arizona and Florida.

Rod Smith offense rankings

Football Outsiders describes their S&P+ Ratings as "a college football ratings system derived from the play-by-play data of all 800+ of a season's FBS college football games (and 140,000+ plays)." Here are where Smith's offenses (as co-offensive coordinator) ranked among FBS teams in the S&P+ ratings.

Year Program S&P+ ranking 2017 Arizona 8 2016 Arizona 61 2015 Arizona 28 2014 Arizona 32 2013 Arizona 42 2012 Arizona 12 2011 Indiana 85

Rod Smith’s Coaching History