CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Since he was hired to coach football at Illinois in March, Lovie Smith has had a full calendar.

He has been busy coaching, recruiting and, every chance he gets, preaching the power of possibility to a team and a fan base hungry for victories after years of mediocrity on the field and turmoil off it.

Smith insists that so far, it has not been much different from what he grew accustomed to as coach of the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But a coach’s path to college from the N.F.L. is not always straightforward. Some who have made that move say coaching college teams is like being a general manager, with a hand in every aspect of the program. Coaching pro football, they say, is almost purely football.