The University of Illinois football program is making history.

The Big 10 Conference member is the lone FBS school with an African-American head coach — Lovie Smith — and African-American offensive and defensive coordinators — Garrick McGee and Hardy Nickerson, respectively.

It’s the first time the top three positions have been held by African-Americans with the Power 5 Conference — the Big 10, Southeast, ACC, Big 12 and Pac 12.

The Smith era of Fightin’ Illini football began Sept. 3 with a 52-3 rout over Murray State University. Then last Saturday, Illinois lost to visiting University of North Carolina 48-23 before 60,670 fans. It was the University of Illinois’ first sellout since 2010.

African-American coaches, long under-represented in major college’s top tier, are rare on football Saturdays. Coach Smith is one of just 13 African-American head coaches at the 128 schools competing on the highest level of NCAA football, Football Bowl Subdivision, FBS. 

That’s an increase of two coaches from a year ago.

Since the end of 2015, three African-American coaches have been fired, including Mike London at the University of Virginia.

Coach Smith is among five FBS newcomers. Another first-year coach is Everett Withers, who left James Madison University in Virginia (FCS, second tier) for Texas State University.

Bowling Green State University in Ohio lost an African-American coach when Dino Babers left for Syracuse University, but then hired Mike Jinks, who is African-American.

East Carolina University fired Ruffin McNeill and hired another African-American head coach, Scottie Montgomery.

Coach Smith, 58, has a solid NFL pedigree. He was 81-63 as the Chicago Bears head coach from 2004 to 2012. In 2006, he guided the Bears to the Super Bowl, where the team lost to the Indianapolis Colts, which were led by another African-American coach, Tony Dungy.

In the past two years, Coach Smith was 8-24 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In March, he signed a six-year deal with the University of Illinois worth $21 million. Within 48 hours after his hiring, Illinois sold more than 2,000 season tickets and 400 student tickets.

The Illini haven’t enjoyed a winning season since going 7-6 in 2011 and haven’t come close to filling the 61,000-seat Memorial Stadium in recent years.

Soon after Coach Smith’s hiring was announced in Champaign, Ill., he brought on McGee and Nickerson as his top aides. Both have sparkling resumes.

McGee, 43, has served as offensive coordinator at Northwestern University, the University of Arkansas and, most recently, the University of Louisville.

Nickerson, 51, is a former All-Pro NFL linebacker who was named Whizzer White NFL Man of the Year in 1997. Most recently he served as an assistant under Coach Smith at Tampa Bay.

Easily the most successful African-American college coach is David Shaw at Stanford University. The Cardinals are 55-14 under Coach Shaw, including 36-9 in the Pac 12.

Coach Shaw has guided Stanford to three Rose Bowls, winning twice. His team this season features Heisman Trophy contender Christian McCaffrey.

Another African-American coach, Texas A&M University’s Kevin Sumlin, coached 2012 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, a testament to the coaches’ ability to recruit talented players.

Statistics from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports give some indication why the college football coaching profession is predominantly white, despite the fact that 53.4 percent of FBS players in 2015 were African-American.

According to the institute, or TIDES, 89.9 percent of college presidents, 86.7 percent of athletic directors and 100 percent of athletic conference commissioners at the FBS level were white in 2015.