The Illinois Fighting Illini have brought home Bret Bielema, who was born in Prophetstown, IL, to lead their program after the Lovie Smith era. Bielema returns to the collegiate coaching ranks after leading both the Wisconsin (2006-2012) and Arkansas (2013-2017) programs before entering the pro game as an assistant for the past three years. Most people will recall Bielema’s time at Wisconsin as the Badgers would have success under his leadership with an overall record of 68-24 and three BigTen championships, while building a reputation for bruising offensive line play and a strong defense to win games.
However Bielema’s career is not without some disappointments as he left Wisconsin having lost consecutive Rose Bowls and in December of 2012 leaving to take over the Arkansas Razorbacks, where the success he had in Madison never traveled with him to Fayetteville. Bielema would be fired from his post as Head Coach at Arkansas in November of 2017 after posting an overall record of 29-34, far below the expectations people were looking for when he was hired five years prior.
Now, after spending three years away from the collegiate game, Bielema returns to his home state where he will be tasked with building the program up to sustained levels of competitive play. The keyword here being “sustained,” as the last time one could say Illinois had competitive teams was back when Ron Zook was in charge. However, even in those years (2005-2011), the Illinois fan base observed some pretty low lows.
Like all things, time will tell if this hire will turn out to be any good, but Illinois is bringing back a coach to the BigTen who knows the recruiting landscape well, can connect to recruits as a native of the state, was a former player in the conference at Iowa, and lastly was a coach who has had success in the BigTen. Perhaps a coach with this type of resume is exactly what Illinois needs to begin competing for the conference crown.