CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Bret Bielema had a strange introduction to the Illinois football team. With a pandemic ravaging the country, Bielema had to address his players with a half-covered face, while he could only see his players’ eyes above cloth sheets covering their noses and mouths.
“The first time I met them, I am sitting in a room and I am at the front of the room with a mask. I’m looking at a room of guys I don’t know with masks, ”said Bielema. “It is just a very unusual way of performing.”
Despite the mask, Bielema was able to portray his passion and excitement for his third opportunity to coach power-five – this time in his home state – and emphasize the importance of all over 100 players (he did not recruit) for him and your program. This relationship grew during Bielema’s first month at work through individual meetings and Zoom meetings. And given the rate of return of these more than 100 players, this relationship has been positive.
Although the pandemic created many difficulties, the NCAA’s pandemic rule, giving all players an extra year of eligibility, actually gives Bielema a better chance of initial success – and Bielema made it clear on Wednesday that he does not plan to long-term reconstruction with Illini.
More than 15 veterans – who would have been forced to move in any other year – will return for an extra season to play for Bielema, including the starting quarterback Brandon Peters, three matches on the offensive line, three matches on the defensive line, starting on the defensive back Tony Adams and all three initial experts. While many of those who returned would have used the extra year of eligibility under any Illini coach, Bielema helped to convince the defensive side of the Big Ten on the Second Team Owen carney come back after entering the transfer portal and convince Adams not to enter the transfer portal.
Although he takes on a show that has only had one bowl appearance since 2015, Bielema will now return to one of Big Ten’s most seasoned lineups that has a real chance of competing in the West division in 2021, possibly giving Bielema a better launching point for his mandate to sell to potential customers.
“Everyone thinks that this COVID thing is bad business because of how restrictive it is, but in reality, there has never been a better time for a Division I football transition because you can recruit an entire class of veterans, which I have actively tried every day, ”said Bielema. “Some stayed, some moved on and managed to keep a lot of guys who normally went out the door. That was a great asset for the guys that we could retain, so it’s really like an entire bonus class. “
Get 60% DISCOUNT on the first year of an annual VIP pass for Illini Inquirer!
Of course, Bielema was unable to convince everyone to stay. First All-Big Ten striker team Kendrick Green, Linebacker of the second All-Big Ten team Jake Hansenmain receiver Josh Imatorbhebheinitial linebacker Milo Eifler and starting cornerback Nate Hobbs everyone joined the project. But the still relatively new transfer portal also gave Bielema the benefit of more easily filling the immediate holes.
So far, Bielema has added six transfers, many from successful programs, including Notre Dame WR Jafar Armstrong, Alabama DB Eddie Smith, Georgia DB Prather Hudson, NC State LB Calvin Hart, Michigan State FB / TE Max Rosenthal and ECU RB Chase Hayden. All of these players are expected to be eligible immediately to assist Bielema’s goal of early success with Illini.
“We have already added some guys to our squad now that, a) I know they needed to be good players, but they needed to be good people,” said Bielema. “I wanted to bring people who represent what I know we need here. That’s why we specifically target not just players, but perhaps players from certain types of programs that have a winning tradition. Some of them very, very winning traditions. Bringing that to your locker room is something unique. You can bring this up as a coach, but if you can bring it up as a player, it means something. “
Except for Hudson, all of these transfers have several years of remaining eligibility, so they are not just one-year patches on Illini holes. Even so, Bielema also dedicated some long-term scholarships. Within a week of the spring subscription period (which starts on February 3), Bielema won two preparation appointments during the past month, three stars in Alabama running back Josh McCray (6 ft -1, 220) and three Georgia stars outside the linebacker Dwayne Johnson (6 ft-4, 225), which both have body types and skill sets that were missing from Bielema’s inherited list.
However, after inheriting a class of 14 people from 2021 from the previous team, Bielema is being a little picky about who follows in a 2021 recruiting class that has few uncommitted candidates left – especially with Illinois on just a few scholarships Limit of 25 scholarships in the Class of 2021.
“I really didn’t want to go back to 2021 and get some guys just to get some guys,” said Bielema. “I want to get guys of high caliber. We will hire some guys here in about a week. But for the most part, I really focused on guys that we can add now that I knew. “
And “now” seems to be the biggest focus of Bielema. He inherited a turbulent program in Arkansas and lost his first 13 SEC games. He recovered and won 10 of his next 18 SEC games, but the weight of his first losses seemed to drag him down, as he lost 9 of his last 10 SEC games in Arkansas to win a pink slip.
Unlike its predecessor in Illinois, Lovie Smith, who unsuccessfully destroyed his legacy list from Illini to install his own young recruits – hoping this would lead to a future success that never happened – Bielema is striving to win now so he can win more later. Bielema won’t really know what’s in her squad until she can step onto the field and train her inherited squad this spring and fall.
But Bielema is not masking his intentions. He emphasized over the past month and again on Wednesday that his best chance for initial success is to make the most of the cast he inherited and add some of his own handpicked, immediate impact transfers.
“I’m trying to get the best players so that we can have the best team we can this year,” said Bielema. “I’m not going to skip a stage to be where we want to be, but I’m trying to be good now. I don’t want to wait three years from now. I think, due to the way the rules are now, you can try to do that. I also know that we have a lot of work to do. “