Football: Prophetstown native Bielema happy to be back in Illinois, Big Ten

After spending 21 of his first 23 years in college football in the Big Ten, Bret Bielema is back home.

In December, the Prophetstown native was hired as the new head coach at the University of Illinois, taking over for the fired Lovie Smith.

For a kid who grew up in Illinois, played football and coached at Iowa, and led Wisconsin to three straight Rose Bowls as head coach, being back in the Land of Lincoln is a dream come true.

“It’s awesome. It’s great to go back to B-1-G, right to media days, I just had so many memories of all the things there,” Bielema said at Illinois’ Media Day on Aug. 14 at Memorial Stadium. “A lot of the people in the Big Ten office that I became very close with when I was in this conference before, building relationships again with a lot of media that I’ve always been around, guys I haven’t seen in forever and get a chance to meet up with.

“It’s all been positive – but we haven’t lost a game yet, so everybody’s really excited,” he added with a chuckle.

Bielema said he’s gotten back to Prophetstown twice since taking the Illinois job, and loves the fact that he can hop in the car and drive for a few hours to see his hometown.

“I got back a couple times, I went back myself solo before spring ball started, then my wife and I snuck back when my mom and dad had their 83rd and 82nd birthdays and their 62nd wedding anniversary, and that was awesome,” Bielema said. “And there’s reminders of being back in Illinois all the time. The other day, we got a large group of 400-level donors and premium seat owners in the stadium, and I went and spoke to the group, and I had all kinds of people coming up afterward: ‘I played golf with your uncle,’ one of my former teachers’ uncles was there – it’s just crazy the randomness that will happen. People will email me or walk up to me or see me in different environments – like in Chicago at a Cubs game – there’s a lot of things in this world that you realize are very connected. You don’t realize it at the time how much connection there is to what you’re doing.”

Bielema played at Iowa from 1989-1992, where he was a member of a Rose Bowl team in the 1990 season and a team co-captain as a senior. He then served as a graduate assistant for the Hawkeyes in 1994 and ‘95, before taking over as linebackers coach from 1996-2001.

After a two-year stint as the co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State – under Bill Snyder, also a disciple of legendary Iowa coach Hayden Fry – Bielema joined another former Hayden Fry guy, Barry Alvarez, as defensive coordinator at Wisconsin in 2004-05. When Alvarez retired as head football coach to take over as the Badgers’ athletic director, Bielema took over as head coach from 2006-12.

After spending five seasons at Arkansas and three in the NFL with the Patriots and Giants, Bielema has returned to his home state to take over the Fighting Illini. He says being back in a college town has been invigorating.

“It’s absolutely awesome, and I love every minute of it,” he said. “It definitely is a different feel from the NFL … to be in Champaign-Urbana and to have people come up to you whenever you’re out and – again, we haven’t lost a game – there’s just so much positive mojo.”

Bielema has brought his own mojo to the Illini locker room, and it has certainly rubbed off on his players.

“You can definitely feel his intensity and energy,” said sixth-year senior center Doug Kramer, a Hinsdale Central grad. “I feel that he has a presence in any room he walks into. When he talks, everyone in that room is going to listen, and he commands that through experience and the respect that we as players have for him as a coach. He definitely has a massive presence, and it’s certainly a positive one.”

With last fall’s COVID season not counting toward players’ eligibility, Kramer was undecided whether he would return for one more season with the Illini. But it only took about an hour for Bielema to convince the standout center.

“It definitely played a major role in me coming back,” Kramer said. “I wasn’t going to make any decision until I found out who the new head coach was going to be and met with him, and within two 30-minute meetings, I was sure he was a guy that I could potentially trust and who was going have our backs as players, but also coach us hard on and off the field to try to be the best people that we can be.

“His coaching experience speaks for itself. He’s won Big Ten championships, he’s coached in the NFL, he’s been to a Rose Bowl as a player; he’s been to all the peaks of this conference specifically, and we’re able to feed off that experience every single day. It definitely shows. Every single meeting I’ve been in, I’ve learned something new about football. That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to come back for a sixth season, was those initial meetings I had with him.”

Kramer isn’t the only veteran player on the Illinois roster to rave about the new coach’s football IQ and what he’s brought to a team that suffered through a 17-39 stretch – including a 10-33 record in the Big Ten – over the past five seasons.

“Coach B has been great. Honestly, he’s been a blessing,” said Kendall Smith, a senior defensive back from Bolingbrook. “He’s really turned a lot of guys around. I know for me personally, as a player and a person, he’s just kind of helped rejuvenate me. He’s taught me so much; he’s only been here a short time, but I’ve learned so much since Coach B has been here. There are times when we’re in team meetings and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, I thought I knew football.’ I’ve been playing football my whole life, and he’s teaching me things I never even thought of.

“He’s been great, just a great leader, he’s been taking care of us and making sure we’ve got what we need, and he’s been going through hoops for us, so we’re going to do the same for him on the field. We’re going to give him our all because he’s given us his all, so I’m excited for that.”

Interactions with the players has been Bielema’s favorite part of being back in college football – “I think the development and the relationships, I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this group, just getting a chance to know them and understand them and see their personalities come through,” he said – and the players’ reactions to being around the new coach have been just as positive.

Wideout Donny Navarro III, a Naperville native and Neuqua Valley grad, transferred to Illinois from Valparaiso a few seasons ago. Bielema is the third coach he’s had in college football, and Navarro is just as impressed with his new coach as Bielema is with the receiver.

“It’s been cool, for sure. I still remember the first phone call that we had, and from that point I was really impressed with him,” said Navarro, who Bielema called the “quiet leader” in the receivers room. “Impressed with his leadership, the standard that he brings, and obviously what he’s done in the past is very attractive. He’s a winner, for sure; he brings a winning attitude everyday, and that’s been something that has been an expectation and a standard that we’re trying to bring here to Illinois.”

The players also get the sense that getting the chance to turn around a college program in his home state is a little extra special for Bielema.

“You can tell it means a lot to him,” Smith said. “He’s from Illinois, and he wants his home state to be relevant. I’m sure he enjoyed his success at Wisconsin, but I think it would mean a lot more to him to have it in his home state. I’m from Illinois too, so we’re on the same page as far as that goes. I’m sure that’s something that kind of gets him going.”

Bielema’s approach is different from Lovie Smith, a longtime NFL coach, and the players have responded well so far. Part of Bielema’s appeal, says Navarro, is the way the new coach works in practice.

“It’s been awesome. I really enjoy being a part of what he does, and being coached by him everyday has been a great experience,” the junior receiver said. “I think one of the things that I really like about Coach B is he puts things into perspective, as far as situational things during a game; he’ll blow the whistle during practice and just pause everyone and say, ‘OK guys, this is the situation we’re dealing with right now, this is why we’re doing it, and this is what we’re going to do,’ and I think that situational awareness has really been a big part of our understanding as players of the game.”

Bielema also knows when to take a bit more lighthearted approach. One of his favorite moments of the offseason saw the players turn the tables on his assistant coaches.

“We had some run-tackle drills, and we had a drill where we had all of our coaches demonstrate the drill. So [offensive coordinator] Tony Petersen threw the ball to [receivers coach] George McDonald, and McDonald advanced the ball and he was angle-tackled by [linebackers coach] Kevin Kane and [defensive coordinator] Ryan Walters, and I just thought, ‘This is too good of an opportunity to let go by,’” Bielema recounted. “So I texted Brandon Peters, Donny Navarro, Owen Carney Jr. and Devon Witherspoon and I brought them in. At first when I sent all four of them a text, I think they all thought, ‘What did I just do?’ and they came in a little apprehensive wondering what was going on.

“A lot of times I’ll get up in front of the room and correct the tape, I’ll rewind it and I’ve got a little telestrator and I’ll show what they did wrong. So I tell these guys, ‘You’re going to critique this play.’ I brought them into my office and told them, ‘You can say and do whatever you want to do,’ and they said, ‘We’ve got permission?’ and I said, ‘You have permission.’ Nobody knew this was going to happen, and it was 10 minutes of nonstop absolute pandemonium hilarious, and it crescendoes with Witherspoon at the end making Coach Walters stand up – and he just undressed him for about 3 minutes.

“It just was that moment where you think, ‘All right, we’re getting this part together.’ They don’t have to like each other, they don’t have to love each other, but they have to respect one another and enjoy one another, and I think that definitely has happened.”

Bielema set goals for the offseason, but said it will be up to the players to determine the team goals this fall. He has his own goals for himself and his coaching staff – “I understand people don’t put money and support into something they don’t believe in, and I want to show them something they can believe in and how well we can represent them, and that’s something I’m hopeful will continue to grow,” he said – but hopes his players are setting the bar even higher for themselves.

“It doesn’t really matter what I think the goals should be; I have high expectations, and I believe in those things and what they are,” he said. “But I hope their expectations are even higher. That’s the challenge of coaching, is to get your players to think they can go even beyond what you believe. On the same account, you want them to understand when you set a goal what it means and how you have a plan to go about doing it.”

In typical Bielema fashion, wins and losses aren’t at the forefront of his mind when talking about what he’d like to see in his first season in Champaign-Urbana. Instead, he talks about more abstract things that have just as much to do with his players learning life lessons and growing as people as the desire to see them become better players.

It’s a message his players have taken to heart and embraced, and one of the main reasons he has earned their respect over the past eight months.

“What I’m hoping to accomplish is I want our players to represent us well,” Bielema said. “I want us to be smart, tough, dependable players, I want us to be able to play a four-quarter game and execute the things I see during the course of the week. Off the field, I want them to represent the people of Illinois and make them happy; whether you’re an alum or donor or fan or resident of Champaign-Urbana, I want our players to represent the ‘Block I’ and what it means.

“We want to try to build and sustain success for a long time, and we don’t want to skip a step to get there.”