Bielema Hired By Illinois

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btowngopher said:
They’ve had arguably one of the best recruiting bases in the B1G forever if you’re talking proximity to talent, it hasn’t translated, I don’t think Bielema is some kind of savant recruiter that will make it happen.
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Proximity without wins is meaningless.

Ask TC high star football recruits!!!
 

Nomellini said:
Bielema was an able custodian of the program that Alvarez built. Not sure that he kept it rolling by winning over recruits with personal charisma. Don't think we can assume that he is a builder as he failed in that role at Arkansas. Lots depends on assistant coaching budget and astute hiring in those capacities as Bielema will certainly need lots of expert help. Rural setting of Champaign has not been a traditional asset in building a Chicagoland pipeline.
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2 hr drive? Nice to get out of the city? College town? Granted, it’s a lot of foreign computer science/engineering students.

Madison isn’t exactly Manhatten. The downtown/lakes is very nice, but that’s it.
 

builtbadgers said:
Great deal of truth there. At UW it is follow the formula and you will have great success in the conference. At Arkansas he tried to invent the wheel .
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What about Illinois? Can’t he just use the UW formula?
 

cncmin said:
I view his success at Wisconsin an offshoot of the Alvarez success - which UW coach hasn't done well there since Alvarez took over? They're plug-and-play. His terrible tenure at Arkansas is more along the lines of what I'd expect from such a chump and is more predictive of what his tenure will be like at Illinois, which is very similar to Arkansas - the dump of their division.
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SEC West is an impossible division for Ark.

It by no means will be “easy” for him at Illinois. But certainly easier than what Wisconsin had in the Legends division.

Why can whoever coaches Wisc just plug in a formula, but a guy who did exactly that to two legit Rose Bowls with his own guys (Watt, Wilson), not do that the next state over?
 

Totally get that folks here simply hate him, as a person.

But that’s not how it’s going to work, as far as if he succeeds at Ill.
 


forever a gopher said:
As some have referenced his recruiting acumen. Can you imagine that massive D-bag sitting down in your living room, and having your child agree to go play for him? I'm no Frost fan, but I'd much rather send my kid to play for him than play for Burt.
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At least Illinois is a great school. Can't say that about Nebraska.
 

MplsGopher said:
Totally get that folks here simply hate him, as a person.

But that’s not how it’s going to work, as far as if he succeeds at Ill.
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I think he can do well.
He'll win more D-line recruits than Lovie did, which may be bad for us.
PJ will have to keep tapping new markets.
 

I would expect him to do better than Lovie, that bar is super low. I don’t think it’s a great hire though, but a safe one, he’s never built a program. I feel like he is going to try to do what Kill basically did and try to copy Iowa and Wisconsin’s style, I don’t think that’s the best way to topple those programs.
 

Word said:
At least Illinois is a great school. Can't say that about Nebraska.
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That's kind of why I think Nebraska will turn around. They'll sell their souls to win in football.
 



I was just looking at his record.
He actually had a decent record at Arkansas.
Three winning seasons and beat two top 18 teams each year.
 

I think it's a good hire for them. It will take him a few years to build the type of Oline he needs/wants to play his style of football. From a Minnesota perspective, we've struggled with the Wisconsin/Iowa style for a long time spanning multiple coaches and I think Illinios will look similar. One other interesting wrinkle? Could Bielema end up as the successor to Ferentz if he has a couple nice years at Illinois...or will Ferentz's kid get the job?
 

Are they going to pay him enough?

He's still in that lawsuit with Arkansas aren't they?
 




FWIW, here is one Wisconsin perspective.

1) Bielema can recruit. He recruited high-character kids who wanted to play. In this, he actually did better than Alvarez, but he had a much better program to entice kids to. He always said he watched how a recruit treated his mother.

2) BIelema hired good assistants and treated them well.

3) Bielema was not a great game manager, but he ran a pretty efficient program. That alone could be mind-boggling for Illinois.

4) The biggest thing Badger fans have against BB is the way he left. Much of this, rightly or wrongly, has been attributed to his wife's influence, who, the story goes, was tired or running into women around Madison who gave her that "knowing look." They have been married several years now, with two young kids, I don't know that this will be an issue.

5) Badger fans will never forget Jen Bielema's "Karma" tweet.

I think BB will do well at Illinois, enough so that I would rather he took a job outside the B1G.
 

Maybe he can ruin another Robb Smith. didn't he do pretty well his first year then sucked after that? Then of course he came to the U.
 

btowngopher said:
I would expect him to do better than Lovie, that bar is super low. I don’t think it’s a great hire though, but a safe one, he’s never built a program. I feel like he is going to try to do what Kill basically did and try to copy Iowa and Wisconsin’s style, I don’t think that’s the best way to topple those programs.
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Bolded: interested to hear your take on why not?

In my personal preference of "style" of football, Iowa and Wisconsin do it correctly, in my opinion, and I wish we did it that way too. At least on offense.


Will be interesting to see what Bielema does on defense. He's always been on the defensive side of the ball, and was Barry's DC for his last two seasons.

So will he do Wisconsin's style of 3-4 with lots of moving parts and blitzes? (actually, it often looked like they only had two guys in 3-point stances last night) Or will it be a more traditional 4-3 pro style defense like Iowa does?
 

TAW said:
FWIW, here is one Wisconsin perspective.

1) Bielema can recruit. He recruited high-character kids who wanted to play. In this, he actually did better than Alvarez, but he had a much better program to entice kids to. He always said he watched how a recruit treated his mother.

2) BIelema hired good assistants and treated them well.

3) Bielema was not a great game manager, but he ran a pretty efficient program. That alone could be mind-boggling for Illinois.

4) The biggest thing Badger fans have against BB is the way he left. Much of this, rightly or wrongly, has been attributed to his wife's influence, who, the story goes, was tired or running into women around Madison who gave her that "knowing look." They have been married several years now, with two young kids, I don't know that this will be an issue.

5) Badger fans will never forget Jen Bielema's "Karma" tweet.

I think BB will do well at Illinois, enough so that I would rather he took a job outside the B1G.
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Do you agree with the general idea that after 2010 & 2011, and with the Big Ten screwing Wisconsin over in the Legends division (and no playoff at the time), that it appeared that it was going to be very difficult to win championships in Madison going forward? And that was the main reason he left?

Or do you really think the main reason they left is that his wife was tired of him cheating on her? (she could, you know, just file for divorce ... but that's only my opinion, none of my business)
 

MplsGopher said:
Do you agree with the general idea that after 2010 & 2011, and with the Big Ten screwing Wisconsin over in the Legends division (and no playoff at the time), that it appeared that it was going to be very difficult to win championships in Madison going forward? And that was the main reason he left?

Or do you really think the main reason they left is that his wife was tired of him cheating on her? (she could, you know, just file for divorce ... but that's only my opinion, none of my business)
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And he thought Arkansas would be an easier place to win a championship?
 

btowngopher said:
And he thought Arkansas would be an easier place to win a championship?
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You got me there. I would agree that it is a harder place. So I'm not sure if it was just the money, or what. Maybe he just wanted to get out fast, and that was the best situation he could find at the moment.

Given the facts of the matter, about Wisconsin's situation in 2012, I just can't see how that didn't play a significant role.
 

MplsGopher said:
Bolded: interested to hear your take on why not?

In my personal preference of "style" of football, Iowa and Wisconsin do it correctly, in my opinion, and I wish we did it that way too. At least on offense.


Will be interesting to see what Bielema does on defense. He's always been on the defensive side of the ball, and was Barry's DC for his last two seasons.

So will he do Wisconsin's style of 3-4 with lots of moving parts and blitzes? (actually, it often looked like they only had two guys in 3-point stances last night) Or will it be a more traditional 4-3 pro style defense like Iowa does?
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I feel like they’ve already perfected the style. They’ve been playing it forever, they have a million results to show for it. I just don’t think a copycat can come in and do it better.
 

btowngopher said:
I feel like they’ve already perfected the style. They’ve been playing it forever, they have a million results to show for it. I just don’t think a copycat can come in and do it better.
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I don't think they do anything that is bizarre, and he was obviously there, so he knows exactly what they do. And it's just one state over. If anything, maybe BB will try to recruit Wisc kids out of Wisc and over to Champaign?
 

MplsGopher said:
Do you agree with the general idea that after 2010 & 2011, and with the Big Ten screwing Wisconsin over in the Legends division (and no playoff at the time), that it appeared that it was going to be very difficult to win championships in Madison going forward? And that was the main reason he left?

Or do you really think the main reason they left is that his wife was tired of him cheating on her? (she could, you know, just file for divorce ... but that's only my opinion, none of my business)
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I never heard any umors of cheating, just a lot of women who knew Bret in his bachelor days. The better chance to win a Natl Championship at Arkansas never made sense, although the desire to get out from under Barry's shadow did.
 

TAW said:
I never heard any umors of cheating, just a lot of women who knew Bret in his bachelor days. The better chance to win a Natl Championship at Arkansas never made sense, although the desire to get out from under Barry's shadow did.
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Oh. That other knowing look. LOL. Ok that makes sense.

I'm not saying Ark had a better chance. That part I agree, makes no sense. I'm just saying, Wisc was put in a screwed over position to try to take the next step to become a consistently elite Big Ten program. Agree, or not?
 

MplsGopher said:
Oh. That other knowing look. LOL. Ok that makes sense.

I'm not saying Ark had a better chance. That part I agree, makes no sense. I'm just saying, Wisc was put in a screwed over position to try to take the next step to become a consistently elite Big Ten program. Agree, or not?
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I've tried to blank the entire Legends and Leaders bullshit out of my mind. I guess I never thought of it in terms of being able to win; I was just pissed at not playing out traditional rivals each year.

My favorite alternate name for the two divisions was "Where is Wisconsin?" and "Why is Wisconsin here?"
 

TAW said:
I've tried to blank the entire Legends and Leaders bullshit out of my mind. I guess I never thought of it in terms of being able to win; I was just pissed at not playing out traditional rivals each year.

My favorite alternate name for the two divisions was "Where is Wisconsin?" and "Why is Wisconsin here?"
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What’s amazing is if the divisions were still legends and leaders and added either Rutgers or Maryland to the legends....Minnesota’s path to a big ten title game would be so much easier right now.
 

If I’m not mistaken BB wanted to leave Madison because he felt he couldn’t keep his coordinators because the budget wasn’t there
 

MplsGopher said:
Bolded: interested to hear your take on why not?

In my personal preference of "style" of football, Iowa and Wisconsin do it correctly, in my opinion, and I wish we did it that way too. At least on offense.


Will be interesting to see what Bielema does on defense. He's always been on the defensive side of the ball, and was Barry's DC for his last two seasons.

So will he do Wisconsin's style of 3-4 with lots of moving parts and blitzes? (actually, it often looked like they only had two guys in 3-point stances last night) Or will it be a more traditional 4-3 pro style defense like Iowa does?
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He stated the defense will be a 3-4 look.
 

Some guy said:
If I’m not mistaken BB wanted to leave Madison because he felt he couldn’t keep his coordinators because the budget wasn’t there
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History has not given much support for this reason/excuse.

FTR, BB, like BA, always supported staff who wanted to move upward, even if it meant outward.
 


TAW said:
History has not given much support for this reason/excuse.

FTR, BB, like BA, always supported staff who wanted to move upward, even if it meant outward.
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For sure. But didn’t he lose a coordinator who left to be a coordinator at another school a year or two before he left? The person didn’t leave to move upward...they left to make a lateral move with a pay raise?
I could be mistaken as I can’t remember the name of the coordinator I was thinking of


I might be thinking of Dave Aranda leaving for LSU which wouldn’t fit the timeline
 

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