Bielema Hired By Illinois

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spermophilus

spermophilus

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Biggest impact on: Sconnie? Iowa? Northwestern? Minnesota?
 






There are going to be a lot of KARMA signs when he returns to madison the first time
 

Makes sense for Illinois, their last successful HC was a retread.
 

I just threw up all over my phone
 




He'll surely be better than Lovie (tough to be worse and less engaged from what I've read), but I just don't see him building any sort of machine at Illinois. He failed miserably at Arkansas and will be taking over a similarly bad (if not worse) situation at Illinois.
 

I am pretty sure I might hate Illinois more than Iowa and Wisconsin All of a sudden
 





I’ll give him 4 years before getting fired. #tubofgoo Can’t wait to see the Gophers blow ‘em out every year.
 

Been doing some searching for list of coaches who coached at two different schools in the same conference. No luck so far.

Did note that the Gophers have had two coaches who coached at two schools in the Big Ten - Fesler and Crisler. Wes Fesler Coached Ohio State and MN. Fritz Crisler coached MN and Michigan.

So it is certainly not unprecedented. But I think it's become more rare as time goes by.
 

I never looked into it, but back then (in 2012) it made sense why Bielema left Wisconsin: the situation was completely different back then.

Consider:
- at the time, there was no playoff. Just the BCS championship game. Meaning, to make it in the game you had to pretty much be perfect. Any loss, and you were out.
- Wisconsin got thrown into the Leaders Division in 2011. That would've meant, going forward indefinitely, the Badgers would have to beat Ohio State and Penn State each year to win the division, just to make it to the conference championship game, and then have a chance to win that to go to the BCS champ game (if they were perfect)
- 2010 and 2011 were likely the greatest teams in Wisconsin history, up to that point, with JJ Watt and Russell Wilson. There was clearly only one direction to go: down.
- 2012 proved it, Wisconsin went 8-5 in the regular season and 4-4 in the Big Ten, including losing to Ohio State and Penn State (but they backed into the champ game because OSU and PSU weren't eligible)


Now look at their situation (same as the situation at Illinois). A complete and total 180:
- CFP playoff means you can lose a game and still make it
- divisions were re-aligned geographically, and the West is clearly the "weaker" division
- Wisconsin has done quite well recently, able to land some pretty big talent. In theory, Illinois should be well positioned to do something similar, if the program got going and won games. Champaign is a roughly 2-2.5hr drive from Chicago, Indy, and STL.
 


Illinois doesn’t so well in Illinois recruiting, can he change that?

good hire for the Illini unless he has really lost it
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Illinois doesn’t so well in Illinois recruiting, can he change that?

good hire for the Illini unless he has really lost it
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No team that loses as much as Illinois would do well, I would think?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Been doing some searching for list of coaches who coached at two different schools in the same conference. No luck so far.

Did note that the Gophers have had two coaches who coached at two schools in the Big Ten - Fesler and Crisler. Wes Fesler Coached Ohio State and MN. Fritz Crisler coached MN and Michigan.

So it is certainly not unprecedented. But I think it's become more rare as time goes by.
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Definitely doesn't happen much.

Off the top of my head I suppose Nick Saban (LSU, Alabama) would be the most obvious answer.

Others off the top of my head would also include Gary Moeller (Ill, Michigan), Houston Nutt (Arkansas, Ole Miss), Tommy Tuberville (Ole Miss, Auburn), Dan Mullen (Mississippi State, Florida), Chip Kelly (UCLA/Oregon), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss, Tennessee), Ed Orgeron (LSU/Ole Miss), Steve Sarkisian (USC/Washington), Rick Nueheisel (UCLA/Washington) and I'm sure there are some others.
 
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He will bring them to a respectable and dangerous level in two years. The guy knows football and how to coach. The SEC was not for him but the BIG is. He will build huge O and D lines and get great QB's.
 

Seems like the SEC is the most common.

Isn't there some noise that Hugh Freeze (formerly Ole Miss) could get hired for Auburn?
 

gopherjay said:
He will bring them to a respectable and dangerous level in two years. The guy knows football and how to coach. The SEC was not for him but the BIG is. He will build huge O and D lines and get great QB's.
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It's about who you have to play to win the division. Just like Wisc got screwed in the Leaders division, having to play Ohio State and Penn State every year ... Ark has to play Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M and the Miss schools. All of them take football extremely seriously.

Arkansas has had a few great seasons in the SEC, but did a lot of its winning in the Southwest Conference back in the day. Those days are looooong gone ....
 


short ornery norwegian said:
Been doing some searching for list of coaches who coached at two different schools in the same conference. No luck so far.

Did note that the Gophers have had two coaches who coached at two schools in the Big Ten - Fesler and Crisler. Wes Fesler Coached Ohio State and MN. Fritz Crisler coached MN and Michigan.

So it is certainly not unprecedented. But I think it's become more rare as time goes by.
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Don’t watch the SEC title game today. Might hurt your narrative LOL
 

LOL! What a terrible hire. Illinois football is such a mess.
 

tjgopher said:
Definitely doesn't happen much.

Off the top of my head I suppose Nick Saban (LSU, Alabama) would be the most obvious answer.

Others off the top of my head would also include Gary Moeller (Ill, Michigan), Houston Nutt (Arkansas, Ole Miss), Tommy Tuberville (Ole Miss, Auburn), Dan Mullen (Mississippi State, Florida), Chip Kelly (UCLA/Oregon), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss, Tennessee), Ed Orgeron (LSU/Ole Miss), Steve Sarkisian (USC/Washington), Rick Nueheisel (UCLA/Washington) and I'm sure there are some others.
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He coached there in the Big XII years but Neuheisel coached at 3 PAC12 schools if you include Colorado.
 

cncmin said:
LOL! What a terrible hire. Illinois football is such a mess.
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Why is it a terrible hire? He did quite well at Wisconsin, and I explained the reason he left above. He wasn't fired, by any means.

We will see how well he recruits there. It won't be easy winning over Iowa, Wisc, and hopefully the Gophers, but it certainly will be much easier than having to bootstrap against Ohio St, Penn St, Michigan, and Mich State ... and now even Indiana and Rutgers. Don't ya think??
 

Bielema vs. Brewster was fun because it was pretty rare for coaches to just openly hate each other as much as those two did.

I would assume this will raise the level of intensity in the Illinois/Wisconsin matchups. Haven't looked at their boards to see how they are reacting to the news that he is back.
 

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