Bret Bielema Takes Reins of Illinois Football

#326      
the Castle on Daniel
Fighter of the Nightman said:
You can poke holes in any hire that we are going to be able to make, given the state of our program. I am stoked with this!
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I agree, but I have a sinking feeling in my gut that tells me we're going 3-9, 3-9, 4-8, 4-8, Bret fired and we're no closer to mediocrity than we are now. There was no rush to find someone this year. A program as lackluster as ours needs to be sold over months to the right person. We should have spent all of this year selling the program to someone consistent and underpaid and made money moves in 2021. Lovie was happy to retire then anyway.

I generally don't have strong opinions on FB hires and I hope I'm wrong, but I'm convinced this is one we'll have buyers remorse on fairly early in his tenure.
 
#330      
Gregjacksonfan
ChocolateThunder said:
Agreed:
After a series of new hires and raises, 14 coaches in the conference are making about $67.8 million per year. That equates to an average salary of about $4.84 million.
9 football coaches in the Big 10 will have a higher salary
saturdaytradition.com

USA Today coaches salary database: How much every B1G head coach is scheduled to make in 2020

Here's a look at how much every B1G head coach will earn this year.
saturdaytradition.com saturdaytradition.com
Hi salary seems in line with what is currently being paid to coach Big 10 football.
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That’s crazy. I should of become a Big Ten football coach instead of jr high PE teacher. What was I thinking
 
#331      
illini80
Joel Goodson said:
Impulse decision? lol

Recruiting was mediocre (being kind), and trending down. Utter no-brainer.
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You are being very kind today. 🙂 I didn’t finish the job but was looking at the 247 rankings since Lovie was hired and on average we are either last or very close to it over that period. Lovie was able to bring in some bandaid transfers to cover up the worst of it, but I think it’s fair to say even the bulk of transfers were players that never lived up to their potential as recruits for whatever reason.

I think the potential is there to get some better coaching and see an immediate bump in performance on the field. A lot will depend on who fills out the staff obviously. I’m hopeful, if not confident we are in a better place.
 
#332      
ChiefGritty
the Castle on Daniel said:
A program as lackluster as ours needs to be sold over months to the right person.
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That simply is not the way the business works.

These things are shotgun weddings always, everywhere, and cannot be any other way because of the nature of the calendar and the responsibilities of coaching.

As a way to square your inconsistent statements of "we're the worst dumpster fire in the history of the universe" and "we can do much better", saying it's a matter of yearlong recruiting totally fails the realism test.
 
#333      
Fanview
the Castle on Daniel said:
We should have spent all of this year selling the program to someone consistent and underpaid and made money moves in 2021. Lovie was happy to retire then anyway.
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Let me get this straight... People would rather have the face of our program be someone no one believes in for another year and use that time to go on a coach hunt? What job out there takes a year to feel out candidates?

This is the perfect time. Covid year. Our facilities are still fresh in everyone's mind. On paper, good hire. I'd rather clean house now
 
#334      
Wokker
ChiefGritty said:
Irrational contempt for "retreads" and irrational contempt for mid-major coaches are the yin and the yang of coaching searches.

I'm actually kinda surprised there wasn't more full-throated advocacy for Clawson on that basis actually.
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Agreed on Clawson.

Whether it was BB or LL, there’s a huge contingent of fans who would be irate.

I’d rather go with the vanilla hire LL than the potential public embarrassment BB, but it’s like choosing between various types of nut shots.
Such is life as an Illinois football fan.
 
#335      
BretMyBeachHouse
the Castle on Daniel said:
A program as lackluster as ours needs to be sold over months to the right person.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm sure this is one we'll have buyers remorse on fairly early in his tenure.
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It doesn't work this way. It's just as likely that the guy you've sweet talked for a year goes 10-2 and becomes the next coach at Maryland or Oregon or Georgia.

The actual timing of this move might have been very good actually. The coaching carousel is pretty slow this year, perhaps because of the pandemic. Because of that, we're actually not competing against as many schools for the people we might have targeted.
 
#336      
FinalFour88
the Castle on Daniel said:
We could have spent the year tempting head coaches at P5 schools that are consistent but underpaid. We'd have some post-pandemic clarity on the reality of our situation. This whole season has been a wash. There was no rush to part ways with Lovie. I'd rather be set back one year than 4+. At best, Bret will give us what Lovie was. He's not the guy for the job, but we're stuck with him for at least four years.
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I say AT WORST Bret gives us what Lovie did. Lovie had a great win against Wisky and a great comeback win against a mediocre MSU team. And no other good wins. That was in five years.
 
#337      
illiniCA
Illinois_2_AZ said:
Per Tom Coughlin, 2 time Super Bowl champion coach with the NY Giants "He’s helped so much,” Coughlin said recently. “I’d say the biggest thing that works so well for Coach B is he’s such a great teacher. I think that a lot of times you can get coaches that aren’t specifically great teachers. That dude is a great teacher. He’s super detailed with it. For a rookie at the beginning, it was a lot to take in. As we’ve progressed throughout the year and all that kind of stuff, it’s paid off so much ... he’s a great coach.”
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Carter Coughlin not Tom
 
#338      
illini80
the Castle on Daniel said:
I agree, but I have a sinking feeling in my gut that tells me we're going 3-9, 3-9, 4-8, 4-8, Bret fired and we're no closer to mediocrity than we are now. There was no rush to find someone this year. A program as lackluster as ours needs to be sold over months to the right person. We should have spent all of this year selling the program to someone consistent and underpaid and made money moves in 2021. Lovie was happy to retire then anyway.

I generally don't have strong opinions on FB hires and I hope I'm wrong, but I'm convinced this is one we'll have buyers remorse on fairly early in his tenure.
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That would be vastly underperforming his past results over a long career. Seems unlikely to me.
 
#342      
JFGsCoffeeMug
the Castle on Daniel said:
We could have spent the year tempting head coaches at P5 schools that are consistent but underpaid. We'd have some post-pandemic clarity on the reality of our situation. This whole season has been a wash. There was no rush to part ways with Lovie. I'd rather be set back one year than 4+. At best, Bret will give us what Lovie was. He's not the guy for the job, but we're stuck with him for at least four years.
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Needed a new head coach to take advantage of the upcoming transfer market. Lovie would have squandered the opportunity. Waiting another year was not an option. The time to strike was now.
 
#344      
ChiefGritty
illini80 said:
That would be vastly underperforming his past results over a long career.
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And yet it still may very well happen. It's a tough job, our roster is in shaky at best shape, and Bielema is someone who had a bit of a negative reputation EVEN WHEN WINNING for a reason. This whole thing could look like a disaster in a year on all fronts.

That said, the Lovie era was truly a road to nowhere, and this hire has a surface-level plausibility in addressing what those problems and needs are. The proof will be in the pudding.
 
#345      
the Castle on Daniel
BretMyBeachHouse said:
It doesn't work this way. It's just as likely that the guy you've sweet talked for a year goes 10-2 and becomes the next coach at Maryland or Oregon or Georgia.

The actual timing of this move might have been very good actually. The coaching carousel is pretty slow this year, perhaps because of the pandemic. Because of that, we're actually not competing against as many schools for the people we might have targeted.
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This is anything but a typical year and I don't think that'll play in our favor. I guess we'll wait and see, but I'm down on the hire.

illini80 said:
That would be vastly underperforming his past results over a long career. Seems unlikely to me.
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Wisconsin and Arkansas are very different than Illinois. He didn't build Wisconsin up and from what I've read, his time at Arkansas wasn't impressive either. Much easier to sell those two programs than ours, even with Arkansas being an unsexy SEC team.
 
#346      
IllinoisOKC
the Castle on Daniel said:
I agree, but I have a sinking feeling in my gut that tells me we're going 3-9, 3-9, 4-8, 4-8, Bret fired and we're no closer to mediocrity than we are now. There was no rush to find someone this year. A program as lackluster as ours needs to be sold over months to the right person. We should have spent all of this year selling the program to someone consistent and underpaid and made money moves in 2021. Lovie was happy to retire then anyway.

I generally don't have strong opinions on FB hires and I hope I'm wrong, but I'm convinced this is one we'll have buyers remorse on fairly early in his tenure.
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Lovie had one more year on his co tract, normally you exteythe coach or you do nothing and help kill recruiting(not that lovie helped) or you fire the coach and move on. Lovie deserved an extension? Only reason he wasn’t fired last year was a Wisconsin win and a cone back victory vs mich st, though exciting we all were blind to see the team wasn’t improving despite the large amount of upperclassmen. It had to be done or like you said 3-9,3-9,4-8,4-8 was going to happen. Bielma atleast should get us the talent to challenge iowa or Wisconsin but we should expect to beat minny purdue nebraska, and not get rolled by nw routinely. Its easy, win your non con cupcake games (3-0) and go 3-6, 4-5 heck maybe 5-4 in conference and u win 6-7 maybe 8 games. Build talent and 7/8 wins tho not easy but shouldn’t be impossible.
 
#348      
Wokker
Gregjacksonfan said:
How can u even think keeping Lovie for another year was a good idea?? He’s been mailing it in for the last 12 months
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Anyone else here in the camp of both knowing Lovie had to go and knowing BB is not the answer?

Illini fan hopelessness spreads over me like a warm, familiar blanket...
 
#349      
Ubermensch
the Castle on Daniel said:
Does he want the job or is it a convenient job? I'm thinking it's the latter.
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Castle, I understand why you're skeptical, but I think you're focusing on the wrong things, bud. The answer to your question is, it doesn't matter. The question is, can he do the job? I think the answer is clearly yes, though you may disagree.
 
#350      
illiram11
Honestly i'm not sure if Bear Bryant or Tom Osbourne was the coach of the Illini if we would win in the next few years. There's much more wrong than just the coach. We need to restore confidence in the entire program and re-create the culture of the 80s and 90s that some of us older guys loved so much. Recruiting had to be the #1 reason that Bielema was hired. Why would we not re-hire Zook if recruiting was #1? We sure had some great players under Zook.
 
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