Bret Bielema Takes Reins of Illinois Football

#527      
AirNeezy
NJJ871 said:
As pointed out by DaChief above, JW did hire Lovie and Fahey. Fahey has been an unmitigated disaster. He can’t afford many (any?) more hires like that, but he bleeds O&B and he’s not a straight up a$$_ole like MT, so much easier to support and forgive.
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Eh, if Underwood continues to shine and Bielema makes us average at least, I would argue that he could hire 5 more women's basketball coaches who never win a game and his job would be safe for life honestly. That's just the way it is at the P5 level.

It hilarious to me that the two people who Josh Whitman might owe his job security the most currently are Chin Coleman and Orlando Antigua!
 
#529      
AirNeezy
NJJ871 said:
100% agree. Yet I remember things like “MT for Prez” because he so heroically fired Zook, Weber and Jolette Law and then embarrassed himself with his public searches that yielded 3 turds to replace them. Great guy
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In the immortal words of Michael Scott himself, "A good manager doesn't fire people. He hires people."

MT was great at the former, an abject failure at the latter.
 
#530      
Ubermensch
BretMyBeachHouse said:
Actually, lots of people at the time were concerned about this.
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I don't think anyone guessed he wouldn't try. They just thought he wouldn't be successful. Lovie was getting outworked. I don't know this first hand, however. That is the narrative being spun around the Internet, and you know how reliable Internet rumors are.
 
#531      
B-ILL
B-ILL said:
Here's your F+ ratings comparison between what Bielema has done in his head coaching career and where Illinois has been during the same timeframe. A few things stand out:

- Bielema did inherit a good program from Alvarez, but actually *improved* it during his last 4 years at Wisconsin
- Top 20 in 4-straight years at Wisconsin, with a peak of #8 in 2011
- The turnaround at Arkansas was substantial - from #87 to #9 by year 2
- The turnaround at Arkansas was short-lived
- It's been a long time since Illinois has been good

View attachment 6860
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Similarly, I did a comparison of recruiting for Bielema's teams and where Illinois has been during the same timeframe. A few other things stand out here:

- Average at Wisconsin during Bielema's 6 classes: 84.52 (doesn't consider JJ Watt transfer nor the Russell Wilson transfer)
- Average at Wisconsin during the 5 classes following him: 85.14
- Average at Arkansas during Bielema's 4 classes: 86.27
- Average at Arkansas during the 6 classes before him: 85.27
- Average at Illinois post-Zook thru 2017: 82.8 (terrible)
- He improved recruiting at Arkansas and performed pretty on par at Wisconsin
- Recruiting in the SEC is traditionally more loaded across the board than in the Big Ten
- If he can recruit at Illinois like he did at Wisconsin as a baseline (classes in the 84-85 range), it will be a MASSIVE improvement

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#532      
EyeoftheIllini
hermie1985 said:
Don’t use the how many seniors come back as a yardstick. Evaluations and discussions need to be honest with those guys. Schools all across the country will be doing the same thing. If they can help us by all means bring them back if they want. Some will leave because they’re ready to get on with their lives; tired of football.
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You are correct. I guess I meant more seniors who it would appear would have a spot if they chose to come back but end up transferring instead. Obviously no way for certain to know for sure what situation is, but then again when do the forums allow that to get in the way.
 
#533      
ChiefGritty
Ubermensch said:
I don't think anyone guessed he wouldn't try. They just thought he wouldn't be successful. Lovie was getting outworked. I don't know this first hand, however. That is the narrative being spun around the Internet, and you know how reliable Internet rumors are.
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He did every galaxy-brained half-measure he could to try to make up for the fact that he wasn't doing enough to get players or hiring a staff with the recruiting chops to carry the load.

First it was firing Josh Sternquist because Lovie's NFL scouting guy (his name eludes me, help me out) was going to be the Tape Whisperer and find great talent that others couldn't.

Then it was hiring Cory Patterson, which, in fairness, worked very well, though obviously is not a scalable, sustainable way to get players.

Then it became the transfer portal.

At all times his staff was carrying around a bunch of guys who were zeroes on the trail. Liggy Stardust, Nickerson, Mike Phair, Gill Byrd, and then above all Miles.

It's so frustrating. You look back on Beckman and truly, he did all he was capable of at Illinois. The first staff - made up of good coaches! - just catastrophically fell apart, and Beckman just isn't the guy that could have recovered from that. We failed by giving him the job in the first place.

Lovie could have been different. Maybe not different enough, but there's so much we had every reason to expect he would have done better. And by the time of the legendary "Chayce Crouch is the undisputed leader of our football team", it was obvious to anyone paying attention that it was all going horribly wrong.

Once bitten, twice shy, I'm going to believe Bielema, another veteran retread getting a fat contract that exceeds his market value, isn't the same story when I see it.
 
#534      
illiniCA
AirNeezy said:
Eh, if Underwood continues to shine and Bielema makes us average at least, I would argue that he could hire 5 more women's basketball coaches who never win a game and his job would be safe for life honestly. That's just the way it is at the P5 level.

It hilarious to me that the two people who Josh Whitman might owe his job security the most currently are Chin Coleman and Orlando Antigua!
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As bad as it may sounds I don’t care about the other sports. He could hire a string of bad WBB coaches and I wouldn’t even know.
 
#539      
illjni 4 ever
altgeld88 said:
Egads. I just returned from a long walk to find that we've given up 42 points to a weak PSU team in the first half. Does anyone recall when we were down 56-0 to them at half in 2005 on Homecoming evening in Champaign? This seems much worse. What a way to end an era.
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I was at that game with 2 o.f my kids. Yikes was it ugly. Sat in the upper east balcony with my choice of seat. Only good thing was when we left half way through third quarter traffic was non existent
 
#540      
hermie1985
AutoPoster 3000 said:
So much cognitive dissonance among us between "Illinois is a coach graveyard and no blue-chip candidate will ever accept this job" and "our athletic directors get exactly two chances to hire Hayden Fry 2.0 or they're canned."
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It might be crazy but it sounds right. Josh is facing tough odd. Neal Stoner the last one to pull off turnarounds in football and basketball. To be truthful, basketball isn’t that hard to attract good coaches. Keeping them has been tougher.
 
#541      
ChiefGritty
altgeld88 said:
Does anyone recall when we were down 56-0 to them at half in 2005 on Homecoming evening in Champaign?
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56-3 after having a 3-0 lead thank you very much.

Had great seats behind the PSU bench for that one (why wasn't I in the student section? Can't remember.) and got reprimanded by Guenther's goon ushers for heckling Paterno.
 
#542      
SKane
I am old enough to remember the post-slush fund years. There were some absolutely devastating losses back then. We even played Notre Dame twice - lost 47 - 7 in 1967 and (to make things symmetric) 58 - 8 in 1968. I don't blame Coach Valek. Some one was going to take the fall and he was the one.

At least BB might work out. ILL should do some worthy commemoration if he can put together three straight 7 - 5 seasons.
 
#544      
chiefini
SKane said:
I am old enough to remember the post-slush fund years. There were some absolutely devastating losses back then. We even played Notre Dame twice - lost 47 - 7 in 1967 and (to make things symmetric) 58 - 8 in 1968. I don't blame Coach Valek. Some one was going to take the fall and he was the one.

At least BB might work out. ILL should do some worthy commemoration if he can put together three straight 7 - 5 seasons.
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I, too, am old enough to remember, SKane. Those two games are the main reasons I really hate Notre Dame. The other is because of the “subway Irish.” When my brother was a student at U of I, and I was in high school, I came down with my dad to visit, and we went to both of those games. Parseghian’s Irish just poured it on the Illini to increase their #5 ranking. I loved Illinois anyway and started as a freshman in 1970, having season tickets to football and basketball. I got to see Valek’s last year, and Blackman’s first few, and I have been a diehard Illini ever since. I am dubious about Bielema being a great coach, but after having season football tickets for 35 years, I would be happy for three straight 7-5 seasons. I will be there in Ireland to see the start of the Bielema era...
 
#546      
1LL1N1
the national said:
“On November 9, 2015, Thomas was fired via a without cause contractual clause from the University of Illinois. Most speculate it was tied to Tim Beckman and the treatment of the football team.”

Worst AD Ever. He’s the reason we tanked in both football and basketball. Others might disagree but he may be one of the worst things to happen to Illinois athletics in the last 30 yrs.
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If you ever forget, look at my profile photo.
 
#550      
Mike55
ChiefGritty said:
He did every galaxy-brained half-measure he could to try to make up for the fact that he wasn't doing enough to get players or hiring a staff with the recruiting chops to carry the load.

First it was firing Josh Sternquist because Lovie's NFL scouting guy (his name eludes me, help me out) was going to be the Tape Whisperer and find great talent that others couldn't.

Then it was hiring Cory Patterson, which, in fairness, worked very well, though obviously is not a scalable, sustainable way to get players.

Then it became the transfer portal.

At all times his staff was carrying around a bunch of guys who were zeroes on the trail. Liggy Stardust, Nickerson, Mike Phair, Gill Byrd, and then above all Miles.

It's so frustrating. You look back on Beckman and truly, he did all he was capable of at Illinois. The first staff - made up of good coaches! - just catastrophically fell apart, and Beckman just isn't the guy that could have recovered from that. We failed by giving him the job in the first place.

Lovie could have been different. Maybe not different enough, but there's so much we had every reason to expect he would have done better. And by the time of the legendary "Chayce Crouch is the undisputed leader of our football team", it was obvious to anyone paying attention that it was all going horribly wrong.

Once bitten, twice shy, I'm going to believe Bielema, another veteran retread getting a fat contract that exceeds his market value, isn't the same story when I see it.
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James Kirkland
 
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