Bret Bielema Takes Reins of Illinois Football

B-ILL · Dec 22, 2020

B-ILL said:
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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Okay, so I decided to compare these numbers further, putting into perspective the top Big Ten and bottom Big Ten classes each year to give some context. Illinois was obviously near the bottom of the Big Ten every year from 2010-2017 (although never technically the worst class). And it's interesting to visualize that even Bret Bielema's best classes at Wisconsin and Arkansas aren't near the top. For example, his 2016 class at Arkansas was #23 in the country and #9 in the SEC (would have been #6 in the Big Ten).

Conclusion: Bielema's teams have never blown anyone away in recruiting prowess, but almost anything would be an improvement for Illinois. Very interested to see how Bielema shapes this roster short-term/long-term and who he hires to spearhead recruiting.

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