The difference, is the 7 years at Wisconsin vs the 2 years at OSU. And Wisconsin was never at the level that OSU currently is in terms of talent.
I agree. But I don't see anything in BB's resume that should disqualify him. I think Arkansas was really an environment thing. The SEC is a different animal. Bielema left an established program and identity in a region he was very familiar with, to take over a mess in a completely different region in the most competitive conference in the country. I don't think he was fully ready for that. At Illinois, sure the talent is down and the results haven't been there, but he'd be in the conference and state he knows best. And now he has even more experience in the SEC and with Belichick to draw from.I'm not necessarily disagreeing that taking over a program that has been successful guarnatees prolonged success. But they're effectively completely different jobs. Turning Illinois into a consistent 9/10-win program is a hell of a lot harder than keeping Wisconsin at 9-10-wins every year.
Buyout for Campbell (6 mil): https://www.iowastatedaily.com/spor...cle_2cb6869c-75d1-11e8-a4f4-8f9fdf642158.htmlPer Lon Tay, Fickell and Campbell both have buyouts over $20M. Even if you could convince either one to come, that seems like a big hill to climb.
Buyout for Campbell (6 mil): https://www.iowastatedaily.com/spor...cle_2cb6869c-75d1-11e8-a4f4-8f9fdf642158.html
Buyout for Fickell (4 mil): https://www.espn.com/college-footba...uke-fickell-finalizes-contract-extension-2026
Regardless, neither are happening unless Whitman is the second coming.
I agree. But I don't see anything in BB's resume that should disqualify him. I think Arkansas was really an environment thing. The SEC is a different animal. Bielema left an established program and identity in a region he was very familiar with, to take over a mess in a completely different region in the most competitive conference in the country. I don't think he was fully ready for that. At Illinois, sure the talent is down and the results haven't been there, but he'd be in the conference and state he knows best. And now he has even more experience in the SEC and with Belichick to draw from.
Bielema failed recruiting linemen to suceed at playing the ground and pound style like at Wisconsin on top of having petrino’s spead and spread offensive style players doing it. He had top 30 recruiting classes and good coaching staffs, but arkansas couldn’t win trying to beat lsu and bama at their game thus he failed at Arkansas. Doesnt mean he’s a horrible coach or a fraud. Again he’s not the sexiest hire or obviously a fan favorite but I wouldn’t say he’s the worst name floating around.All of the folks who are championing Bielema just focus on Wisconsin. Show me something about his tenure at Arkansas that shows he can turn over our program. That's the starting point of this conversation. Talking about Ryan Day is a waste of time because he's not being considered for the Illinois job and never will be. You can't gripe about Barry Alvarez getting credit for Wisconsin's success if we are going to only talk about Bielema's success at a job he left 8 years ago and not talk about his more recent job (that he chose over Wisconsin).
No, no, no, noArt Briles has resigned from his current coaching job according to the Scoop
You forgot to eliminate anyone that wears a visor and/or someone whose mother's birthday is roughly the same time as B1G media days. We're getting somewhere by narrowing down the list with these types of restrictions!Here are 2 reasons we don't want Bielema. First, he has a big nose and is hard to look at during sideline shots. Second, he keeps his windbreaker zipped up to his neck. No one else does that.
All in all, we ought not want anyone who is available because he has been fired or resigned. That leaves out Sarkisian who had dependency issues with Wash and USC. We need not want anyone who bleeds orange and blue. Look at what happened with Barry Odom, who was MizzouThruandThru. Got canned. Look who Mizzou hired -- an up and comer, widely respected, paid his dues at the right programs, never been fired. And had not set foot west of StL. And has charmed the state from day one. Too bad they got him first.
Bill BedenbaughWhen you are building a program you have to start with the guys up front. We need a coach that can lead this group.
I guess my point is - that if you go with boring (my opinion of course) you'd better guarantee wins or you'll have both sleepy and then angry fans. I went to a VaTech, GaTech games a few years back and i literally wanted to chew my leg off to get out of there. Ok, exaggeration, but boy was it a snooze fest when GaTech had the ball.I don't think anyone is saying "guaranteed", and the problem with a blanket statement about recruiting is it treats it like some monolithic thing... like we can't get highly rated defensive players, or QBs from that sort of system in HS, or RBs, or OL, etc.
It seems like GaTech had success with it, and ACC DLs and LBs ain't chopped liver.
I'm truly taking the devil's advocate position, just because i'm skeptical when so many people are absolutely certain it "won't work here".
I bet Army would have fared well enough in the B10 West over the last 4-5 seasons.
I understand that he failed at Arkansas. I guess I care less about it because it was just such a different environment. If Beilema had left Wisconsin to take over like Iowa or Minnesota and failed, he'd be off my list. But he left the conference and area he knew to take over a program in the most difficult conference in the country. I think that "comfort zone" matters. I just don't see him being any lower on the list than Leipold, Monken, Lewis. Building Kent State or Buffalo is a lot different than building Illinois. Managing a B1G program and everything it entails on and off the field is a lot different that doing that in the MAC or service academy. That experience counts for something to me. Zook never built anything, Turner never built anything, Lovie never built anything. The guy closest to a builder was Beckman. None of those guys were great or even good, but Turner and Zook reached as high a level as Illinois has reached in recent history.Sure, but his recruiting was successful down in Arkansas and he didn't have an issue recruiting in the area. The SEC West is a hornets nest but Arkansas has much more talent to contend with better teams. Illinois has significantly less talent in an easier division. Learning from Belichick has not paid off for any coach besides Vrabel. I don't think he should be disqualified but he's nowhere near the top of my list. He had a chance to take a job like Illinois and failed. He also had a lot of positives going into that job, with his success at Wisconsin, and still didn't win. He would be taking this job without those benefits as well.
I think this program may have officially reached, "any coach who would be willing to preside over this dumpster fire, probably isn't good enough to do anything about it" territory.
I think this program may have officially reached, "any coach who would be willing to preside over this dumpster fire, probably isn't good enough to do anything about it" territory.
Unless he is a defensive coach that scores 50 points a game, I'll pass. Lovie was a defensive coach with a Super Bowl attached to him and gave up nearly 50 a game.I see some of the people mentioning Fickell are being creative and saying "you gotta at least call him" so, sure, give him a call. But he's not coming here. He turned down MSU last year. He is being paid handsomely and has incredible job security. His teams down at UC have been excellent and his recruiting continues to improve. It's going to take a really good job to pry him from UC.
If you want someone associated with this program, Freeman is the (possibly) attainable name. He's a great, young defensive coach and probably would immediately breathe some fire into the program's recruiting.
I see the Scheelhaase talk as a result of Lovie being so bad that we're to the point where "anyone could do better than Lovie." And while we're throwing out "anyone" might as well pick the guy who played here.That's probably why you see so many posters willing to take a flyer on Scheelhaase.
Pretty sure that was all Lovie driven. I'm sure the new coach will install what he wants in terms of recruiting infrastructure.One question, peripherally related: will we maintain the "player personnel" organization in the post-Lovie era?
Presumably it could go find players for whichever system the new guy wants to run.
I see the Scheelhaase talk as a result of Lovie being so bad that we're to the point where "anyone could do better than Lovie." And while we're throwing out "anyone" might as well pick the guy who played here.