The Illinois Football Coaching Search
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He had studs at Whitewater, and then just destroyed the competition on the field. They were potent on both sides of the ball. His teams were absolute machines. Fantastic culture, very good young men graduated from that program.
At Buffalo, he's had to craft a roster with the challenges that come with recruiting to a lesser known MAC program. Then he's had to develop those players on the field, which he's done.
Two very different programs with very different ways they needed to operate to be successful, but he's demonstrated he can do that.
sacraig
- The desert
So 50+ pages to come away with comparisons of Bret Bielema to Brad Underwood and desiring the triple option.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
My brother ran track at UW-Oshkosh at the time, and Whitewater's reputation was like an automaton, a machine. It wasn't that they just radically out-talented everyone because you can't in D3. It wasn't that they were money in the clutch. It's that they were better, so to beat them you needed to exploit a mistake or have them come out flat or something, and for years and years and years they never gave anybody that chance.
It's a slower, simpler game, running a much smaller operation with an entirely different relationship to your players, but that program-wide attention to detail is the thing you're trying to translate. Buffalo has some of that. It's what Iowa and Wisconsin have at our level.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Searching for most egregious facepalm GIF...
But even if that is the standard, I feel like the same people critical of Bielema's potential hire due to whatever "character issues" are in his past, are the same people perfectly happy with Brad Underwood and Orlando Antigua. I'm very happy with Underwood/Antigua. Don't get me wrong. It's because we are winning, that makes me happy. But if the litmus test was to not hire anyone unless their backgrounds were squeaky clean, then those 2 guys would not have been hired bc Antigua put South FL on probation, and Underwood had an asst on staff at OSU getting paid by agents and possibly will be in jail. And even Underwood's wins at SFA were vacated due to academic scandal. And if the argument is the "head coach didn't know what was going on", then that right there is a reason to not hire a CEO if they have don't know what is going on within the company.
No, you can't make the argument to just toss out anything that happened in D3, or a coach who went 3-52 in D3 would be on equal footing. That's ridiculous.
He doesn't come across as a goober, but he does have an accent. Why do you call him a goober? [Edit: I see you addressed that earlier while I was trying to figure out how to insert a video with the insert media button missing.] I'll let people judge for themselves:
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I am beyond confused by the posts in this thread.
Could anyone explain like I'm 5 where we are in the replacement search? So many names being tossed around and I'm sensing not all of them are serious.
Could anyone explain like I'm 5 where we are in the replacement search? So many names being tossed around and I'm sensing not all of them are serious.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Yeah. Grew up in Columbus and then after UIUC worked for six months in Knoxville, TN in '91, which overlapped with football season. UT fandom was batS**t crazy compared with Michigan/Ohio State/PSU at the time. SEC folks just take (all) college sports a heck of a lot more seriously than anyone in the Midwest in my experience. E.G., showed up in Oxford, MS on a lovely March Saturday in '01, checked into our B&B, walked over to the central square, and wondered where the whole town was.
At the Rebels' nonconference baseball game down the street, as it turned out. The night before in Baton Rouge could barely into the bars because so many people were there watching the Tigers' away baseball game. Just a whole 'nother level down there.
I got to see the Whitewater program up close, when LL was there (this was 2013). Although it's a D3 program, how its run and managed is a lot closer to an FCS program than you might think (this is true of the top 5-7 D3 programs). This was not St Norberts or Beloit College.
Since there is no FCS in Wisconsin (it's literally the Badgers, then the D3 state schools), the D3 state schools are the rough equivalent of EIU, WIU, SIU, etc. Whitewater has 11,000 students, for example. Not trying to oversell Whitewater and LL, but rather just making a point that there's quite a bit of substance to that program.
The irony is in 2012, Whitewater was upset and dethroned from their #1 ranking, when they went to play a D3 team in Western NY....that team was....Buffalo State.
Since there is no FCS in Wisconsin (it's literally the Badgers, then the D3 state schools), the D3 state schools are the rough equivalent of EIU, WIU, SIU, etc. Whitewater has 11,000 students, for example. Not trying to oversell Whitewater and LL, but rather just making a point that there's quite a bit of substance to that program.
The irony is in 2012, Whitewater was upset and dethroned from their #1 ranking, when they went to play a D3 team in Western NY....that team was....Buffalo State.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Our AD is currently interviewing and vetting candidates. Some of those candidates are probably still planning on playing in games to finish out their current seasons, so there is a sense that nothing will be publicly announced until later. The only candidate I've seen publicly confirmed that we've interviewed is Bret Bielema. It has been publicly confirmed that he is not the only one we have reached out to. The identities of the other candidates have been left to speculation. There is a rumor that the earliest we will hear additional significant details is this Sunday. There is another rumor that our AD has essentially identified our next football coach, but some details are still being worked out. Personally, I think it's significant that two (?) players who recently decommitted have now recommitted to Illinois. I think it's likely that they have been told who our next coach will be.
That's all I've got for you.
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It’s the extracurricular stuff that is not in the above category that I personally have issues with. I’m totally fine with being “assertive” otherwise as long as it’s not egregious and poorly calculated risk-taking. The public tolerance for certain types of scandals/issues 2020 is quite different from even a few years ago and it’s those I’d like to avoid. Jmo
Ubermensch
BOOM! Feed my ego.
No one here knows anything.
We're in Day 3 of the coach search. Nobody knows anything, but everybody knows something. Presumably Josh has spent a lot of $$ on jet fuel the last 72 hours, targeting and interviewing potential candidates. Keep an eye on Brett Beilema, Lance Leipold, Jeff Monken, Luke Fickell, and a host of others. There has been no info from the university, and there won't be until the official announcement. My guess is we hear something official on Sunday, at the earliest. We might see some signs of white smoke come Saturday evening, when the conference championship games have concluded.
So pull up a chair, crack a cold one, and join the fun.
AirNeezy
Orange Krush '13 -'14
Gotcha, so its not just that he has a rough personality but hes known for drinking with students and trying to bang coeds? Yeah in 2020 that kinda stuff isn't going to fly at a major university like Illinois. I'd hope that JW does his due diligence on these rumors but if they're just random reddit message board fodder then don't know how much stock to put in it.
Man what is in the water up in Madison? Between Barry Alvarez, Bo Ryan and BB seems like really have a type up there....
Ding, ding
First, its hard to beat Alabama, LSU, Auburn in regular years. Then during his time at Arkansas - Ole Miss/Miss State were also really really good. People don't realize that in 2014, Miss State was ranked #1 in the country, and Ole Miss #3 for part of that time. Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze coached those teams. Mullen is now at Florida, and Freeze is being sought after by Auburn. The SEC West is where the very best college football coaches/teams compete. That Bielema couldnt raise Arkansas level to compete with those teams isn't a negative as far as whether he can still be successful in the Big 10. It just means he's not the very best college coach in America. But that's ok. Illinois doesn't need nor will ever get the very best coach. We just need competent coaches that know what they are doing. It's like a student failing out of Harvard. Just because you fail in the Ivy League, doesn't mean you can't be successful in the Big 10. And the SEC West is the Ivy League of football.
Ok I get it , no harm. To see a well coached team on the field would be a very good thing.
But we don't play anymore. Kids eat up the antics of Fleck, Kiffin, Gundy and such. The new generation of athletes loves that type of hype. When I was a head coach at the high school ranks I studied Fleck. The man is crazy but he does some great stuff, outside the box stuff that helps lesser programs thrive. He gets them to believe in themselves with his off the wall slogans and "Be Elite" mentality. Like him or not, he is a good coach. I would take him 100 times out of 100. It is not 1985 anymore.
I will agree that he is a good coach.
So are we all tracking that Collier said Hayes-Stoker is staying?
“Collier said Hayes-Stoker told him he’s planning on staying at Illinois, which helped Collier stick with Illinois.”
There is wiggle room there but it would be bogus to say that and then not.
Early national signing day isn’t perfect, as a few situations involving area athletes proved this recruiting cycle
When the news broke, less than a week before signing day, McKinney wide receiver Omari Walker’s first reaction was to de-commit and re-open his recruiting....
www.dallasnews.com
“Collier said Hayes-Stoker told him he’s planning on staying at Illinois, which helped Collier stick with Illinois.”
There is wiggle room there but it would be bogus to say that and then not.
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How could you not want Fleck, Kiffin, or Gundy?? Gundy's built a perennial Top 25 team in Okie State, and had them in the playoff conversation this year, Kiffin has an exciting team at Ole Miss, and Fleck has rebuilt Minnesota pretty darn well... we're not getting any of these guys so no need to worry about them anyways.
Can anyone name any specific "extracurricular stuff"? I haven't read one thing in this entire thread that implicates anything Bielema has done that has embarrassed the university. Not one.
Again, we have a basketball staff where our lead Asst put his last school on probation, our HC was on staff that was paying guys, and at his prior stop had his wins vacated due to academic fraud. To me, all those things would be embarrassing. Because those are actual real things that happened. They aren't private innuendo and rumors. Those are stated public events. But Whitman hired him anyway, and we are top 15 in the country. I'd much rather be top 15 in the country, than not be had we hired someone else.
So I don't get how anyone can claim Whitman is playing some integrity card, and using that as a reason to not hire Bielema, when we know who is coaching our basketball team.
I know one thing....the next coach's first name won't be Lovie
Bielema, Fleck, and Gundy are outstanding football coaches. If you care about winning, you'd want to hire those guys. Any of them. They've alll proven how successful they can be.
Lane Kiffin is the only one where I could see not being excited about, because he's very boom or bust. He failed quite spectacularly at Tenn and USC.
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