Actually, lots of people at the time were concerned about this.
Bret Bielema Takes Reins of Illinois Football
AirNeezy
Orange Krush '13 -'14
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!
AirNeezy
Orange Krush '13 -'14
I feel like we all knew it would be a weakness, but not to the level where it seems like he just completely gave up and didn't even bother.
AirNeezy
Orange Krush '13 -'14
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.
Ubermensch
BOOM! Feed my ego.
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.
B-ILL
- Working From Home
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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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.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
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.
illiniCA
- DC Area
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.
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."
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
You have my sympathy, sir. After Turner drove us off a cliff in 2003 those 2004-06 seasons were brutal.
sacraig
- The desert
At least that essentially got him fired.
AirNeezy
Orange Krush '13 -'14
Imagine being a student from 2013-2017...
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
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.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
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.
SKane
- Tennessee
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.
At least BB might work out. ILL should do some worthy commemoration if he can put together three straight 7 - 5 seasons.
chiefini
- Rockford, Illinois
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...
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I'm caught between thinking "thank god we have an experienced Power Five head coach who knows the ropes and can see how these one-time rules change the game" and "oh god, he's going to galaxy brain himself into destroying our roster because he doesn't realize he's at Illinois now"
If you ever forget, look at my profile photo.
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
Perhaps Thomas was putting too much emphasis on the wives???
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
*Insert any 4 years from the 2010's*
I was a student 04 through 08 so I got to see it all
James Kirkland