Illinois Football: 3 Takeaways from hiring of Bret Bielema as head coach

Can Bielema win at Illinois?

One thing you know about Bielema is that he doesn’t need a bunch of five-star recruits to win games. His recruiting classes at Wisconsin were solid and he got NFL guys, but they were never out of this world or anything.

And for Illinois football, that’s actually a good thing because even if Illinois recruits really well, it’s not landing an upper-echelon class in the Big Ten any time soon. Probably never.

But if Bielema can bring that toughness and sound fundamental football he had at Wisconsin and in some ways at Arkansas, before the bottom fell out, Illinois should at least get back to respectability.

Expecting a consistent winner might be a bit much, because the last head coach to have back-to-back winning seasons at Illinois was John Mackovic, which started a run of six bowl berths in seven years back from 1988-1994.

That’s how long it has been for Illinois football. Ron Zook had three .500 seasons in five years and was then fired. So Bielema has his work cut out for him, but at Wisconsin he was great at getting the most out of his teams and with some NFL experience, he’s probably a better coach, especially after working for Bill Belichick.

Bielema isn’t a miracle worker and I don’t know if anyone can turn Illinois into a contender, but I think this is a really good hire that will lead to multiple winning seasons over the next few years. I mean if Northwestern can compete in the Big Ten West, why not Illinois?