Illinois hires Bielema

WinOneThisCentury said:
Barry had everything to do with why he won at Wisconsin. I'm not saying Bert isn't a good recruiter and coach...but the system was in place at Wisconsin...and Avarerez's influence extended well into Bert's tenure at Wisconsin.

It's a good hire though for Illinois. He will make recruiting Illinois a major theme. As we know...there is a lot of talent in Illinois.
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Ron Zook tried the same theme.

Illinois is a different beast than states like Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, or Wisconsin in terms of giving a recruiting advantage to the home-state team. The reason is obvious: Much of the talent is in Chicago, and the Atlantic Ocean might as well separate the miles between the Chicago burbs and Champagne-Urbana. Trust me as a Chicago resident.

For Chicago area recruits: UI (the Illinois version) brings no greater affinity than Iowa, Wisconsin, IU/Purdue, or the Michigan schools. Northwestern doesn't clean up either due to their academic standards and overall feel compared to the big state schools.

So that is a long way of saying: I wouldn't be worried about BB recruiting Illinois better than Lovie, other than the St Louis area. I suspect his time in Arkansas created some good pipelines in the south, including STL.
 
AFAcademyHawk said:
Ron Zook tried the same theme.

Illinois is a different beast than states like Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, or Wisconsin in terms of giving a recruiting advantage to the home-state team. The reason is obvious: Much of the talent is in Chicago, and the Atlantic Ocean might as well separate the miles between the Chicago burbs and Champagne-Urbana. Trust me as a Chicago resident.

For Chicago area recruits: UI (the Illinois version) brings no greater affinity than Iowa, Wisconsin, IU/Purdue, or the Michigan schools. Northwestern doesn't clean up either due to their academic standards and overall feel compared to the big state schools.

So that is a long way of saying: I wouldn't be worried about BB recruiting Illinois better than Lovie, other than the St Louis area. I suspect his time in Arkansas created some good pipelines in the south, including STL.
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I agree with your take here. We went head-to-head with Lovie at times. And he won a few of those. It will be the same for Bielema. He might even win a few more than Lovie did. But KF & Co have dealt with hot shot newcomers time and again, always bringing the threat of wiping us out on the recruiting trail. Sometimes we move around to different areas but we always survive and, lately, thrive. I'm not all that worried from a recruiting standpoint.
 
Seth53 said:
For those of you worried about him poaching Iowa and ruining us....keep in mind...

Row the boat--same bravado
Frosty--same bravado
Lovie--same bravado

Nothing panned out at all.

That aside, great hire. Great ex-Hawk. Never fit in at Arky and never got along well with Alvarez. Welcome home Brett.
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Agree. He still has to recruit to Champaign and change the culture with high school level facilities. Not saying he can't do it but it will take some time.

I don't have a problem with him unless he's a dirty recruiter.

I wonder what he is going to say when he signs off his interviews?

"On Illininninni!"
 
uihawk82 said:
He left Wisconsin iirc because Barry was too cheap to pay Bret's assistants the more going rate. It is a salary war out there all the time because most salaries are known. that is why so many corporations do not want their salaries posted so people know they are getting underpaid.
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i'm pretty sure that was his outgoing message...and a dig at Alvarez...but the real driver was that Arkansas backed up a truck of money and wrote a ridiculous contract. Bert likes money and arm candy...oh...and he also likes steak, potatoes, pasta, lamb, chicken, turkey, salmon, shrimp, scallops, pork, and a side salad.
 
AFAcademyHawk said:
Ron Zook tried the same theme.

Illinois is a different beast than states like Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, or Wisconsin in terms of giving a recruiting advantage to the home-state team. The reason is obvious: Much of the talent is in Chicago, and the Atlantic Ocean might as well separate the miles between the Chicago burbs and Champagne-Urbana. Trust me as a Chicago resident.

For Chicago area recruits: UI (the Illinois version) brings no greater affinity than Iowa, Wisconsin, IU/Purdue, or the Michigan schools. Northwestern doesn't clean up either due to their academic standards and overall feel compared to the big state schools.

So that is a long way of saying: I wouldn't be worried about BB recruiting Illinois better than Lovie, other than the St Louis area. I suspect his time in Arkansas created some good pipelines in the south, including STL.
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Good point on southern Illinois and STL. The focus always is in the Chicago area but there are good athletes to the south.
 
uihawk82 said:
He left Wisconsin iirc because Barry was too cheap to pay Bret's assistants the more going rate. It is a salary war out there all the time because most salaries are known. that is why so many corporations do not want their salaries posted so people know they are getting underpaid.
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Has that ever been officially verified?

Barry was one of those assistant coaches for eleven years. He knows what its like. That may have been blown up as a bigger issue as it really was.

The bigger issues were Brets fondness for the Madison nightlife, which h became less of an issue after he got married. He also may have felt confined in Barry's shadow and the campus may not have been big enough for both of them.

That was for Bret to deal with and ultimately he decided it wasn't worth it. The way he accepted the Arkansas job, which was basically behind Barry's back, tells you all you need to know there. He would have probably had a job for life at Wisconsin, however, had he chosen to stay there.
 
AFAcademyHawk said:
Ron Zook tried the same theme.

Illinois is a different beast than states like Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, or Wisconsin in terms of giving a recruiting advantage to the home-state team. The reason is obvious: Much of the talent is in Chicago, and the Atlantic Ocean might as well separate the miles between the Chicago burbs and Champagne-Urbana. Trust me as a Chicago resident.

For Chicago area recruits: UI (the Illinois version) brings no greater affinity than Iowa, Wisconsin, IU/Purdue, or the Michigan schools. Northwestern doesn't clean up either due to their academic standards and overall feel compared to the big state schools.

So that is a long way of saying: I wouldn't be worried about BB recruiting Illinois better than Lovie, other than the St Louis area. I suspect his time in Arkansas created some good pipelines in the south, including STL.
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Illinois has not gotten a top ten recruit in Illinois in 10 years. It's not hard to improve that.
 
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