Illinois Football: 4 assets Bret Bielema will bring the Illini

4. Experience

The last thing I want to point out is the experience that Bret Bielema brings to the table. I was worried that Josh Whitman was going to hire someone who didn’t have high-level coaching experience or someone who wasn’t with a power-five program before.

Lance Leipold from Buffalo would have been a bad choice purely based on him not having solid coaching experience. Illinois needed a head coach who has been at the power-five level and has seen success. That is exactly what Bielema brings to the table.

Bielema spent seven seasons with Wisconsin. During that time, he started developing his coaching and recruiting. He became known for winning at the highest level. This winning and his recruiting ability put him in solid communication with high school coaches around the country.

I love that Bielema knows what it takes to get to the highest levels of college football. The man led Wisconsin to three-straight Rose Bowl appearances. He made a bowl game every year he coached the Badgers. That experience will now be passed onto the Illinois football team. He can coach the Illini players to the degree he needs to, so they can get to a bowl game every year.

Even when Bielema went to Arkansas and didn’t see the same level of success, his experience in the SEC is invaluable. He played in 63 games while with the Razorbacks and 30 of those contests were against ranked opponents. That is some tough competition.

Illinois went out into the coaching world and found a solid, experienced, college head coach who can lead the program to consistent winning. I think Whitman hired the right man for the job.