Illinois Football: Bret Bielema gets well earned raise from the Illini

Illinois football has their head coach locked in through the 2028 campaign.

The resurgence of the Illini program has been fun to watch. Just a couple of years ago, we were just trying to scratch our way to six wins and falling short the vast majority of seasons. But in stepped Bret Bielema and his tremendous coaching abilities.

Bielema took the reins of a struggling Illinois football team and instantly made us competitive again. We weren’t getting pummeled anymore, and the wins started to pile up. His tremendous coaching prowess and recruiting ability are why the Illini have decided to put a new contract together for the leader of the Orange and Blue.

On Tuesday morning, the Illinois athletic department sent out a press release announcing that we have signed Bielema to a new six-year contract which would keep him around through the 2028 season.

Bret Bielema has the Illinois football team on the right path.

The new Bielema contract still needs approval by the Illinois Board of Trustees, but the details of the new contract include a bump in pay to $6 million per year with the ability to get raises and bonuses based on accomplishments.

It is exciting to know that Bielema wants to be at Illinois for the long haul and the fact that athletic director Josh Whitman is willing to pony up the dough to keep such a great coach around. If we do lose our head coach, it won’t be because we are cheap at least.

This was a well-earned contract renegotiation as well. Bielema has earned every penny he is getting paid, and I am glad we could get the contract done.

In the two seasons Bielema has been the head coach of the Illini, the program has progressed tremendously. In year one, we got to five wins and were on the cusp of making a bowl game. This past season, Illinois would get to eight wins in the regular season for the first time since the 2007 campaign.

It took Bielema 20 games to get to 12 wins with the Illini. The previous coaching regime had to play 43 games to get to 12 wins. Not only has he been winning on the field, but Bielema and his coaching staff have been recruiting well too.

Bielema secured the No. 41 class in the nation in 2022, and he is on pace to have a top 40 class in 2023. Those two recruiting classes would be the highest-ranked recruiting classes for the Illini since 2010. You have to go back to Ron Zook in 2011 to find the next-highest-ranked class, and he finished No. 42 in the country that year.

On top of the winning and recruiting Bielema has done, he is also developing talent on the field. Illinois has sent players into the NFL at a rate we haven’t seen in years. We had three players selected in the 2022 NFL Draft and other players signed to NFL rosters. In 2023, the Illini are going to have multiple players selected again, and we could see Devon Witherspoon go in the first round. The player development has been amazing.

I think this is a smart move by the Illinois athletic department. We just secured our head coach for years to come. The future is so bright for the football program.