The Illinois football team started on the right foot Friday night, as we moved to 1-0 on the season.
From about the eight-minute mark in the first quarter and on, this wasn’t much of a game. The Illini took control and never looked back, as the 52-3 final score would show.
The postgame press conference is where you can always get some interesting quotes from head coach Bret Bielema.
Here are the five intriguing Bret Bielema quotes from the Illinois postgame press conference vs Western Illinois
- “I didn’t love our end of half offense in that one series”
Analysis: This was arguably the worst series of the game for the Illini. We got the ball back with just over a minute to go near midfield. Luke Altmyer took two sacks in that series, and Illinois had to punt the ball away.
A big part of that series was Altmyer trying to make big plays and holding onto the ball. I would imagine he works on that this week, as Bielema noted during the halftime interview.
- “Health-wise, we didn’t have anyone of significance”
Analysis: Illinois dodged a bullet with health. Early on in the game, the Illini had a scare when right tackle Melvin Priestly went down with what looked to be a leg injury. Thankfully, he was back in the game minutes later. It is good that nothing is lingering there.
- “Brandon Henderson was scheduled to start but failed to show up on time for a meeting”
Analysis: The Illinois football program does things the right way. I understand that in the era of NIL and player empowerment, coaching staffs can kind of bend the knee to players. There is a mutual partnership between the two sides at Illinois. Both hold each other accountable, and I love that.
- “Him (Justin Bowick) and Luke (Altmyer) have bonded well”
Analysis: You could see this in the game by the number of targets Justin Bowick received when he was in the game. I believe he played a total of eight snaps where he went out for a pass, and he came down with three out of four targets. There was clearly chemistry between the two, and that is well ahead of where I thought they would be.
- “Once the game was in control, we kind of contained some of the stuff we worked on to save that for the right moment.”
Analysis: This might have been the biggest statement from the postgame press conference. I immediately perked up when I heard this. Bielema has some offense he is keeping close to the vest, and that will likely be unleashed against Duke. I love the ability to coach in-game and still think about chess moves down the road.