Illinois hires Bret Bielema, a former Wisconsin and Arkansas coach, to direct his football program, the school announced Saturday.
Bielema, 50, has spent the past three seasons as an NFL assistant, working this year for the New York Giants after two years with the New England Patriots. He had expressed interest in returning to college and was a candidate to open his duties last year in both the states of Michigan and Colorado, and at the beginning of that cycle in Southern Miss, according to sources.
Bielema will receive a six-year contract with Illinois with an initial salary of $ 4.2 million.
Illinois, which fired coach Lovie Smith last Sunday, also considered Buffalo coach Lance Leipold, Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, and Wisconsin defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, among others. replacing Smith, who went from 17 to 39 in five seasons at school.
“Illinois and the Big Ten is my home, and I can’t be more excited about the opportunity I have in front of Fighting Illini,” Bielema said in a prepared statement. “We want to build a program that makes Illini Nation proud and recovers the passion I saw when Illinois wins.”
Bielema won three consecutive Big Ten championships in Wisconsin from 2010 to 2012 and went 68-24 in seven seasons with the Badgers with five Top 25 qualifiers. He left after the 2012 Big Ten Championship game in Arkansas, where he went go 29-34 before being fired in 2017.
He grew up in Prophetstown, Illinois, and played the defensive line in Iowa, helping the Hawkeyes get a share of the Big Ten title in 1990 (Illinois also shared the championship). Bielema began his coaching career in Iowa before moving to Kansas State and then to Wisconsin, where he was named Barry Alvarez’s successor after the 2005 season.
“Bret Bielema is a proven winner,” athletic director Josh Whitman said in a prepared statement. “With three Big Ten championships within his reach, few coaches can match his familiarity and success within the Big Ten Conference. In our conversations, it became clear to me that he is a lifelong student who is constantly looking for grow and improve “.