By Woodrow Carroll
Prior to an examination of the University of Illinois’ hiring of Bret Bielema as head football coach, here is a brief look back at events in the football program the last 40 years.
Lovie Smith’s tenure as head football coach at the University of Illinois was terminated after five lackluster seasons. Smith’s Illini ended with a record of 17-39, not conducive to job security.
Smith’s first season at Illinois was 2016. As it turned out, the two best attended games at Memorial Stadium under Smith were the first two times his teams took the field.
Illinois opened the 2016 season with a 52-3 victory over Murray State in front of a home crowd of 48,644. The following week, 60,670 attended when the Fighting Illini played host to North Carolina and future Chicago Bears’ quarterback Mitch Trubisky. It proved to be a close game before the Tar Heels pulled away late for a 48-23 victory.
Illinois has not come close to reaching the 60,000 since that time. Even with a number of ranked Big Ten teams playing in Champaign since the North Carolina game, there have been ample tickets available for all home games.
The Age of Mike White: He was the Illini head coach, 1980-1987. In those eight seasons, White guided the Orange-and-Blue to an overall record of 47-41-3. Winning games may not have been White’s forte. What White did best was fill seats!
The 10 largest crowds to attend Illinois home games all were 1983-1985 with 78,297 (September 8, 1984) who viewed Illinois’ 30-24 victory over Missouri the largest. Thanks to White’s crowd-pleasing open style, additional seating was added to Memorial Stadium which since has been downsized in recent years to approximately 60,000.
It was White’s California connection that allowed him to import quarterbacks such as Dave Wilson, Tony Eason, and Jack Trudeau. First-and- goal from the one and teams still had to worry about the pass, were the opponents’ thoughts.
It was valid.
There were nasty remarks about White’s recruitment of questionable academic prospects, however, it was jealousy on the part of the opposition.
John Mackovic followed White. Only in Champaign four seasons, 1988-1991, Mackovic’s record was 30-16-1. Since then no Illinois head coach has departed with a winning record. It does not count Vic Koenning’s 20-14 victory over UCLA in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl when Koenning took over for the fired Ron Zook.
Lou Tepper, Ron Turner, Ron Zook, Tim Beckman, interim Bill Cubit, Smith, and interim Rob finished with losing records.
Will it help that Bielema, 50, has ties to the Big Ten Conference, and Illinois?
Born in Prophetstown, Ill,. Bielema played for Hayden Fry at the University of Iowa. After graduation, he worked his way through the assistant- coaching ranks before becoming the head coach at Wisconsin in 2006.
In his seven years at Wisconsin, Bielema’s record was 68-24. His first year at Wisconsin proved to be his best in won-loss with a 12-1 record, marred only by a loss to Michigan.
In what was a surprise to many, Bielema left Wisconsin after the 2012 campaign for the Arkansas job. Five seasons at Arkansas saw Bielema’s overall record 29-34, however, it’s what coaches do in Southeastern Conference (SEC) games that count most.
Bielema and the Razorbacks put together a record of 11-29 in SEC games that led to Bielema’s firing after the 2017 season.
The University of Illinois wasted no time in hiring a new football coach after Lovie Smith’s dismissal. It likely was the correct move given the need for the football program to move forward with alacrity. Still, Illinois has gridiron ground to make up and there will be instant pressure on Bielema to prove his hiring was a good move.