📅 Published on: 2024-11-30 23:32:50
⏱ Duration: 00:15:11 (911 seconds)
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Illinois head coach Bret Bielema spoke with the media following the #22 Illini’s 38-28 victory at Northwestern, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Ill.
🎙 Channel: Fighting Illini Athletics
🌍 Channel Country: United States
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🕵️♂️ Transcript:
well first Happy Thanksgiving to everybody um uh very excited to get nine wins for our guys but more importantly fans Administration all the people that support us on a daily Daily Grind here it’s pretty awesome to to put us in this position um I also want to thank Wrigley everybody that made this day happen this is obviously a very special moment I’ve been here many times over my life and never in this uh type of format so I thought our guys were really excited we got off the bus yesterday you could see their excitement and uh the the eagerness to get to this game they really I thought all week you know we actually have fall break going on on our campus so our guys don’t have classes so I was a little uh uh not concerned but I just kind of heart on them all week about staying in your routine living your method uh doing what we did I thought we actually practiced really good Tuesday Wednesday Thursday want to put ourselves in a good position on this day to to get to nine wins and see where it can go um uh you know just a fun day overall um uh and and you know I don’t know what the future holds I just know that I’m excited about this football team I think we’re a team that can play with anybody in the country I love the the fact that you know we got um you know three losses on the year we we you know Penn State takes uh today and wins their opportunity we’re probably lost to Oregon and Penn State the two teams that are play in the Big 10 championship game and we lost to a Minnesota team uh on really a a one playay possession game there at the end um the sack fumble obviously still grains in my head but uh you know just just a a couple things go our way and I I think we’re easily in the top 15 maybe in the top 10 so I I’m I’m excited to see exactly where we can can go and what we can do um couple guys injured today U brought Caleb Patterson with us he just didn’t get cleared so I thought Jim Clark really popped up today and did some really good things fun to see Malachi Hood pop in and you know obviously uh Dylan Ros ex been out but I thought James cruds Malachi Ryan me uh just a really a good group of kids that have uh stepped up in a big way and then uh JoJo Hayden today especially you know stepping in Seth Coleman put a lot on Gabe and and Alec Bryant but it was fun to see JoJo come in there and make some plays happen so with that open up for questions career game foren yeah yeah you know Aiden he’s just one of those uh guys I’ll go back to even last spring he really had a really good spring I just you could see him getting uh uh just a better Poise and understanding of what we asked him to do and then unfortunately in that opener on that big run down the right boundary um tweaked his uh I believe it was his hamstring and it kind of took about 3 or four weeks and then then again in the middle of the season so I I remember 3 weeks ago really when we came out of our second buy I’m like man Aiden looks good and he’s been feeling it he’s been feeling it that play last week when he did that nice bounce play I thought today would be a day that could happen and then um you know today some of those turned into big home run hits we’ kind of been waiting on all year lots of first nine wins season first what made this group that group to elevate and what does that mean for your um you know I thought coming into the year obviously I don’t make predictions but like I felt really good about this group I like the way we were we were kind of um jelen and fall Camp I I thought our returning players you could see the growth of Luke almeer I thought we were going to be better up front offensively I thought the addition of zakari and the growth of Pat now you have two perimeter players that really make a difference I’m I’m telling you Colin Dixon if I could sign five five Colin Dixon a year I do it like he’s just an incredibly intelligent very very disciplined very talented football player uh Hank batty just continues to show up and then on the defense side of the ball I knew I was going to see growth out of Aaron from year one to year two and I just I I couldn’t be happier with our defensive staff I thought those guys really have uh molded and adjusted to what what our our guys limitations are and maximize our strengths um and then I I got to tell you uh uh between Robbie disher and Chris herd in the Special Teams world I thought they’ve just come in week in and week out I thought we’ve gained an advantage in the Special Teams battle uh pretty much in every game and that’s really fun to watch so I thought we’d have a chance to win nine um you know it’s been a long time since uh Illinois won nine like you said and and hopefully this is more of the norm than not I remember last year walking off that field in this game you know it was like Doomsday for a lot of people um and it I just kind of sat there and smiled because I know what we were capable of doing and that’s it’s been good I think our our core um returning players have been good but we really hit gold on some of the portal guys right like some of those guys really see you like Dennis Briggs TR Edwards has been here forever to see him uh today I was able to give him a captainship and a guy that came in and for two years just kind of pull in did his work and then this year has really manifested into something special has been awesome we on defense in the first half they held the ball minutes yeah points like the defense when they need to make stop they did they did a good job down in the red area uh we knew what they were I I thought our guys were really wired in you know they did change it up and threw both quarterbacks at us so we kind of I thought Erin did a nice job of understanding that moment and playing into it but again just another really good resilient message from our guys no matter what happens you still have one next play right and then to come away with that missed field goal at the end I thought that was a good momentum swing and then to score right away coming out where you get you thought you’d be better last year than it turned out obviously uh so you never know how much now that the regular season’s over did you how much anxiety did you feel or pressure or whatever it is just to deliver on what you thought Could Happen what you you know um you know two different seasons I would tell you last year I was uneasy in Fall Camp I mean obviously we had a lot of good players but I just didn’t know if we uh connected the way we did this year in Fall Camp I think that’s so much that I’ve learned now through my 16 years you know you can have all the talent in the world but if it doesn’t gel the way you want it to and and then put it together it doesn’t usually manifest and uh uh unfortunately it didn’t last year but I knew I knew during even during the Spring and the summer and the fall uh the way these guys just kind of handle their business not much phase them um and then anytime you have a guy uh uh at the quarterback position that you know feels good and is very confident I think that breeds into everybody offensively defensively so yeah um there’s pressure every week my job man I mean it doesn’t matter if we’re playing Northwestern or or the week when we were playing Penn State and Oregon who were you know ranked top five in the country like the pressure has got to come from within if I start responding to pressure that comes from anywhere else I’ll never go anywhere right like the only pressure you have is the ones that you create yourself and and for me that motivates me to do certain things but it doesn’t really change what I do right one more game left but huge couple weeks for 2025 roster and everything sign day portal huge what is what is the key now to build off this yeah you know I mean this week will be a lot of I’m sure conversations right like it’s I’m not naive you know I’ve told our guys all along that we have 12 guaranteed opportunities together we’ve talked a lot about the dash this year and um it’s been a lot of fun with these guys but the world that we know in college football you know is is going to bring I’m sure some conversations this week that uh you know is going to change the Outlook of our team but on the flip side we don’t have many you know I don’t know if there’s a kid that left our program a year ago that has gone anywhere and done anything right like and and nothing against kids that have left but like what we do here I think and now we have kids we’ve actually had some guys reached out to us that would like to come back um it doesn’t surprise me but it it’s just another great indicator of I think what we do How We Do It um I I say it all the time but like Josh uh in administration they allow us to do things with our kids that I know they appreciate um we have guys here that have been at other programs Elite programs who talk about when they come here they learn things more in three months than they’ve learned in three years somewhere else right and and that means a lot to me um uh and and it and it does I think indicate what Illinois can become you won three out of four you know in the past didn’t always win this game has there been emphasis to win this inate Rival Well yeah first thing you have do is respect him I think when I got here I don’t think there was respect for Northwestern they’ beat him six years in a row and and I I saw quotes from players that weren’t with us really anymore but I’m like man you got to before you can beat someone you got to respect someone right and and I had tremendous amount of respect for Fitz uh and what he did in his program and then obviously coach bra last year what he did it was just uh I could see I knew today was going to be you know you this this game two weeks ago here or yeah two weeks ago three weeks ago here in Wrigley against Ohio State it was a z0 first quarter and they scored first in the second uh now obviously kind of got away from at the end but this is a very opportunistic team they’re tough um not a lot of things that we believe in I think they believe in in Northwestern so yeah I respect Northwestern just like I would respect Purdue and the rivales that we have course Aiden ly is one of those local guys kind of made to focus for your team how much is how nice is it to see him have that kind of game you know it’s good to fun to see the Illinois kids have success I said it in my opening presser it wasn’t just trying to you know win the press conference I believe it you know great organizations are built from within right and I think that Illinois has to be built by Illinois players um and when you got a guy like Aiden lawrey but you you can’t just ignore Hank batty right right down the street at at Rochester Hank batty has probably had just as much of our success here in November as anybody and and um those those little things mean a lot I think Josh CR and James CR they have two brothers starting on a team that went n and three um obviously en CRS and in Chicago means a lot uh to to what it is and they represent his name represent our name very very well so there’s just a lot of really good feel Feelgood things um I’m super excited to kind of take a deep breath but I think this week is going to be absolute pandemonium and Chaos uh because I think uh you know you’re going to start to have some reactions I I know other kids are contacting us so I know it’s I’m not naive to the facts not going on in our building but um I’m excited to get to we’ll probably work two maybe three days this week with our young kids and that’s probably one of the most enjoyable things for me as a coach is to get to work with these guys guys that maybe they felt we haven’t really been paying attention to them but now they’ll get a lot of attention here this week um we won’t find out what’s going on until next Saturday so or next Sunday um but I’m telling you what man I mean it I know everybody’s going to poo poo it but you know breastman doing an unbelievable job with these 93 teams and the history of what that could possibly be and and listen I wish we could have gotten one more win right but uh you know we lost to two really really talented football teams in Penn State and and uh uh uh Oregon that are you know top four in the country and um lost to a Minnesota team that was a rivalry game I think the uh the heartbreaker of the whole thing was just you know getting that close at the end and uh not getting in the end zone but um it’s a good sign of where we are I mean to think that Illinois from when I came here four years ago as knocking on the door of a college football playoffs is pretty awesome Luke it’s not totally in your control but just to get threee pick of fumble recovery how how did you yeah I thought our guys really were opportunistic ma redich another good he’s kind of Northwest Central Illinois I guess he’d be um uh uh but Mack uh is just another great example he attacked that ball couple of ours bounced off our hands I know Matt had one in the first half and then there was another one on a tip Ball but um I thought our guys defensively were attacked the football really really good uh and then I I was literally right next to Tory Cox I saw him sit down I knew we were bringing pressure so Tory knew it as well he sat down on that route and expanded it and you know here’s a guy that uh you know came into our our system um really kind of took him at the last minute had a scholarship available I really loved the story of his dad I had a very good friend of mine Paul rhs Coast his dad and and at at pit and said you’re going to this kid’s got the DNA from his father he’s going to be an exceptional kid and I think the only thing better than one tacx is have two tacx so might be another one coming impactful plays from Malachi Hood is one of those guys could be building for something for next year like spring bowling Malachi is very talented you know he he really just got kind of cleared right before we started fall Camp so we really didn’t know what um and then Arch you know who came in in the in the spring Archie never really been around him but I I think our strength coaches right away uh during the course of Summer like hey they’re like Brad hey Malachy hood is probably your most explosive Dynamic athletic linebacker right just hadn’t played a lot of snap so uh excited to see him and CRS he really really uh continue to grow and develop Ryan we got one more game with Ryan and then Dylan rosak come in the building every day he’s just got a grin from ear to ear I know he’s crushed that he can’t be here but he sees these guys playing and he’s happy for them Joey season how you put what done in perspec yeah zoom out I keep looking at your Packer hat in regy Shield that’s like making me zoom out um it was really cool seeing up there in the locker room Brandon Lloyd was here um flew all the way in I thought that kind of speaks volumes of what Illinois is all about right here’s a guy I just met for the first time obviously had seen him compete and play uh but he contacted us earlier in the week and said he’d love to come and recognize Pat if he when he broke the record he didn’t say if he said when he broke the record so I gave Brandon the ball and then he gave the ball to Pat in the locker room uh up there it was a pretty cool moment for for for hopefully greatness to recognize greatness um Pat Bryan literally broke down the team afterwards with nine wins said let’s try to get to 10 um uh so it kind of shows you where his mindset is I think this is a a team that really enjoys the success uh being around each other and I’m excited for for for what the future can be not just right now but I’m telling you fellas we got a really young football team we’re one of the youngest youngest teams in the power four uh the core of our football team when I make my uh 64 or my 74 man travel roster it’s all basically sophomores and juniors who will turn into Juniors and seniors next year to me as a head coach that’s very exciting we’ll finish with Steve here first of all how does a Florida sound on an 18 degree day and then you know you missed that last Rose Bowl at Wisconsin got a chance to go for a 10th win maybe it’s a New Year’s Day our New Year’s Eve game against program from the SEC is this sort of the biggest moment maybe that you’ve had since last time you coached in the Rose Bowl um yeah well for sure absolutely yeah this is this is big I felt it all week um I knew when we were coming out of that second bye if we could put together three weeks and get to nine wins it’d be pretty awesome today was a little chilly it’s the first time I’ve worn socks I think since Russell Wilson’s wedding if I’m not mistaken uh so it was like I don’t wear socks very often I threw them on a day my little toes were were numb walking in the building so uh I think for our players um obviously we we uh got to go to the reli quest a couple years ago but I think um to know how close they were I really kind of made that statement to him on Sunday to try and leave no doubt that um you know you were right on the cusp uh of being a top 15 team you know and and um unfortunately we didn’t do enough to get to that point uh uh maybe from from the perspective of the outside world but I know what when when people throw on our film they will see how we play and and that to me speaks volumes I’ve kind of had my moment I appreciate the question but I want Illinois to feel what Illinois should feel right this isn’t a mistake it didn’t happen by chance this happened through a lot of really hard work and a lot of really good dedication uh to not just people in the Smith Center but people in the apartment of Athletics Chancellor Jones all kinds of people that have made Illinois and our fans too man like I mean I’m serious like uh we had a Michigan game this year for the first time since I’ve been here we had a home field advantage right and that team that we beat pretty handedly just went and beat Ohio State so to win in this conference uh uh to be a team that we potentially be in the top five of a new 18 Team league to to say that Illinois is there I think is a pretty big ass statement thank you guys thank you
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