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Last week, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema was ripping saying some unflattering things about the state of his roster. This week, ahead of hosting Rutgers football this weekend, Bielema’s tune was a little bit different.
After his team pulled off a 20-18 win at Penn State that took nine overtimes to get a result, Bielema was upbeat about the direction of the program in his first year with the Illini.
It was a different tone than his comments from earlier last week where he openly questioned the quality of the roster he inherited. Bielema most notably said “I don’t believe we have a player in the two-deep that they’ve recruited here over the last three years that is really significantly doing anything for us in the playing department.”
Bielema was asked about the comments following his team’s win over a ranked Penn State.
“I get it. I know why you got to ask questions about it, but it wasn’t really noisy in our building. I made a comment a couple weeks ago that I wish everyone could see what’s happening inside the Smith Center because the trust, the faith, the guidance, the belief, I see the guys enjoying being around our players,” Bielema told reporters after the game.
“But I saw the joy when the players hugged our coaches and say the things they do. Really the non-issues we’ve had away from football, they just have bought in 100 times over to what we’ve been selling and preaching to them. To get a win on the road against a ranked Big Ten team and having to battle through all those overtimes I thought was just a great indication.”
Illinois is now 3-5 on the year. On Saturday they host a Rutgers team that is coming off a much-needed bye week.
At 3-4, Rutgers was beat up physically after four straight losses in Big Ten play.