The New York Giants are slightly less than a week removed from officially announcing the entirety of Joe Judge’s coaching staff, which includes outside linebackers coach/senior assistant Bret Bielema.
“There’s a lot of things (to like) about Bret,” Judge said last week. “I think Bret brings a great personality to the group, brings a great perspective on how he sees the game, he’s coached the front for some time, he’s coordinated defenses at a high level. Players respond to Bret in a positive way. He has a great way of teaching, he has a great way of getting the guys motivated, and he gets the most out of his players.
“He brings experience from the NFL, as well as college, so not only does he understand what’s going on in the league now, he understands what the players coming from college are used to and how to better translate the trends they’re going to see.”
Unfortunately for Judge and the Giants, Bielema’s tenure in East Rutherford could be remarkably short-lived.
Rainer Sabin of the Detroit Free Press reports that Bielema has “definite interest” in the Michigan State head coaching job, which has also reportedly drawn the interest of former Giants head coach and current Denver Broncos offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, former Wisconsin and Arkansas coach Bret Bielema has “definite” interest in succeeding Mark Dantonio, who retired Tuesday after 13 seasons.
. . .
Word is he is eager to return to the college game and has set his sights on the Big Ten, where he played at Iowa and achieved his most success as a head coach at Wisconsin.
If the Giants and Judge were to lose Bielema to Michigan State, it would be an unexpected blow to the newly assembled staff. It would also send New York reeling in an effort to find an immediate replacement.
MSU’s search committee met on Monday morning and have a Monday evening meeting scheduled with the board of trustees where the next steps will be discussed. Might they include Bielema?
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