Illinois football head coach Bret Bielema met with the media for 15 minutes this morning, Aug. 3, to discuss the upcoming weeks for training camp, his thoughts on the roster and the scheduling for the 2023 season. Here are some of the key takeaways and quotes from the third-year Illini head coach.
Opening statement
Bielema talked about his enthusiasm for the training camp process and discussed his plans to practice later in the day due to the majority of games being in the evening.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” Bielema said. “We’re practicing in the evening, five of our first eight practices are in the evening, because four of our first six games are in the evening.”
Bielema touched on the scheduling as well, talking about having a bye week in week nine, much later in the season.
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“We only have one bye week this year,” Bielema said. “So for the players and coaches that have been with me, this is the first time we’re only going to have one bye week, and it comes after the eighth game of the season so you schedule your season to take advantage of it; at best, I’ve always seen the bye week as an opportunity to get a little bit of recovery.”
Injury and health concerns
Bielema gave an update on a few players who would not be practicing later in the evening, three of them to be specific.
“With the start of Fall Camp, we’re actually pretty healthy,” Bielema said. “We have three guys who will not be out at practice tonight.”
The players he mentioned included sophomore defensive back Matthew Bailey, who is scheduled to have a checkup soon to determine if he gets cleared but is expected to be back a couple of weeks out from the opener. Additionally, redshirt freshman linebacker Jared Badie, who has a soft tissue issue that has been a slight problem in the past.
“He’s starting at limited, but he should be back sooner than later,” Bielema said.
Lastly, sophomore offensive lineman Dezmond Schuster has reported and is fully able to go, but there’s some “follow-up things he has to do in order to fully participate in our practices,” according to Bielema.
Year Three and expectations
Bielema was asked about the expectations going into his third year with the program and 15th as a head coach overall, talking about how he feels as a coach seeing the outside expectations, as well as the hopes the Illini have in the building. Bielema emphasized the things he told the team — about how last year does not matter anymore, and it’s onto 2023.
“I always tell those guys, not one tackle, touchdown, one-yard gain or loss carries from last year to this year,” Bielema said. “It’s about the 12 guaranteed opportunities we have in front of us this year. I think our guys are excited about it; I know there are a lot of outside expectations, but I tell the guys that the expectations in this room are what matters, and for me, as a head coach, I hope their expectations are even higher than mine.”
Roster additions
Bielema’s team lost plenty of players due to the NFL Draft and graduation, and he was asked about how to replace the likes of Devon Witherspoon, Quan Martin and Sydney Brown in the secondary, respectively.
“We actually added a number of new guys, a couple of safeties and corners,” Bielema said. “We haven’t seen it all, we’ve been able to workout with them mildly during the summer, but NCAA rules don’t allow certain things to happen, so tonight will be the first time we’ve been with them on the grass in a football capacity standpoint.”
Bielema touched on the losses from the secondary, bringing up how the Bowl game preparation opened a window to seeing some of those guys who rode the bench during the 2022 season.
“When a couple of guys didn’t play, it opened up the window there,” Bielema said. “(After) that first wave of true portals and transfers in January and after Spring ball, we took an assessment of what do we have and where do we think we need (more); the door opened up for a couple (of) guys that we were able to get in the program. We use the portal as a way to supplement areas we have concerns at, I don’t think you take a guy in the portal with the desire to make him a day one starter. Sometimes that happens, but it’s more of a byproduct.”
