Illinois gets a much-needed win with hiring of Bret Bielema to replace Lovie Smith

Of all the unsexy moves it could’ve made, Illinois went and hired Bret Bielema to replace the fired Lovie Smith as football coach.

Don’t take that as a shot at Bielema, 50, who signed on the dotted line Saturday before taking in the Illini’s season-ending 56-21 defeat at Penn State as athletic director Josh Whitman as a guest. No, “unsexy” is Bielema’s word. It was one of his favorites during his heyday at Wisconsin, where he led the Badgers to three Rose Bowls and a 68-24 record after taking over for program architect Barry Alvarez.

“We’re not going to appeal to the sexy,” he said in his office during training camp in 2011. “If a kid’s looking for bells and whistles, wants a weight room that looks like a club, we’re we’re not the place. We work, we grind and we take pride in doing that. The kids who want that have gravitated to us.”

Nearly a decade later — including a rough five-year stretch for Bielema at Arkansas — not much has changed about a western Illinoisan who worked his way up from scout teamer to team captain as a defensive lineman at Iowa and loved the game enough to give the Arena League a shot after his college career.

Bielema was a plugger, not a star, as a player, and — despite his reputation for running up scores and talking a big game — he’s a plugger as a coach. His mentors include Iowa’s Hayden Fry, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder and Alvarez. He worked for Bill Belichick, too. Icons, all, and old-schoolers who wouldn’t know sexy from a fullback dive on third-and-2.

Bielema will recruit large humans to Champaign. His teams will run the ball and aim to control the clock. If it gets rolling for him with the Illini, there will be lots of NFL-style offense geared more toward physical domination than spreading the field. Illini players will get stronger, that’s for sure.

Often under Smith, Illinois — stuck on nine straight losing seasons — seemed physically overmatched. Too many games looked like Saturday’s, when Penn State (4-5) had 42 points by halftime and outgained the Illini (2-6) 580 yards to 273. For Smith’s successor, putting a more imposing squad on the field will be at the very center of the bull’s-eye.

“Bret’s blue-collar work ethic and genuine, authentic manner will allow him to form strong connections to his players and staff and positive relationships in our community and our state,” Whitman said in a statement. “These qualities, combined with his commitment to education and his track record of success, give me great confidence in his leadership of our football program.”

Bielema signed a six-year contract with an annual salary starting at $4.2 million. It’s the break he needed after getting kicked around pretty badly in the suffocating SEC West, by far the toughest division in the country. Bielema’s style didn’t raise Arkansas to Alabama’s, LSU’s or Auburn’s level, but the Big Ten West offers far more opportunity for lasting growth.

Illini fans don’t have to like Iowa, but they have to understand that their new coach is the kind of guy who has a Hawkeye tattoo on his calf. They don’t have to like Wisconsin, but they have to understand the “never flinch” attitude that Alvarez instilled there is at the heart of why Bielema kept pounding away at opponents even if it meant running up scores.

And they might also appreciate that Bielema made his bones running defenses for Snyder and Alvarez. Smith made his bones coaching defense, too, but his scheme — not to mention his recruiting — never got it done in Champaign. Maybe those critical areas will be improved now, too.