Illinois hires Bret Bielema as its next football coach, replacing Lovie Smith on a 6-year deal

Illinois has hired Bret Bielema as its new football coach.

Nearly a week after firing coach Lovie Smith, Illinois on Saturday announced Bielema as his replacement.

Bielema, who played at Iowa, coached Wisconsin to three Big Ten championships and six straight bowl games in his seven-season tenure.

“Illinois and the Big Ten is home for me, and I can’t be any more excited about the opportunity in front of me with the Fighting Illini,” Bielema said in a statement. “We want to build a program that makes Illini Nation proud and regain the passion that I’ve seen when Illinois wins. We want the young men playing football in the state of Illinois from Freeport to Cairo and from Quincy to Danville dreaming of wearing the Orange and Blue and playing at Memorial Stadium. I look forward to reconnecting with the high school coaches around the state making it clear we intend to keep our players home.”

Bielema signed a six-year deal beginning with an annual salary of $4.2 million, according to Illinois. The university will pay Smith $2.3 million for the remainder of his contract.

Bielema planned to attend Illinois’ regular-season finale at Penn State on Saturday as a guest. Offensive coordinator Rod Smith was elevated to interim head coach for the contest.

Bielema, who grew up in Prophetstown, Ill., has coached for 24 years. After his successful 68-24 run with the Badgers, he encountered struggles at Arkansas. He took the Razorbacks to three bowl games but was fired after five seasons with a 29-34 record.

He has spent the last three seasons in the NFL, two with the New England Patriots and the 2020 season as outside linebackers coach for the New York Giants.

“Bret Bielema is a proven winner,” Whitman said in a statement. “With three Big Ten championships to his credit, few coaches can match his familiarity with, and success within, the Big Ten Conference. In our conversations, it became clear to me that he is a life-long learner who is continually looking to grow and improve, and he has enjoyed unrivaled mentorship from some of the game’s most distinguished coaches, including Hayden Fry, Kirk Ferentz, Bill Snyder, Barry Alvarez and Bill Belichick— all of them current or future Hall of Famers.”

Bielema will be tasked with a job many coaches have failed at: turning the Illini into consistent winners.

They went 17-39 overall and 10-33 in conference play under Smith. Their highest finish in the Big Ten’s West Division was a tie for fourth in 2019.

During an interview from his car on ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Saturday, Bielema pointed out he was born in Illini Hospital in Silvis, Ill., making the Illinois an appropriate destiny.

“It’s coming full circle for me and I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity,” he said.

After working the last three years as an NFL assistant, Bielema said he has a new perspective on how he’ll approach the return to college coaching.

“It’s still going to be based on the same principles of toughness, dependability,” he said. “We’re going to have smart, tough, dependable players. I think the offense will be the biggest transition that people will see. It’s really opened my eyes.

“There will be things that are quite a bit different from what we had at Wisconsin. We’ll still have great line play. We’ll be about controlling the ball and maintaining a good game management. But I think defensively we’ll bring an aggressive style. We’ll probably go to the 3-4 scheme that’s a little bit different than what you saw in my time at Wisconsin.

“But the great thing is this is about Illinois. This is about a chance to take Illinois to a (higher) level. In my lifetime I’ve seen them have success and obviously have sometimes where they’ve not had much success. We’re going to blend that together. We’re going to recruit the state of Illinois like no other. I know every coach says it, but the proof will be in the pudding for us and our coaches.”

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Bielema acknowledged it will be a challenge to make Illinois a force in the Big Ten. He said he’ll be in Champaign on Sunday to assess the roster.

“We’ll start a new journey together and kind of assess that as we go,” he said. “But obviously it’s the Kentucky Derby theory of coaching, right? Nobody remembers the jockey, but everybody remembers the horse. So we’ve got to get the right people and the right players on the field … Of course, we do need players, and that starts with recruiting. And this is a COVID world, right? I’m doing an interview on ‘GameDay’ in a car — 2020 can’t get any more insane.”

Bielema is the third Illini football coach since December 2011, not counting Bill Cubit, who was interim head coach in 2015 after Tim Beckman was fired a week before the season.

Illinois has not had a winning season or won a bowl game since 2011, the year Ron Zook was fired.

Tribune’s Paul Sullivan contributed.