Illini coach has team prepared for loud environment, high IQ Nebraska football fans
There was a time, before the Nebraska football team hired Matt Rhule, where some people wanted the Huskers to pursue Illinois head man Bret Bielema. The rationale behind this wasn’t because of his time in Arkansas or with Illinois but when he was routinely a thorn in the side of NU when he was running the Wisconsin Badgers.
Bielema is familiar with the Huskers because of his time in Madison, sure. But he also know Nebraska because of when he was an assistant at Kansas State and before that, as a young linebackers coach at Iowa. That’s why he knows what his team is getting itself into (or at least he thinks he knows) on Friday night.
He talked about what he’ll be facing when his team takes on the Nebraska football program in a tilt between Top 25 schools.
"400 straight sellouts - I don't know how many people can be a part of 400 straight things but we're getting the opportunity to be number 400," Bielema told the media earlier this week. "An unbelievable fan base.”
Bret Bielema knows what the Nebraska football fanbase is all about
“It is a high football IQ crowd. They know what's going on,” Bielema continued.
While Bielema is impressed by the Huskers’ fanbase and stadium, he also had some very nice things to say about freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola. In the process, he made it pretty clear he wasn’t going to give the Cornhuskers any bulletin board material.
In fact, he laid quite a bit the credit for the Huskers being 3-0 instead of 1-2 like they were at this point in 2023, at the feet of Raiola.
"The preparation from last year's game - a lot of the same coaches - but he brings a different element immediately. He's a very talented young man that's got incredible awareness. Very talented, got a great deep ball throw... they maximize him and use him pretty well. There's some things you can literally see him getting better on every series.”
While Bielema was very complimentary fo the Nebraska football team, he won’t hesitate to try and beat the Huskers down. Likewise, NU will try and blow the Illini out of the water.