Bret Bielema shares changes for Nebraska under Mickey Joseph

Last season, Illinois started its season in Week 0 against Nebraska and got the first win of the Bret Bielema era. Since that game, a lot has changed.

Scott Frost is out as Cornhuskers head coach and Mickey Joseph has taken over in the interim. At the same time, Bielema has turned the Fighting Illini into a Big Ten West contender, armed with the best scoring defense in the FBS this season.

Still, despite the coaching change, Bielema thinks Nebraska can pack quite a punch — and Joseph is a big reason why because of the changes he’s made in Lincoln over the last month.

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“I think Coach Joseph, because he played there, he’s definitely had a huge impact on what’s happened since that transition,” Bielema told reporters this week. “I noticed a difference on offense, defense and even on special teams. The way they’re playing the game, especially at home — which we’re going into — they were able to beat an Indiana team by two scores, something we weren’t able to do. A very talented football team. Got a lot of athletic ability on the perimeter of both offense, defense.

“They’ve got big guys up front that play physical, Big Ten football. So a tremendous challenge for us. They’re coming out of a bye week, they did very well in that Indiana game. All the key ingredients for us to be ready to play a really good game on Saturday. Excited for the opportunity.”

Bret Bielema on the challenge of playing at Nebraska: ‘It’s a great environment’

Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium is among the toughest places to play in college football, especially considering the Cornhuskers are in the midst of an impressive sellout streak. Considering the amount of times Bielema has coached in Lincoln — he was an assistant at Iowa and the head coach at Wisconsin over his career — he knows what his team is going to see on Saturday.

“My first experience, I was an assistant at Iowa,” Bielema said. “We had a home-and-home series against Nebraska back in the day before the conference realignment. I remember going over there and getting the cheers running on the field right? And then they cheered louder when they left; because you lost. My next experience was at Kansas State. We went there, and we actually had success and won there. And I think it was the first time Kansas State had been to Lincoln and beat them there in like 30-40 years.

“I really enjoyed the tenacity of the environment we played in. It’s a great environment. Very comparable, in my mind. It’s kind of like some of your Big Ten venues. They’re very vertical stadiums; a lot of people. Very interactive crowd and one that I’m excited to let our guys play.”