College football is better with Bret Bielema, the villain

In the few months after being hired at Ohio State in 2012, Urban Meyer reshaped a middle-of-the-road Buckeyes recruiting class and turned it into one of the nation’s most impressive collections of talent. In doing so, Meyer had no choice but to relentlessly recruit players who were already committed, some of whom to other Big Ten programs.

Meyer didn’t go to Ohio State to make friends.

Bret Bielema was fine with that. He also had no interest in being friends.

Most don’t remember this now given it was 13 years ago, but Bielema was a villain back in the day. His Wisconsin Badgers were one of the most consistent winners in the conference and he had pep in his step. When Meyer arrived at Ohio State — and flipped offensive tackle Kyle Dodson from Wisconsin — Bielema wasn’t going to keep his mouth shut.

“There’s a few things that happened early on that I made people be aware of, that I didn’t want to see in this league, that I had seen take place in other leagues,” Bielema said during his signing day press conference a few days later. “Other recruiting tactics, other recruiting practices, that are illegal.”

It was fun to look back at that this week as Bielema, now the head coach at Illinois, was making headlines again. We’ll get into what he said later. But it got me thinking: how much better would college football be if we got Bielema back going full villain? What if what happened 13 years ago happened all the time? The sport, an entertainment product to its core, would be so much better off.

If you don’t remember how things went between Meyer and Bielema, it’s probably because it’s ancient history. It started a few weeks of national discourse about a “gentleman’s agreement” and whether it was bad form to recruit players who were committed to schools in your conference. Bielema said, “I can tell you this: we at the Big Ten don’t want to be like the SEC in any way, shape or form.” You can imagine how that went, especially as it coincided with Meyer’s departure from Florida at the beginning of the SEC’s national dominance that spanned for the next decade-plus.

Bielema antagonized Ohio State — and anyone who got in his way — repeatedly during his remaining time at Wisconsin. A year later, Bielema left to take the Arkansas job. After 5 in Fayetteville and a few in the NFL, Bielema returned to Big Ten country in 2021 at Illinois.

And now Illinois is, gulp, good?

Bielema hasn’t been much of a villain during the past decade. Part of that is because things didn’t go to his standard while at Arkansas and he has had to quietly build an Illini program many had left for dead. But while Curt Cignetti and Indiana took the world by storm in 2024, Bielema assembled his best team at Illinois, one that went won 10 games and defeated South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl.

Guess what? Bielema’s team returns basically everyone, including quarterback Luke Altmyer. The Illini added West Virginia’s leading receiver Hudson Clement in the portal. They also return their entire offensive line, cornerback Xavier Scott, safeties Dylan Rosiek, Matthew Bailey and Miles Scott. Illinois has a chance to be really, really good. Like, maybe even CFP good.

So usher in the yapping. Be the villain college football needs, Bret. Do it now, especially because trash talk hits so much harder when it’s coming from a place of strength.

When Bielema joined the Andy & Ari On3 show in January, I asked him if he was going to get back to his old ways. We saw some of it during his spat with South Carolina coach Shane Beamer in the Citrus Bowl. Did he still have it in him to ruffle feathers the way he used to back at Wisconsin? Is being a big personality good for Illinois’ branding?

“I tell our kids there are three things every day when you wake up should: try to do things the right way, be respectful of everyone and be the best you,” Bielema said. “For me, I only know how to be Bret Bielema. I have a brother named Barry and a brother named Bart. I can’t be either one of them. I can be me, right? I don’t try to be somebody else. I try to be the person I am.

“When that moment came up (in the Cirtus Bowl), I walked over there and did something that crossed my mind. There wasn’t any pre-planning. Just being me. I think that’s why my wife married me. I’m the only me.”

Be you, Bret. All the time.

Last week, Bielema made remarks about the SEC as he was discussing College Football Playoff reform. He made it count.

“We voted unanimously as Big Ten coaches to stay at nine league games and actually maybe have an SEC challenge,” Bielema said. “I was told that they voted unanimously to stay at eight and not play the Big Ten. But then some people pop off and say what they want to say because they want to look a certain way. … I get it, but like, I think until you get to nine for everybody, I don’t think it could work.”

Jab. Jab. Jab. Jab. Jab.

Keep swinging.

College football needs this because the sport took a major hit when it lost Nick Saban to retirement and Jim Harbaugh to the NFL. There are superstar coaches like Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Ohio State’s Ryan Day, but there are only a few out there that are taking the world by storm with intriguing and funny comments regularly. Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin comes to mind. Maybe there was somebody else.

But we need Bielema’s personality more than we need Illinois to be good. We need people to say the quiet parts out loud, to spark debate and to keep people on their toes. That doesn’t mean Bielema is right all the time. Heck, go be wrong. Just be interesting. Be you.

There’s no telling whether Illinois will live up to the hype this year. The Fighting Illini are the offseason darling, sure, but they can’t be anything like Indiana last year because the Hoosiers came out of nowhere. Illinois isn’t sneaking up on anyone.

But if the byproduct of this offseason hype is more of Bielema being Bielama, great.

The sport is better with a villain.