Illini Football | Coach Bielema Press Conference vs. Eastern Illinois 8/29/24

all right let's go spe pass you all bedtime um 11:45 um well two things uh you know I was I was excited to to get in and and you know I knew we had a bunch of new players but you every time you assemble a team you just never know really until the bullets are flying how they're going to react and uh the fun thing for me as a head coach I thought I saw today a lot of things that I had seen to practice from our staff from our coaches the interaction that they have uh one of our first uh uh Team goals this this week was to you know be able to communicate 100% communication pre and post and that started on practice through all of our preparation through walk through yesterday walk through today and then out there today I thought there was a lot of really good communication guys played extremely hard went out and played well 24 new guys that have never played a snap in in uh college football for the University of Illinois so to have that many uh uh different faces uh to go out there and play the well they did as well as they did and then I really you know at halftime we were going to start second half but I had a feeling if we were going to control that game kind of make a reassessment at the end of the Third third four start getting some new faces in I thought those guys came in and played uh extremely hard they didn't let go of the Rope um uh wanted to go out there and set an edge uh one of our team goals this year is to uh have a smart tough to pable Edge to us and I think those guys did it so really really excited for that um give Chris and his crew that's a really good football team I was very uh nervous started watching those guys last January and the team that won eight teams eight games last year and I know it's FCS but they they were a very good football team that had a lot of Juniors and seniors and grad seniors coming back and a really good football team those guys I bet will make a lot of noise in their division at this point going forward so got out of it pretty healthy um I thought Luke threw the ball extremely well I thought he threw the ball deep uh connected on some things their defense played very aggressive as they have been thought theyve attacked the football to get four turnovers those were all pretty self-created um I don't think there were things they just dropped him I thought the reading break out of Miles early on the first one I thought I was literally I saw um I was sitting and I could see uh um T Cox read that screen I saw him break up and make that play uh and obviously Dylan rosak that last punch out he just a guy that plays with that attitude that demeanor all the time just super excited uh we'll come in tomorrow put the uh film to rest and then jump into our preparation versus Kansas so with that open it up test but I know your defense wanted to get on the field again after last year what was most encouraging about that yeah you know I think one of our our our talks and conversations was you know um learn from the past but build for the future right and and um you know even though we had 45 guys jump in Camp this year that had never been with us that defense in particular I think have been hearing a lot of things since last fall to get where they are they've they earned in that staff a lot of credit got three new guys on defense who have really been a great asset I thought Clint and Archie and and Cory uh uh really have had a good fall Camp of prep you know preparation obviously we got to get the offsides thing taken care of but I thought our coaches coached well I thought our players played well and they attacked and you know we really primarily played about two defenses really the whole entire uh game and and uh uh little a little bit end a half there to see them respond the way they did I thought it was really good how much time have you spent during camp on Kansas was con thing or something kind of sprinkled L now how much you did you work on that yeah great question I think the advantage we have is only we know the answer to that right um I I think we we concentrated on Eastern Illinois as a football team that was up on our schedule we get 12 golden opportunities and we focused on them last spring and in Fall camp we worked on our first four opponents at different times so um you know we want to respect Eastern Illinois and put them in position to play but now obviously Kansas played today I know they weren ran ran away convincingly as well so I'm very very excited I think our guys are ready for an eager opportunity to get back and and play football again and obviously Kansas is the next chance rolling down yeah even though it's an FCS is that a good for you you know I you know everybody kind of asked coach what are you excited to see those five running backs I was excited to see how they played right um I I think uh it was uh interesting for me when we made our our 74 man travel roster this game Mark tan my chief of staff I said hey grab me the dress roster or the hotel roster from game two I think it was game two game six in game 11 last year right and in the running back room uh that we dressed out for some of those latter games last year was just incredible compared to what this room is right now um you know Aiden laughrey I think everybody was excited to see that first run and um win for nine and it really could have been a bigger hit if he would have just been able to uh stay on track a little bit I thought Kaden came in you know those two guys I've been very blessed in my career to have some combo running backs when you have running backs that complement each other in a way that's very different right like that can lead to some good things then Josh I thought came in and did some good stuff Jordan Anderson who's been chomping at the bit to get back out there was awesome to see him and then khil I'm telling you he's quick as a hiccup a really fun Dynamic player very intelligent uh a great demeanor I'm excited about that room EXC of different responsib is this evening tonight yeah gab is a third-year player who's played a lot of really good football um you know if you just I think on our roster if you you know totality look at 120 players I would say Gabe is definitely one of our 10 best players right and I think as coaches we have to maximize our player strength and minimize their weaknesses and Gabe is a very versatile um very intelligent um I think that room in general Seth Coleman at times does some really good stuff I thought those guys were bringing some pressure off the edge Alec Bryant but I was really excited to see Joe Barner and JoJo Hayden get in there um with uh Daniel Brown has had a little little soft tissue issue so he wasn't able to go today but that room's got some Dynamic explosive players Zeke okay yeah yeah he's uh you know I think the ability that Gabe has is um for us he primly plays outside linebacker but last year a couple games we started playing him in there now we had some really good players as well um but uh that position allows him to be dynamic cuz now you got a quicker more explosive player that's playing in inside against matchup issues and uh the more he does that the better he can play and then uh you know I think it also you know when we're able to move him a different spots you can't solo up protections right and say hey we can chip this guy here we can do this there part of the reason Johnny had so much high production is it's hard to in our front it's hard to combo a guy that's in that position when I say combo like put two people on him in pass protection it's really uh very tough to have that with match up so I think that that exposes Gabe to a new level the way was discussed during train I'm sorry did you say Luke yeah well again U for me I I saw things that I have saw all all spring all summer all all fall Camp um you know I had a meeting with the quarterbacks the other day and and uh all three of them kind of had different areas they reported on and and and Luke uh kind of had some end of half end of game comments and just the authority that he was talking to the confidence I always say uh for us uh volume reflects confidence and and you can just hear Luke a lot more than you've ever heard of him so I think that's a great thing because he's confident you have a quarterback that's throwing with confidence uh playing with confidence and people around him have confidence that's something really good so uh this is game one um not ready to announce him a front runner for the Heisman but I definitely liked what I saw and more than anything uh I thought our wide receivers that was the group I was probably the most anxious to see because a lot of you haven't seen him you know I saw Isaiah on the sideline gave him a big hug couldn't be proud of that young man and Casey Washington those guys have had so much production for us the last year especially and Isaiah over the last two years I was kind of excited to see this group come forward Pat byon caught the ball zakari is a very talented player uh great to see Malik get on the board there with a big T Big Catch uh uh and so it's kind of fun to see some of those guys Colin Dixon is probably one of the Freshman that we're most excited to see get out there and play so I I really I think Luke recognizes the talent that's around him and excited to get out there is that a shortterm thing yeah he was kind of uh um we did he practice three days ago uh and then didn't come out of that end of it so we just want to sit him in this game um so we kind of made that decision uh I do hopefully he's going to be back on Tuesday uh or or a little bit Sunday but I think Tuesday will be our first Go full goal PR should be back out there we didn't see him take a defensive snap who that we didn't see defensive snap for him theth quarter maybe what like yeah Terence were excited um you know I think the way that uh we really didn't have a lot of snaps right we took field I think we had 28 stamps and for us you you kind of want to take advantage of playing as many reps as you can in these games to get cuz it's the way you play yourself into shape so I I didn't really want to have our starters or have that first rub come out until the fourth quarter so not only Terence nobody else you really saw either right um but teren is very talented um the more he he does things in our program the right way and with consistency his grow his uh his U role will continue to grow he definitely is a very talented player and excited and I think I think today was a big step for him all right thanks guys thank you move on to players blue