Tennessee football and Illinois are set to meet in the Music City Bowl on Tuesday evening. Ahead of the matchup, Illini head coach Bret Bielema met with the media to give his thoughts on the matchup.
He talked about his relationship with Vols interim defensive coordinator William Inge, what a win would mean for his team, how he’s prepared for the game and more.
Here’s what he said.
More From RTI: Everything Tennessee HC Josh Heupel Said Monday Ahead Of Music City Bowl
Opening statement
“Excited about the guitar. We’ll take better care of it than out basketball team. Those guys are a little reckless. Super excited to be here, it’s been an absolutely awesome week. Want to start off, Jeremy Werner, one of our local writers for 247, unfortunately lost his father the other day. We want to give our thoughts to him and his family as he goes back and takes care of that moment. Awesome dude, awesome person, so we’re all thinking of him.
“With that being said, our players absolutely enjoyed their time here. Had a great event two nights ago with Tennessee and their team. Really enjoyed being around Josh (Heupel) a couple times last night. To be at the Grand Ole Opry and be on the main stage there and have a couple song writers come in and share some stories was absolutely awesome. My wife took a group of wives to a cowboy hat-making event that was a big hit. First time I’ve ever actually had every wife come up and thank me for the event. So it was pretty cool to do those things. Things you don’t normally get to do at a bowl game and to do these things together.
“Obviously, the game is gonna be huge to play Tennessee for the first time. I’ve had huge admiration for Coach Heupel going back to his playing days, to see his coaching career and what he’s been able to do and what they’ve been able to accomplish at Tennessee is truly exceptional. And to play them for the first time. Just to bump into so many Illinois fans, Tennessee fans in the hotel, been in this hotel several times for American Football Coach Association Convention, so no stranger to this hotel. Been an awesome experience with them.
“My wife and I came over with our daughters, went to the Charlie Brown Christmas on Christmas Day, which wasn’t exactly thrilled to be doing it, but at the end of the day, absolutely just awesome. They had ice sculptures and the detail in there and all those things. And I think I always go back to, obviously, it’s a game, it’s gonna be remembered by a victory or loss, whichever side of the field you’re on, but you create a memory. You create a moment, you create an opportunity for a family to come together and maybe share a bowl experience. My mom and dad went to bowl games with me. We didn’t really travel a lot as a family growing up. I remember the first time that I ever remember my parents traveling out of the state of Illinois was to come to the Rose Bowl game that I played in. And to see my dad and my brothers in that experience was pretty, pretty awesome.
“And as many bowl games I was in as an assistant coach, as a coordinator and a head coach, whenever my mom and dad would get together and talk about bowl games, they always go back to the bowl games when I was a player. And to see parents here, I saw a couple parents in the lobby last night, just creating a memory that’ll last a lifetime. It’s just absolutely awesome. So thank you to the Music City Bowl and Liberty for obviously sponsoring, but super excited about this opportunity.”
On what he wants to see carry over from the final regular season game to Tuesday
“Well, I really wasn’t banking on it. Yesterday, it was 75 degrees out on the practice field. We have kind of a neat thing for us, obviously, Vandy and Tennessee are in the same conference, but they don’t necessarily see eye to eye a lot, right? So I think we were the first Big Ten team to ever be able to use Vandy’s facility, cause Tennessee didn’t want to use them. So we’ve been at Vandy’s facilities all this week and we were on there in their stadium yesterday. It was 75 degrees. And I walked outside today when I got up this morning, clicked on my phone, it was 32 degrees. So there’s some carryover from our last game, the Northwestern game, to where we are today, temperature-wise. Definitely not snow and icy rain.
“But you know, I think a lot of you guys asked me in the early season when we were in Vegas at Big Ten Media Day, like coach, how would you define a successful season? And I’ve always kind of given this answer whether whatever type of team I had coming back. I want us playing our best football at the end of the year. I think that’s what good football teams do. And obviously, to be able to cap this off, just like Tennessee’s battling through a few things. We’ve obviously got Gabe Jacas not playing for us. J.C. Davis not playing for us. And then Matt Bailey had a surgery. So those are three very, very good players that’ll all have replacements in for this game.
“I thought all of them have done a great job. The outside linebacker guys by committee. J.C. Davis is being replaced by Nathan Knapik, but we’ll have a host of guys that have kind of rallied around that. Talked to Josh Gesky about playing next to Nathan for the first time, just kind of give him help and experience. And then obviously in the back end we’ll have several guys kind of fill in for Matt Bailey and his role that he’s always held. So I think that’s the big thing is just have the continuity of the last game, have the new faces come in.
“And then obviously the challenge of playing Tennessee and the explosive offense they are. We’ve tried to simulate that all during our bowl prep. I thought Aaron’s done an outstanding job kind of preparing our look team to give us the look of Tennessee’s offense. Have an ACC officiating crew we’re really excited about. I know these guys are very decorated officials. A lot of them have officiated in College Football Playoff games. So we’ve got the best of the best of the ACC come to officiate for us. So it’s a really fun experience.”
On what beating Tennessee would do optically
“Well, it’s a national stage playing a good SEC opponent. You know, I just can’t stress enough like when we were in the final stages coming out of that second bye week, we knew how we finished out and played these next three or four games are gonna be a huge factor into where we went for a bowl game. And because of the way it laid out, we knew that obviously Orlando, we couldn’t go back to that, but Tampa was a viable option, in some consideration was an SEC opponent. And obviously, there’s the Music City Bowl game vs. SEC, I really wanted that matchup. I just got tremendous respect. Obviously been in the league for four or five years. I never had the opportunity to play Tennessee. The powers of the SEC can be very unusual, right?
“I didn’t see Kentucky or Vanderbilt my entire time in the SEC, but I saw Florida twice, Georgia twice and a couple others. So it was always intriguing to me. I’m sure you guys that follow the SEC know what I’m talking about, but didn’t ever have a chance to see this. So when I heard their name getting floated around for this game, just really, really excited about it. And then what this does is it gives you an opportunity, obviously, if you’re fortunate to win it, a bowl game is very unique and the fact that you carry it with you for the next six, seven, eight months until you play that next game again. So a tremendous opportunity for our kids. Obviously, a storied bowl game here with over 25, 27 years of experiences. So really excited for that.”
On what winning this game would make winning bowl games the new normal for the program
“I look over and I see Josh and to be on this journey with him, we talked about sustainable success and I just keep going back to it is three and four years or however it’s gonna play out. But, you know, those two years that we missed were both five-win seasons. I’m just like, damn, we would’ve got one more win in those two. Like to be five for five would be something really. When I was at Wisconsin, I never missed a bowl game, but I carried – very traditioned there. And when I was at Arkansas, we went to three straight, but I missed that last year and it wasn’t good enough for them, so I got shooed out the door.
“But I think this opportunity to get us to nine wins against an SEC opponent. You know, we were looking at their game earlier this year and I really looked a lot at Oklahoma, the Vandy game, which was a murky matchup game. These guys had played, I mean they played Georgia down to the down to the wire, right? And here’s Georgia, literally one of the best teams college football right now going at it. So they played against the best in the country and held their own. So this is a really good quality win or a good quality opponent. And one, if we can come out on the right side, would be a great step in the right direction.”
On what he’s emphasized to his team about playing Tennessee
“That we always have keys to victory offense, defense, special teams. I think Tennessee’s offense brings such a unique challenge to tempo, the explosion. They’re one of the most explosive teams in college football. You know, they’ve played a couple games this year, I showed them one game where at the end of the regulation, end of first quarter and they converted a fourth and one and scored three plays later. So really in the first minute, the second quarter, they’re up 21-0 on a really good football team, right? Super explosive defensively. Obviously, with the transition of coordinators, we don’t know exactly what we’re gonna get. Billy (William Inge) and I actually were college locker mates. His locker room was right there, mine was right there. We shared a locker room together for three years.
So all kinds of stories there, but Billy’s (William Inge) taken over, but also, a lot of those coaches have been play callers in the past. So defensively, we kind of think we’ll see a little bit of what we saw, but trying to gauge what that’s gonna play out. Special teams are just super, super explosive, got great return game. They’ve got a couple guys on back there. But these bowl games a lot of times are decided about who takes advantage of the moments they’re in, right? Like we’ve talked a lot about staying in our routine even though we’re in a different hotel, different city. It’s a 4:30 time slot game, which we’ve never had in all this year.”
“So our routine has gotta adjust a little bit, but you gotta handle that moment. And then situational football for us is gonna be all around us. Whether it’s a second and one, third and one, fourth and one, whether it’s a backed-up scenario, maybe it’s a first and 15 after a false start on offense. We gotta overcome those situational football moments or take advantage of the ones we get.”
