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The bad blood between Illinois football coach Bret Bielema and the SEC remains extremely raw. At every turn, Bielema has found a way to fire back at the SEC for all things big and small.
On Tuesday, Bielema once again called them out at Big Ten Media Days by claiming the SEC is still stuck in the past, specifically 2005, per Brett McMurphy of On3Sports. He also poked fun at SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
“They want to live in 2005 forever,” Bielema said.
In 2005, Bielema was the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin. Also at that time, the SEC began its reign as the supreme conference in college football. Since then, the SEC has won 13 national championships, with Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and Florida winning the bulk of those championships.
In 2012, the SEC added Texas A&M and Missouri, and Texas and Oklahoma in 2024. It is still very much the case that the SEC has a stranglehold on the college football landscape.
Meanwhile, Illinois football went from a 2-9 season in 2005 to a 9-4 season in 2007 under head coach Ron Zook.
Then, Illinois went through a period of struggle under head coaches Tim Beckman and Lovie Smith.
In 2020, Bielema was hired as head coach, and things began to turn around for the better. Two years later, they went 8–5 and made it to the ReliaQuest Bowl.
Over five seasons, Bielema has compiled a 37-26 record and a 2-1 bowl record.
Bielema was an SEC head coach at Arkansas from 2013 to 2017. During that stretch, Bielema compiled a 29-34 record and a 11-29 SEC record.
The bad blood between Illinois football coach Bret Bielema and the SEC remains extremely raw. At every turn, Bielema has found a way to fire back at the SEC for all things big and small. On Tuesday, Bielema once again called them out at Big Ten Media Days by claiming the SEC is still stuck in the past, specifically 2005, per Brett McMurphy of On3Sports.
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