Choose a job you love, never work a day in your life
August 2, 2023
University of Illinois head football coach Bret Bielema remembers how he got his coaching start and has been grateful for it ever since.
He was fresh off being cut by the Seattle Seahawks after a six-day stint, had $28 to his name, and was trying to figure out what was next for him. Bielema’s former football coach at Iowa, Hayden Fry, then pulled Bielema into his office and told him he was interested in having him become a student assistant and then a graduate assistant for the Hawkeyes.
“I had never really thought about coaching. I had kinda dabbled with it, but then I decided to give it a go,” Bielema said during his speech at the 2023 AFCA Convention. “I left that meeting and went to the Yen Ching, which was a $2.99 lunch buffet in Iowa City, and they let me eat as long as I could. The cookie at the end of my meal said ‘Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ True story.
“I’ve been coaching for 30 years. I’ve had a lot of wins, I’ve had a lot of losses, and I’ve gotten fired once. But I don’t think I’ve worked a day in my life.”
The 26th head football coach in the history of the Illinois football program has loved his career as a coach and he’s had plenty of success along the way.
As a head coach, he’s tallied an overall record of 110-70 between stops at Wisconsin, Arkansas, and now Illinois. He’s also captured three Big Ten championships, a Big Ten Coach of the Year award in 2006, and recently led the Illini to the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff ranking this past season.
But it all started at Iowa during his time under Fry, who isn’t the only storied football mentor that he’s had during his coaching career.
After Fry, Bielema coached under Kirk Ferentz before heading to Kansas State to coach under Bill Snyder as a co-defensive coordinator. The Wildcats won a Big 12 title in 2003 and Bielema then moved on to Wisconsin two years later where he was the defensive coordinator under Barry Alvarez.
Bielema then got his head coaching start after Alvarez retired in 2006. He spent six seasons with the Badgers before being hired as the head coach at Arkansas for five seasons until the Razorbacks let him go in 2017.
That was when Bielema received another call from a coaching legend.
“I remember getting a phone call from Bill Belichick. Coach and I had built up a little bit of a relationship. He had drafted quite a few of my players both at Wisconsin and Arkansas,” Bielema said. “He said, ‘Hey, I know today is a tough day, right? I got let go at Cleveland and I was angry at the world. I really didn’t know and understand what I had done wrong. I was mad. I was upset. And then a couple of days later, I realized that I could stop complaining about that or I could get myself ready for the next opportunity I got.’ His next opportunity was the Patriots and he’s done what he’s done there.”
That small piece of advice led Bielema to a volunteer position with the Patriots as a defensive consultant during the 2018 season before he was promoted to defensive line coach a year later. It was another opportunity to learn under a coaching legend and Bielema took full advantage of it.
After two seasons with the Patriots, Bielema followed Joe Judge to the Giants before taking the head coaching job at Illinois in late 2020.
Through his first two seasons at the helm in Illinois, Bielema has been putting his stamp on the program as he’s been looking to create “Tough, Smart, and Dependable” players.
“This is our DNA,” Bielema said. “We’re tough. We’re smart. We’re dependable. It doesn’t matter how fast you are, how high you can jump, or how far you can throw the football. If you are tough, smart, and dependable, you have a chance to play at the University of Illinois. We will not always have better talent than the team we are playing against. But we will have the best effort to become the toughest, smartest, and most dependable team on the football field every given Saturday.”
In his first two years at Illinois, Bielema has put together an overall record of 13-12 and the Illini are coming off an 8-5 season where they were in the Associated Press Top 25 for five consecutive weeks at one point, reaching as high as No. 14. The Illini ended their season with a loss to Mississippi State in the ReliaQuest Bowl, but the program has shown improvement in just its second year under Bielema.
Illinois turned in the best-scoring defense in the nation for the first time in school history, led the nation and set a school record with 24 interceptions, and ranked third nationally in total defense. The team also ranked third in the nation in completion percentage, rising 122 spots in the national rankings.
Illinois also became the only school in the nation to have three defensive backs taken in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. Devon Witherspoon (5th overall), Jartavius Martin (2nd round) and Sydney Brown (3rd round) were all selected before running back Chase Brown was selected in the fifth round.
This came a year after Illinois went 5-7 and put together a Big Ten record of 4-5 with big wins over Penn State and Minnesota, who were both ranked in the Top 25 at the time. The Illini’s win over Minnesota was their first win over a CFP-ranked opponent in program history. Bielema also brought in improvements across the board from the previous season.
Their scoring defense improved from 97th to 31st, their third-down defense went from 89th to 31st and their total defense went from 114th to 52nd.
That improvement has come from his team’s focus on the details when they take the field daily. During his speech at the 20223 AFCA Convention, Bielema walked listeners through a day at the University of Illinois and broke down drills they go through in practice. During each drill, Bielema emphasized making players execute the small things.
When it came to a chase-down drill for defensive backs, Bielema forced his receivers to catch the ball in the drill first rather than them starting it with it in their hands.
“We’re going to have the quarterback deliver the ball to him because the ball is never just placed in your hands as a receiver, you got to catch it,” Bielema said.
Then, during another defensive back drill where players were supposed to break on a route that was run by a wide receiver, Bielema made sure to have his coaches focus on weaknesses. During the particular drill he was showing, Bielema pointed out that free safety Kendall Smith had dropped two interceptions earlier in the year. So, in that specific case, Bielema was having defensive coordinator Aaron Henry throw balls over his head because that’s what Smith was struggling with.
“I said throw him as many balls as you can above his head because he has a hard time catching balls above his head,” Bielema said. “He went on to have five interceptions that year, but he had dropped two earlier in the year. Every time he (Henry) threw to Kendall, he threw him a ball that he struggled the most with.”
It’s that type of attention to detail that has allowed Illinois to improve under Bielema and it also has a lot to do with the culture the coach has instilled. He leans on phrases like “Do Your Job,” “Work Hard,” “Be Here,” and “Put Team First” to get his team in the right state of mind to perform at their highest level and it has paid off so far.
As his third season at Illinois approaches, Bielema is looking to continue his program’s rise as they kick the season off on September 2 against Toledo in the 1983 Big Ten Title Reunion.
For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out The Insider and subscribe to our weekly email.
If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Application.
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University of Illinois head football coach Bret Bielema remembers how he got his coaching start and has been grateful for it ever since.
He was fresh off being cut by the Seattle Seahawks after a six-day stint, had $28 to his name, and was trying to figure out what was next for him. Bielema’s former football coach at Iowa, Hayden Fry, then pulled Bielema into his office and told him he was interested in having him become a student assistant and then a graduate assistant for the Hawkeyes.
“I had never really thought about coaching. I had kinda dabbled with it, but then I decided to give it a go,” Bielema said during his speech at the 2023 AFCA Convention. “I left that meeting and went to the Yen Ching, which was a $2.99 lunch buffet in Iowa City, and they let me eat as long as I could. The cookie at the end of my meal said ‘Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ True story.
“I’ve been coaching for 30 years. I’ve had a lot of wins, I’ve had a lot of losses, and I’ve gotten fired once. But I don’t think I’ve worked a day in my life.”
The 26th head football coach in the history of the Illinois football program has loved his career as a coach and he’s had plenty of success along the way.
As a head coach, he’s tallied an overall record of 110-70 between stops at Wisconsin, Arkansas, and now Illinois. He’s also captured three Big Ten championships, a Big Ten Coach of the Year award in 2006, and recently led the Illini to the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff ranking this past season.
But it all started at Iowa during his time under Fry, who isn’t the only storied football mentor that he’s had during his coaching career.
After Fry, Bielema coached under Kirk Ferentz before heading to Kansas State to coach under Bill Snyder as a co-defensive coordinator. The Wildcats won a Big 12 title in 2003 and Bielema then moved on to Wisconsin two years later where he was the defensive coordinator under Barry Alvarez.
Bielema then got his head coaching start after Alvarez retired in 2006. He spent six seasons with the Badgers before being hired as the head coach at Arkansas for five seasons until the Razorbacks let him go in 2017.
That was when Bielema received another call from a coaching legend.
“I remember getting a phone call from Bill Belichick. Coach and I had built up a little bit of a relationship. He had drafted quite a few of my players both at Wisconsin and Arkansas,” Bielema said. “He said, ‘Hey, I know today is a tough day, right? I got let go at Cleveland and I was angry at the world. I really didn’t know and understand what I had done wrong. I was mad. I was upset. And then a couple of days later, I realized that I could stop complaining about that or I could get myself ready for the next opportunity I got.’ His next opportunity was the Patriots and he’s done what he’s done there.”
That small piece of advice led Bielema to a volunteer position with the Patriots as a defensive consultant during the 2018 season before he was promoted to defensive line coach a year later. It was another opportunity to learn under a coaching legend and Bielema took full advantage of it.
After two seasons with the Patriots, Bielema followed Joe Judge to the Giants before taking the head coaching job at Illinois in late 2020.
Through his first two seasons at the helm in Illinois, Bielema has been putting his stamp on the program as he’s been looking to create “Tough, Smart, and Dependable” players.
“This is our DNA,” Bielema said. “We’re tough. We’re smart. We’re dependable. It doesn’t matter how fast you are, how high you can jump, or how far you can throw the football. If you are tough, smart, and dependable, you have a chance to play at the University of Illinois. We will not always have better talent than the team we are playing against. But we will have the best effort to become the toughest, smartest, and most dependable team on the football field every given Saturday.”
In his first two years at Illinois, Bielema has put together an overall record of 13-12 and the Illini are coming off an 8-5 season where they were in the Associated Press Top 25 for five consecutive weeks at one point, reaching as high as No. 14. The Illini ended their season with a loss to Mississippi State in the ReliaQuest Bowl, but the program has shown improvement in just its second year under Bielema.
Illinois turned in the best-scoring defense in the nation for the first time in school history, led the nation and set a school record with 24 interceptions, and ranked third nationally in total defense. The team also ranked third in the nation in completion percentage, rising 122 spots in the national rankings.
Illinois also became the only school in the nation to have three defensive backs taken in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. Devon Witherspoon (5th overall), Jartavius Martin (2nd round) and Sydney Brown (3rd round) were all selected before running back Chase Brown was selected in the fifth round.
This came a year after Illinois went 5-7 and put together a Big Ten record of 4-5 with big wins over Penn State and Minnesota, who were both ranked in the Top 25 at the time. The Illini’s win over Minnesota was their first win over a CFP-ranked opponent in program history. Bielema also brought in improvements across the board from the previous season.
Their scoring defense improved from 97th to 31st, their third-down defense went from 89th to 31st and their total defense went from 114th to 52nd.
That improvement has come from his team’s focus on the details when they take the field daily. During his speech at the 20223 AFCA Convention, Bielema walked listeners through a day at the University of Illinois and broke down drills they go through in practice. During each drill, Bielema emphasized making players execute the small things.
When it came to a chase-down drill for defensive backs, Bielema forced his receivers to catch the ball in the drill first rather than them starting it with it in their hands.
“We’re going to have the quarterback deliver the ball to him because the ball is never just placed in your hands as a receiver, you got to catch it,” Bielema said.
Then, during another defensive back drill where players were supposed to break on a route that was run by a wide receiver, Bielema made sure to have his coaches focus on weaknesses. During the particular drill he was showing, Bielema pointed out that free safety Kendall Smith had dropped two interceptions earlier in the year. So, in that specific case, Bielema was having defensive coordinator Aaron Henry throw balls over his head because that’s what Smith was struggling with.
“I said throw him as many balls as you can above his head because he has a hard time catching balls above his head,” Bielema said. “He went on to have five interceptions that year, but he had dropped two earlier in the year. Every time he (Henry) threw to Kendall, he threw him a ball that he struggled the most with.”
It’s that type of attention to detail that has allowed Illinois to improve under Bielema and it also has a lot to do with the culture the coach has instilled. He leans on phrases like “Do Your Job,” “Work Hard,” “Be Here,” and “Put Team First” to get his team in the right state of mind to perform at their highest level and it has paid off so far.
As his third season at Illinois approaches, Bielema is looking to continue his program’s rise as they kick the season off on September 2 against Toledo in the 1983 Big Ten Title Reunion.
For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out The Insider and subscribe to our weekly email.
If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Application.
