What Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said about Penn State ahead of their ranked matchup

Illinois will head to State College this weekend for a ranked matchup with Penn State in Beaver Stadium Saturday night. The No. 19 Illini will take on the Nittany Lions, with both teams undefeated to this point in the season.

Head coach Bret Bielema spoke about the Nittany Lions on Monday ahead of the matchup, and here’s everything he said.

On Penn State as a whole

“Tremendous opportunity this week to play top ten team on the road in an environment that is one of the best in college football. An offense that has a new coordinator ... a lot of familiarity with their offense coordinator coming from Kansas to where he is. ... Just a lot of really good growth. I think in preparation for this game, you see a lot of things, but he also carries a lot of the Penn State traditions. They’re using multiple quarterbacks. I think offensive line from tackle to tackle is probably the best group that we’ve played. Some are a little bit new to the game, inexperienced, but very, very talented players. By far, tackle to tackle, the best group we’ve faced.

“They have a group of tight ends, wide receivers and running backs that are above average to elite players in the Big 10 Conference. Defensively, I’ve loved (Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen) ever since I’ve been around him, and what he brings to the table and to bring over his experience. And obviously we’ve gone against Indiana last several years, you see a little bit of that, but also a little carryover from what they’ve done there. They’re extremely talented, especially on the edges defensively. On all three levels — up front, on the linebacker core and the secondary — very, very gifted. They have some wrinkles in the kicking game. They’ve got a couple lefties sprinkled in among their specialists.

“It’ll be an environment that, hopefully one of the things you gain with experience is the ability to do better, and obviously we did a lot of good things Friday night in Lincoln, but this will be taking it to a whole other level.”

On James Franklin’s programs

“I first got to know James through — well, I guess I knew him when he was an assistant, but then when I was in the SEC he was at (Vanderbilt), and obviously what he did there was exceptional. And then not surprising, when he came in this league, and when I was here, I knew how special that place was. Obviously Joe (Paterno) there for a long time. (Bill) O’Brien came in and did some good things, and he got out. So that presented the opportunity for James, and he’s done exactly what I would assume he would. He’s continued to recruit at a very high level. He and I had to, when I was at Arkansas, had an opportunity to get together on quite a few Nike trips, and got to know him personally and to see how he’s driven — highly, highly intelligent, football IQ, awareness — probably doesn’t make it overly complicated. You can see the kids love playing for him and they don’t fundamentally beat themselves. They’re very, very good at what they do. And go in the [offseason] and pull in, obviously you lose your (defensive) coordinator, similar to what I did when we lost Ryan (Walters) right, he needed to find someone to step into that role. He went outside and found Manny (Diaz) right. And then when Manny left, he went out and found Tom. So just a really good job of replacing coaches, and then offensively, when there was transition to go get a coordinator that’s just proven what he can do and didn’t get caught up in a resume, more about the production, that’s very impressive.”

On what makes Beaver Stadium unique

“I’ll go back to the first time I ever went there, wasn’t a great result. We were down 28-0 at the start of the second quarter. Bill Brazier, God rest his soul, one of the greatest men I’ve ever been around. Incredible teacher to me. I was up in a box with him. I was a young GA and it was 28-0 in the first quarter. And he took 28 times two and came up with 56 and he put 56 — I don’t know why he did it — he went 56 and 56 and came up with 112. He looked at me, he goes, “they’re gonna beat us 112 to nothing.” And I just never forget that moment, because I was watching his work right alongside me, and I just go back to that moment. It was such an incredible crowd. Been in the Big 10 a long time, but for me as a GA to see that for the first time was really overwhelmingly amazing. It’s kind of like a spaceship out in the middle of nowhere. And there’s — I don’t know if they’re going to be in blue and white or whatever they’re going to be in this weekend — they’re going to be dressed, right? And it’s probably going to be one of the other. I know they’re calling for ‘White Out energy,’ whatever the hell that means. But I would just tell you that, the part that really, I think stands out, is their fans are intelligent. They’ve got tradition very similar to Nebraska, they’ve been doing this for a long time. And Penn State fans are accustomed to great football. I remember Joe Paterno, hearing at a speech, he was talking about uniforms. He goes, “I don’t like our uniforms,” he said, but he goes, “everybody knows it’s Penn State.” And I just have that in my mind of what this program has been built on. The people that have coached there, the success they’ve had. One of the greatest moments in my — I said that about jerseys, right? — but I was with Nike. We were in Hawaii, and I come around the corner and Franco Harris is standing there. And he came to see Sue Paterno. I was just like, that’s the ultimate — I mean, Joe had passed — like of a player to come over and see a coach’s wife. I was like, “whoo,” that’s, that’s a sign of a program, you know, so huge respect for that. That’s pretty cool.”

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