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What Bret Bielema said following Illinois’ shutout loss to Wisconsin
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Year 1 started off beautifully for Bret Bielema at Illinois, but those good feelings are long gone.
Illinois started the year with a rousing win over Nebraska in Week 0. Everything since then has been a struggle with the Illini dropping 5 of their last 6 games.
That includes Saturday’s 24-0 shutout loss at the hands of Wisconsin. It marked the first time that the Badgers were held below 100 total yards of offense since 1977.
Illinois has a lot of issues, but one of the biggest ones on the offensive side of the ball is quarterback play. Brandon Peters started but was unimpressive before leaving after taking a hard hit. He completed 3 of 7 passes for 12 yards before departing.
Art Sitkowski replaced Peters but was not any better. He went 8-for-27 passing with just 55 yards in the game.
After the game, Bielema met with the media to discuss the loss and share his thoughts heading into a bye week:
#illini Bret Bielema on radio: "Best thing we can do on this bye week when we're not on the field is to build our roster to get us in the B1G West race" via recruiting on the road.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) October 9, 2021
#Illini Bielema: “I know if we take this week to take an internal check…we’ll take another step forward.”
— Bret Beherns (@WCIA3Bret) October 9, 2021
https://twitter.com/paulmbanks/status/1446972604317900807?s=21
#Illini Bielema on offensive struggles: It starts with protection.
Mentioned the multiple instances of Peters and Sitkowski getting hit.
— Alec Busse (@alec_busse) October 9, 2021
#Illini Bielema on Wisconsin loss: “I think there was enough positive going defensively but we just couldn’t get anything going on offense” pic.twitter.com/XY2u7Jq6c7
— Bret Beherns (@WCIA3Bret) October 9, 2021
Bielema said that #Illini is obviously having trouble with the throw and catch but today also the major problem was the protection.
— Matthew Stevens (@matthewcstevens) October 9, 2021
#Illini coach Bret Bielema on the post-game radio show:
"We're just not at the point where we can get on the other side of it."
— Matthew Stevens (@matthewcstevens) October 9, 2021
#illini Bret Bielema: Art Sitkowski has been getting more reps during the course of practice.
— Joey Wagner (@mrwagner25) October 9, 2021
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.