Bret Bielema has had an extremely difficult few weeks.

On the football field, his Illinois Fighting Illini program started the season 7-1 and was getting national talk. The Illini would end up losing the next 3 games in a row to fall to 7-4.

Off of the field, Bielema was dealing with extremely sad family circumstances. The coach, unfortunately, lost his mother and father-in-law within the last 2 weeks. Bielema called the situation “undescribable” and said Northwestern HC Pat Fitzgerald was the 1st coach to reach out to him in both instances.

Bielema, understandably, said there were “a few days” where he didn’t know if he could coach this weekend.

Illinois ended up easily handling Northwestern by a final score of 41-3. Best wishes to the Bielema family during this difficult time.