Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Bret Bielema discusses recruiting, recovery advantages by playing in Week 0 games

Grant Bricker

By Grant Bricker

Published:

Bret Bielema played in Week 0 last season, and now understands how it can benefit his team. He sat down with Martin O’Donnell of the Fighting Illini Radio Network to talk about the advantages of it.

Illinois ended up beating Nebraska in the season opener by a score of 30-22. The Fighting Illini HC quickly realized how important that would be when it comes to recruiting.

“Week 0 last year was one of those moments we unfolded it and realized the advantages in the process but also after the game,” said Bielema. “Immediately after the game, the national response and the narrative for us to win a B1G game at home against Nebraska was a big deal, did a lot of nice things for us in recruiting.”

Another thing that Bielema has liked about playing in Week 0 games is how it essentially gives the team a 2nd bye week. Illinois will be using the time off to focus on recruiting, evaluation, and recovery.

“It also gives you a second bye week,” said Bielema. “Most years in college football you get one bye week, this year we get a second one. Because we play a Thursday night game and a Friday night game, we actually have 4 Saturdays we won’t play this year, and we’ll use those in recruiting, evaluation, recovery and trying to gain an advantage on our opponents the following week.”

Grant Bricker

Grant Bricker covers the B1G for Saturday Tradition. His previous stops include the Williamson Homepage and Nashville Post.