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College football legend Bill Snyder praises Illinois for hiring coach Bret Bielema

Spenser Davis

By Spenser Davis

Published:

Former Kansas State coach Bill Snyder is a big fan of new Illinois coach Bret Bielema.

Snyder sent out a message on Saturday supporting the hire.

Here it is, courtesy of Illinois Football’s official Twitter account:

“I am awfully proud that Bret has been hired as head coach at Illinois,” Snyder said. “It’s a great match. He has had great success and experience in the conference in prior years.

“Bret is a very bright coach and person who understands the nature of helping bring out the best in people.”

Snyder, of course, is credited with taking Kansas State from one of the worst programs in the country to a Big 12 power over the course of his career with the Wildcats. He went 215-117-1 as KSU’s head coach before retiring after the 2017 season.

Bielema coached for Snyder at Kansas State from 2002-03. He was Snyder’s co-defensive coordinator during that time before he left to take Wisconsin’s DC job for the 2004 season.

More recently, Bielema was the head coach at Arkansas until he was fired after the 2017 season. He’s spent the last three years in the NFL before re-joining the college ranks with Illinois.

Spenser Davis

Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.