A new era of Illinois football is about to begin. With winter workouts arriving and spring football rapidly approaching, the Bret Bielema era will soon be underway in Champaign.

Bielema’s to-do list has been lengthy since arriving in Champaign, juggling the responsibilities of meeting with the team, assembling a staff, recruiting and working on a plan for spring football. It’s part of the territory for a head coach, especially one in the B1G.

On Wednesday, one week before National Signing Day, Bielema met with the media to talk about several topics before moving forward with the program. He discussed the staff hires he made, the recruiting landscape and briefly about the plans for spring.

Here’s what the new Illinois head coach had to say: