CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The beginning of the 2025 season for Illinois was long. The Illini did not have a chance to catch their breath until week eight — the latest first bye week in the NCAA.
The result after
their week off? Not good. Illinois was throttled at Washington, losing 42-25.
But off a rebound win against Rutgers, the Illini headed into bye week number two, hoping for a different outcome than last time.
“Since I’ve been here, we have kinda had a little bit of everything,” said Illinois head coach Bret Bielema. “We had some on the front end, one year we had the both at the back end like this, but this is almost identical to last year.”
Last season saw Illinois drop a home game to Minnesota, before heading into the bye week. The Illini then rattled off three straight wins to end the regular season, something Bielema hopes they can replicate this year.
“There is a lot of similarities [to last season], I think with the way we’ve trained our guys,” Bielema said. “I told them the month of November is the ones you remember, but they are the ones you remember because you train that way. This is when our true grit needs to show out.”
The first bye week did not go well. Bielema, who is always adapting, decided to make changes so his team does not struggle out of the gates again.
“We actually did things a little different in our bye-week, to focus on Maryland Thursday and Friday,” Bielema said. “Just to kind of change it up from what we did the Washington week.”
Bielema’s teams are usually really good off the bye week. At Illinois he is 6-2 following the week off. His track record is so good, that other Big Ten coaches have taken notice.
“I got a call randomly from a Big Ten coach two weeks ago. We don’t play each other this year, but they reached out and they had done a study on people coming out of the bye weeks and we had a record that was as good or better than anybody else in the conference,” Bielema said. “He was asking questions about what we did, why we did it, the amount of reps we take, who we give days off. And I think that’s just part of our profession. We try to learn all the time.”
The Illini hoped they learned enough, before taking on Maryland at Gies Memorial Stadium at 2:30 p.m. on FS1.
Bielema also noted that the team’s bye week prep, is not just beneficial now, but down the road too.
“It not only helps them while they are here, it helps them in the future as well.”
