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The Indiana football program is gearing up for its 2022 season when it welcomes in Illinois to Memorial Stadium on Friday.
The Illini already sit a 1-0 after a week 0 win over Wyoming, but it did come at a cost as one of its standout playmakers on offense, running back Josh McCray, left with a knee injury and will be out on Friday.
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema spoke to reporters on Monday and previewed the matchup with the Hoosiers.
Below are some of the key quotes he had about the matchup and Indiana.
Indiana comments in opening statement.
Bielema: “For everybody else it’s Week 1, it’s our Week 2. Little bit unique position going into Indiana. They got a chance to watch us on Saturday. They’ve had some turnover on the staff. The thing I appreciate about (head coach Tom Allen) is he’s done it his way and that’s why he’s had success. I know they’ve got a tremendous chip on their shoulder to do some good things this year. We’re going to go into a hostile environment. I don’t know what the crowd is going to be at but we’re going to prepare for it to be loud and crowded. We’ll put in good diligence of a work week.
When you're doing Indiana prep, do the guys know or are you doing stuff and they'll eventually know this for Indiana?
Bielema: “I’m pretty diligent in when we’re prepping for people we prep on the person. It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. We exposed them last year during bye weeks. We prepped on upcoming opponents. Even last spring I would say, ‘Hey, we’re doing inside versus Indiana here. This is Indiana’s projected defense. This is Indiana’s projected offense.’ We were about 14 days out from game day and we did a two-day window of Indiana and they were very clear. We go into meetings and show them film on that.
Again, no one knows what Indiana is going to do. It’s an educated guess on their coordinators and their past experiences. Just following them through social media, Coach Allen is a very high energy, motivated guy. You can hear the phrases they’ve been told and the way they’re going to play. Tremendous respect. We recruit against them quite a bit. They’re in Florida as well. We pop up against Indiana in recruiting battles quite a bit.”
Indiana has seen tape on you but you have a game. How do you weigh those?
Bielema: “Two different price tags. The first is there is no doubt in my mind — I learned this as an assistant coach working with young players — most young players have the biggest gain of the entire year from Game 1 to Game 2, just within a week. They see things for the first time. They understand the pace of play. Gabe Jacas, I promise you, he did a really nice job but that tempo was coming at him. Well, this week it’s an up-tempo team. Wyoming was huddling. Now he’s got to get ready for that moment. Matt (Bailey) came in and did some stuff. That first INT bounced off his hands. I promise you the next one he probably catches it. Little things along that that guys make big strides.
For the value Indiana has on us, that’s a question for them, obviously. Anything we put out there on film is something they can gain on. I made this point emphatically to our coches yesterday, just like we’re preparing a scouting report on Indiana, they’re making one on us. Any tip, any tell, any significant thing we show them on film we can use that as an advantage or disadvantage to our preparation. The difference is they’ve got to make that call. It’s a tremendous challenge to our coaches and one I think we’ll be ready for.”
Is there anything you took from last season’s Week Zero game that you can use this year to help you going into Week 1?
Bielema: “Last season we followed it up with a loss. I’m not going to ignore the obvious. Last year we couldn’t put two back-to-back weeks together to win games. That’s been a tremendous challenge and calling for us since we got together. To play on the road in a Big Ten environment on a Friday night is everything I think you could dial up as a competitor. I’m excited for that growth. I do like Week Zero games. Obviously the AD gets to make the final call but I would love to play a Week Zero game as much as we can because of also having the element of two bye weeks. I think the value of being fresh in today’s world of college football — I know this is only our second year but as we continue to develop our roster, until we’re a little bit more complete in our depth, I think the health of our roster is a little more important than Xs and Os.”
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