As he scrolls social media on his phone, Bret Bielema just can’t help himself sometimes.
The Illinois football coach has become one of the best — and spiciest — follows on social media thanks to his candid, no-holds-barred takes. Some of his recent highlights include going after former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for alleged cheating, criticizing an ESPN reporter for not believing Illinois would be in the preseason top 10 and — just last week — going after the SEC for its “regular season gauntlet” pamphlet.
The former Iowa defensive lineman has always been a big personality — who can forget his iconic “borderline erotic” line about beating Texas while at Arkansas — and never been afraid to mix it up on social media. But this Illinois version of Bielema is even more outspoken when he sees something that doesn’t ring true to him.
“My wife always says, ‘What are you doing?'” Bielema said about his social media activity. “One thing I learned earlier in life: If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will. Sometimes I stand up for our players, sometimes for our program, sometimes I stand up for college football.”
That ethos has resonated with an Illinois team that isn’t a traditional football powerhouse and has been often overlooked within the Big Ten. Even after a 10-3 season that included a Citrus Bowl win over South Carolina and a No. 16 final ranking, those inside the program feel like the Fighting Illini still haven’t gotten the national respect they deserve.
Illinois starting quarterback Luke Altmyer knows this well and is an admitted instigator of stoking that feeling. He knows a preseason poll that doesn’t rank Illinois highly will get under Bielema’s skin so he’ll text a link to his head coach just in case he may have missed it. He’s successfully gotten Bielema to quote-tweet a few things he’s sent him.
“He fights for this program and his team as he should,” Altmyer told CBS Sports this spring. “In this day of age the social media world is such a big piece of society, college football and recruiting and it’s fun to see a coach do some of the things a normal kid would do and relate to us.
“I smile every time he fires back at a big name reporter or ESPN. It’s cool to see our guy take up for us.”
Defensive coordinator Aaron Henry, who played for Bielema at Wisconsin and later worked for him at Arkansas and Illinois, seconds that sentiment.
“I love it,” Henry told CBS Sports. “When you get to be a certain age, there are just some things you have to be transparent and real about. If he sees something that’s wrong, he’s going to say something about it.”
That was certainly the case when Bielema quote-tweeted a video of Harbaugh, now with the Los Angeles Chargers, saying “If you cheat to win, then you’ve already lost.” The NCAA hit Harbaugh with a four-year show-cause penalty and one-year suspension last summer for his role in recruiting violations that occurred during COVID-19 that are best remembered for a bacon cheeseburger breakfast order. Harbaugh was also suspended for three games in 2023 for the Connor Stalions-involved sign-stealing scandal that has yet to be fully resolved.
Bielema divulged a story about his dad giving him a midnight curfew for his senior prom night. When the future Big Ten coach questioned that mandate, telling his father that the after-party wouldn’t even start until two a.m., his dad didn’t budge.
“Great you’ll be in bed for two hours then,” the elder Bielema told his son.
That experience had a profound impact on him and is a reason he gets so upset at coaches and others who violate rules that are clearly established.
“I really do have a genuine passion for doing things the right way,” Bielema says. “I may not always agree with them, but they’re the rules in place. So anybody that violates those rules, anybody that puts the game in jeopardy because they want to shortcut or do things in a way that, by rule, is not supposed to be allowed, I really dislike that and lose respect in a hurry. I’m not going to throw stones but that one probably gets me more than anything, especially the older I’ve gotten. Just do things the right way and I think it’ll come back tenfold.”
It’s not all barbs for Bielema, though. He recently posted a parody of influencer Ashton Hall’s morning routine of pouring bottled Saratoga water and ice into a big bowl for a morning ice facial. The video, which has been viewed more than 1.8 million times on X, was the idea of Patrick Pierson, Illinois’ director of football branding and creative media.
Bielema had ground rules when Pierson pitched the idea — no, he would not be shirtless like Hall did in the original video — and didn’t really know why he was doing it but he was game nonetheless. He says the video has elicited more interaction from recruits and parents than any of his other popular tweets.
“What I try to be is me,” he says. “I always tell our players we live three things every day and our third thing — our biggest thing — is just be the best you. I don’t know how to be anybody else.”
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