CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Bret Bielema said goodbye to his father, Arnie Bielema, on Sunday morning, and by Monday he was talking about the man’s influence with the kind of clarity that comes from a lifetime of lessons. Arnie Bielema was 88.
In a statement released Sunday, the Illinois head coach said, “My father passed away peacefully this morning with family by his side,” Bielema said in a press statement on Sunday. “I was grateful to go see him on Thursday night and Friday morning of this past week and spend a memorable last time with him.”
Bielema’s remarks Monday centered on how deeply his father shaped the path that followed. One of the biggest choices of his life, he said, came when he walked onto the University of Iowa football team - a move Arnie pushed him toward.
“In my bed there was a letter from my dad that said ‘what you conceive in your mind and believe in your heart, you will achieve,’” Bielema said. “He convinced me to walk on … I think about where I am now, the decision he helped me make when I was 18 without helping me make it, has affected my life forever.”
That decision launched a climb that carried Bielema from walk-on to team captain and then to Iowa’s linebackers coach in 2001. After 16 years in college coaching and a couple years in the NFL, he came back to his home state in 2021 to take over the Fighting Illini.
Bielema said that homecoming meant more than football. For the first time in his coaching career, he and his parents would be close enough to share something that had never really been possible before.
“When I called my mom and dad and told them I was coming to the University of Illinois it was very cool,” Bielema said. “We knew that we were going to be in a proximity that we’ve never been able to have before.”
Bielema said his parents helped shape both the coach and the person he became, and he took comfort in knowing his father is now reunited with Marilyn Bielema, who died in 2022.
In Other News...
Illinois Just Landed At The Center Of The Big Ten Debate
Illinois has been placed right at the center of the early Big Ten conversation for 2026-27, with a preseason projection pegging the Fighting Illini as the conference favorite. The forecast is built on tiered team evaluations rather than any final outcomes, but it does put Illinois in a spot every contender would welcome and every rival would challenge.
Michigan State is listed as the closest threat, which only sharpens the debate around how the league race could unfold. The projection also maps out the rest of the conference into NCAA Tournament hopefuls and teams that may be on the outside looking in, offering an early snapshot of a Big Ten that could be shaped as much by coaching and roster interpretation as by what actually happens on the floor. [Read more 🡒]
Can Blake Fagbemi Force His Way Into Illinois Crowded Backcourt
Blake Fagbemi arrives at his second season in Champaign with the kind of profile coaches tend to like even when the box score does not tell the whole story. The freshman guard showed quickness, basketball IQ and steady defensive effort while playing sparingly on an Illinois team that went all the way to the Final Four, and that kind of apprenticeship can matter on a roster that expects to stay in the national conversation.
The challenge now is simple, if not easy: find a way into a crowded backcourt where minutes will be hard to come by. Fagbemi still brings value with his playmaking and defensive intensity, traits that can help a team even when he is not scoring much, but the next step is convincing the staff that those strengths are enough to carve out a real role in year two. [Read more 🡒]
Illinois Still Has Two Defensive Issues Fans Need To Watch
Illinois is heading into its exhibition against UIC with a couple of familiar warning signs already showing up from the earlier tuneups against Cincinnati and Baylor. For a team trying to build momentum before the 2026-27 season, those preseason games have offered an early look at where the roster needs to tighten up, and the two biggest concerns have been on the defensive end.
The first issue is defensive rebounding, which has left too many second-chance chances on the table, and the second is the challenge of staying in front of opposing guards. Those are the kinds of problems that can linger if they are not addressed quickly, so the matchup with UIC gives Illinois another chance to clean things up and show whether the early rough edges are turning into a real trend or just exhibition-season noise. [Read more 🡒]