Penn State Football
Illinois Head Coach Bret Bielema Postgame Press Conference
September 28, 2024
Opening Statement:
Obviously disappointed in the results, I give credit to Penn State, an undefeated Top 10 team, but our guys prepared well all week. They came in this game with the idea of being successful. Obviously we had a lot of success and did a lot of really good things. I felt on the plane ride coming over here that I had a really good football team. For me as a head coach, we can’t do the things that cause us to fail. We have got to give our guys more chances. I think we came out pretty clean. I stress all the time we learn more in moments of adversity than in moments of success.
Q: I know you’ve been worried about your team for five weeks especially with this challenge and how are you feeling after this game?
A: I think we are a good football team. I like our demeanor. I like their work ethic. I like their edge. They are very disappointed as I hope they’d be. We did enough things today to cause the failures that we had but I don’t see any of them being anything we can’t do correctly.
Q: Are you concerned with your ability to run the ball?
A: We say it all the time, good teams do three things; they run the ball, defend the runs, and cover kicks. Obviously, this will be a recipe that others will follow and see and you know they have a good running game we knew that coming in.
Q: Penn State has two coordinators this season, I am just curious how different this is for you?
A: Obviously a respectful coach, he runs multiple personnel groupings, I think he plays his players well. Like number 44 I just love him. One of the things I took from the league is when a guy has a lot of position flex which means he can do multiple things besides what hes slatted into. I just think the skillset of him just allows a lot of other things to happen. James does a really good job at putting players in their position. I have a lot of respect for what he has done.