With Lance Leipold in charge at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater, his alma mater, the Warhawks played in the national championship seven of his eight seasons.
Five of those years, Bret Bielema was the head coach just up the road in Madison at Division I Wisconsin, the biggest college program in the state, where over the course of his career he led the Badgers to a pair of bowl wins and, at one point, three straight Rose Bowl berths.
Ahead of one of its title games, Whitewater couldn’t get access to UW’s indoor facility in Madison and so found itself practicing in 15-degree weather — minus-five windchill, Leipold remembers.
“Right when I was driving into work,” Leipold recalled Monday, “(Bielema) said ‘Why didn’t you just call me and ask? I would have moved our practice.’ That’s his facility.”
That was just one of the magnanimous acts Leipold remembers from Bielema, who also — later, as the coach at Arkansas — congratulated him and invited him down to Fayetteville when Leipold got his first Division I job at the University at Buffalo. Leipold said what he learned from that visit, including about the logistics of setting up a yearly calendar, was “immensely valuable.”
“So I’ll always be indebted to Bret,” Leipold said.
The pair will face off as head coaches for the first time Friday night in Lawrence.
“Even though we knew this day was coming since I came here, since he was there, we’ve literally exchanged text messages, phone calls, always congratulating him on things,” Bielema said at his own press conference Monday. “Just a great deal of respect for who they are, what they are.”
Bielema is now in his third year leading the program at Illinois, in his home state, after a stint at Arkansas and a series of NFL consulting gigs. Leipold, of course, is the head coach at Kansas, which like Illinois took a step forward in 2022 and is looking to build off that momentum this season.
“Everywhere Lance has gone, they’ve always won,” Bielema said. “It’s just super important to realize, like, he is a solid fundamental coach, offense, defense, special teams, has surrounded himself with coaches that have been with him a long time, they believe in their system, they believe in what they do and it’s proven to be successful everywhere he’s been.”
The two schools will meet for the first time since 1968 in what Bielema called a “tremendous challenge.”
As it happens, Leipold was also widely viewed as one of the top candidates for the Illinois job before it went to Bielema. He told The (Champaign, Illinois) News-Gazette in July, “We had a conversation. But when I heard Bret’s name involved, I knew Bret Bielema would be the right fit for the University of Illinois.”
Early indications are proving Leipold correct. In his first season, 2021, Bielema led the Illini to an upset win over a top-10 Penn State team in a whopping nine overtimes, then knocked off Minnesota for good measure; in 2022 Illinois opened 7-1 and, despite a late-season downturn, finished 8-5, its best record since 2007.
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema against Mississippi State during the second half of the ReliaQuest Bowl NCAA college football game Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, in Tampa, Fla.
Last year’s Illini had the best scoring defense in the country, allowing just 12.8 points per game. And while Illinois stumbled a bit out of the gate this year in a penalty-laden opener and needed a momentum-shifting defensive touchdown and a last-second field goal to block Toledo’s upset bid, Leipold said that Bielema’s defensive background makes any matchup against his teams difficult.
“You know they’re going to be physical and well-coached, fundamentally sound, and you’re going to have to execute consistently to beat them,” Leipold said. “You’re not going to gimmick them, you’re not going to hit a bunch of big plays.”
The KU offense under Andy Kotelnicki, while not necessarily gimmicky, certainly makes use of unorthodox motion and has often gone to the home-run ball. (Even Friday against Missouri State, a 52-yard completion from Jason Bean to Lawrence Arnold helped get the Jayhawks going.) The Jayhawks will have little margin for error against Bielema and new defensive coordinator Aaron Henry’s system. Mistakes like Week 1’s fumble or failed fourth-and-1 will cost them.
It would help to have quarterback Jalon Daniels back, and Leipold said Monday that Daniels “had a really good day today” with “the most team reps that he’s had since the first week” of fall camp.
Bielema said he appreciates how Leipold has taken on the challenge of building up a football program that is not a traditional power. Friday’s matchup will provide a chance for Leipold’s Jayhawks to show just how far along they are in that process.
Mike Gunnoe/Journal-World photo
AP Photo/Chris O’Meara