Blind Resume Test: How does Bielema stack up nationally?

Feb 2, 2023 - 2:05 PM

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Blind resumes are a good thing. It allows you to judge a team, a coach, or a program without all the externalities associated with the coach, the team, or the program itself.

I’ll go deeper next week with my next blog and explain why I picked the coaches, establish that ground zero, and grade Bielema amongst his peers and away from the vacuum of Illinois football.

So I suggest you not post spoilers in the comment section below for the reading experience of everybody else. I think the best case is to keep the facade of the blind resume until tomorrow, discuss it in the comments, and add to the conversation. Bielema should be easy to guess for those that follow the program closely, but some of the rest will surprise you.

Try not to look up the answers on sports-reference, Wikipedia, 247sports, or ESPN.

All stats below are for the first two years of coaching.

Coach 1

Bowls: 1 | Recruiting Class Rankings - 1st: 29 | 2nd: 22

Top 5 Wins: 0 | Top 10 Wins: 1 | Top 25 Wins: 2 | Conference Wins: 2

Coach 2

Bowls: 2 | Recruiting Class Rankings - 1st: 3 | 2nd: 1

Top 5 Wins: 1 | Top 10 Wins: 2 | Top 25 Wins: 6 | Conference Wins: 11

Coach 3

Bowls: 0 | Recruiting Class Rankings - 1st: 29 | 2nd: 21

Top 5 Wins: 0 | Top 10 Wins: 0 | Top 25 Wins: 1 | Conference Wins: 3

Coach 4

Bowls: 0 | Recruiting Class Rankings - 1st: 44 | 2nd: 31

Top 5 Wins: 0 | Top 10 Wins: 0 | Top 25 Wins: 2 | Conference Wins: 7

Coach 5

Bowls: 2 | Recruiting Class Rankings - 1st: 36 | 2nd: 27

Top 5 Wins: 0 | Top 10 Wins: 1 | Top 25 Wins: 2 | Conference Wins: 10

Coach 6

Bowls: 1 | Recruiting Class Rankings - 1st: 63 | 2nd: 46

Top 5 Wins: 0 | Top 10 Wins: 1 | Top 25 Wins: 2 | Conference Wins: 9

Coach 7

Bowls: 2 | Recruiting Class Rankings - 1st: 36 | 2nd: 32

Top 5 Wins: 0 | Top 10 Wins: 0 | Top 25 Wins: 2 | Conference Wins: 12

Coach 8

Bowls: 1 | Recruiting Class Rankings - 1st: 49 | 2nd: 64

Top 5 Wins: 0 | Top 10 Wins: 0 | Top 25 Wins: 0 | Conference Wins: 8

Some questions to discuss:

• Who are the rest of the coaches?
• Which coach surprises you the most?

Please let me know if you have any burning questions or comments, and I’ll answer them in Part 2.