Coach Bret Bielema Offers Stark Assessment of Illinois After Ohio State Loss

Outside Illinois football's friendly confines – Champaign, Central Illinois and Chicago – Bret Bielema catches a lot of hell. Whether it's his late substitutions, on- and off-field trolling or general outspokenness, the big man rubs plenty of folks the wrong way.

But one of the reasons Illini fans tend to appreciate Bielema is that he's willing to turn that heat back on his team – or even himself. Example: Saturday's mistake-littered loss to top-ranked Ohio State, for which Bielema and his crew prepped intensely and fully expected to be competitive throughout. But a 10-0 first-quarter deficit quickly spun out to a 20-3 halftime margin that even an exceptional opponent wouldn't have closed on the Buckeyes. And Bielema made it clear in the aftermath that his then-No. 17 Illini (5-2, 2-2 Big Ten) currently fall well short of exceptional.

Bret Bielema's frank assessment of Illinois' performance

"We lost that game," Bielema said in Saturday's postgame press conference. "It was just too many things that we gave them, a good football team like that. You can't – you can't spot them opportunities and expect to have success.

"So we fought our ass off to get to this point, to make this a game that drew some attention – not just because Ohio State's coming down, but because we had two ranked teams, and I'm not going to diminish that. I'm super-proud of what we've accomplished. But it also is a good indicator that we're nowhere close to where we need to go to get this thing to be more consistent."