Football

Why communication (from a coach to coach, coach to players and players to players standpoint) was a major breakdown in Illinois suffering its third loss of the 2025 season at Washington. 

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 28, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illnois Athletics)

SEATTLE — Being able to communicate is a highly vital skill. It’s why at most universities there’s usually a communication studies department and that expertise is a designed major at most highly-rated universities.

The common reason public relations firms can charge as much as they do is their ability to communicate a potential situation in a way that is best for the company that hires them while having an unbiased take on how to handle any crisis or celebration from a written, verbal and visual standpoint.

The essential art of communication applies to sports in a very consequential way. Whether it’s communication between coaches and players throughout a preparation or a players communication within each other either before the play or in the moment of the play, relaying information in a clear, concise and fast way can mean the difference between success and failure. 

This is why after surrendering 449 total yards, touchdowns in six of eight drives and being on the wrong end of nine for 12 in third-down situations, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema kept repeating “we have to evaluate of what we’re asking the players out there to do”. What is Bielema saw being relayed to the players either from him, Bielema’s assistant coaches and/or the Illini players teammates is something Bielema is seeing as a major problem when he flipped on the film of its 42-25 loss at Washington this past weekend. 

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema says he sees his job to help provide defensive coordinator Aaron Henry with as much information, knowledge and assistance as the Illini host Rutgers this weekend.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 27, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s fairly clear that instead of taking away, limiting or restricting Aaron Henry’s responsibilities, Bret Bielema feels like his role is to help the Illinois defensive play-caller with more information.

In his weekly media conference inside Gies Memorial Stadium Monday afternoon, Bielema suggested his plan was to do scouting of Rutgers’ offense and provide guidance to his defensive staff so Henry can find better results in this final month of the 2025 season. Instead of firing, stripping him of play-caller duties or performing an act of punishment or consequence, Henry needs to be helped from his boss.

“I want to empower him,” Bielema said of his third-year defensive coordinator. “I want to empower him to show that I believe in him. Everybody is asking me what’s wrong and that’s (the media’s) job. I’m not throwing stones, that’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s your job. My job is to empower him so that the last four games of this season and most important, this week versus Rutgers is of good and not bad.

By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

October 27, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

That one hurt. It hurt Saturday and it hurt again as I re-watched it yesterday in preparation for this article. For me personally, the thing that hurt the most is that the Illini were outcoached on the defensive side. We all know Washington defensive coordinator - and former Illinois defensive signal caller - Ryan Walters has our number and that it was going to be tough sledding defensively. However, what hurt the most was the degree to which Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch schooled Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry and head coach Bret Bielema. Fisch is a solid offensive coach, but he put on an absolute clinic in spacing on Saturday, and the Illini failed to adjust.

Here's what I mean. We saw concepts like this throughout the day Saturday. Layered routes that have three parallel receivers arriving in the same horizontal spots like a ladder at the same time. Illinois only rushes four on this play, yet it's hard to find an Illinois defender who is actually near a Husky receiver. Not only that, but Washington's best receiver barely has a defender in the picture with him. I tend to think either Torrie Cox or Tanner Heckel had a blown assignment here because both crashed down on Demond Williams Jr. as he rolled out, but as we saw all day, Washington had wide open receivers all day.

The Illinois defense and game management get failing marks in 17-point loss in Seattle.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

The four-hour plane ride from Seattle likely won’t be long enough for Bret Bielema and the Illinois coaching staff to come up with answers to why the No. 23 Illini allowed another opponent to score, convert third-down situations and do whatever they wanted when Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. had the football in his hands.

To make matters worse, Illinois (5-3, 2-3 in Big Ten Conference) also found itself playing from behind most of this 60-minute affair causing quarterback Luke Altmyer to surrender two turnovers that secured another disappointing road loss, which ended all hope of Illinois being in a 2025 College Football Playoff discussion.

More importantly, Bielema - a former defensive coordinator and defensive line coach - was left without answers to why his 2025 defensive unit failed to provide much resistance against a Big Ten opponent.

Run Offense
Illinois clearly spent the bye week

Following the 42-25 loss at Washington, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said he doesn’t believe it would be prudent for him to inherit defensive play-calling duties on game day.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 25, 2025

SEATTLE — While acknowledging the obvious of several answers needing to be found in his defense, Bret Bielema doesn’t believe him taking over play-calling duties is one of them.

Following the 42-25 loss at Washington, the Illinois fifth-year head coach said Saturday he doesn’t believe it would be prudent for him to inherit defensive play-calling duties from coordinator Aaron Henry on game day.

“There’s so many things that go on in my daily journal (and) I know there are some guys out there that can (call plays as a head coach) but I just think that gives a little bit of mixed messages to the players,” Bielema said.

Whether that change is a what or a whom, something has to be different about what Illinois is doing on the defensive side of the football. And Bret Bielema knows it.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

(Cover photo courtesy Matt Stevens/IlliniGuys)

October 25, 2025

SEATTLE — Illinois has finally reached its first rubicon game in the last two seasons where its faulty defense absolutely cost them a game.

Before, during or after the four-hour flight home to Champaign, Bret Bielema will have to look at his beloved son he never had, Aaron Henry, and be forced to reconcile with the fact that if the defense could have played about 15-20 percent better, Illinois would’ve won.

Before today, the best argument to be made on Henry’s behalf was likely that the Illini’s record would’ve still been 5-2 if the defense had found just a couple more stops in the 60-minute contest. The results at No. 2 Indiana and versus No. 1 Ohio State in Champaign would’ve likely come up the same - loss - even if Henry’s defense had stood tall.

This is certainly not the case today in Seattle.

By IlliniGuys Staff (Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics) SEATTLE, […]

The Illini coaches have commented on how past plans for Kansas, Michigan State and South Carolina could shape how the Illini defend Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr.

No. 23 ILLINOIS at WASHINGTON

Records: Illinois 5-2, 2-2 in Big Ten; Washington 5-2, 2-2 in Big Ten

Date/Time/Place: Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025: 2:30 p.m. CST, Husky Stadium, Seattle, Washington

Surface: AstroTurf 3D3

Capacity: 70,083

Line: Washington by 4.5

Series notes: Saturday marks the 12th meeting between Illinois and Washington in the series that began back to 1950. Washington leads the all-time series 7-4. This will be the first matchup between the Illini and Huskies as Big Ten opponents since Washington joined the league prior to the 2024 season. The meeting on Jan. 1, 1964, a 17-7 Illini victory in the Rose Bowl, capped the 1963 campaign. The 1964 win over Washington marked the Illini’s last victory in the Rose Bowl. Illinois made its first appearance in Pasadena in 12 years, led by linebacker Dick Butkus and fullback Jim Grabowski, and getting a victory that saw Illinois post an 8-1-1 record, win the Big Ten Championship, and finish No. 3 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. Illinois is 1-4 in its previous five trips to Seattle. The Huskies have won four straight at home against Illinois since the Illini captured a 27-20 road victory en route to the 1951 national championship. Since that first matchup in Seattle in 1951, the Illini have lost road games at Washington in 1956 (28-13), 1962 (28-7), 1972 (31-11), and 2014 (44-19).

Illinois is 3-1 when ranked inside the top 25 when facing Washington. The No. 8 Illini defeated the No. 20 Huskies, 27-20 in Seattle in 1951. The following year, the 13th-ranked Illini won 48-14 in Champaign, and the third-ranked Illini captured the 1964 Rose Bowl title, 17-7, vs. Washington. In 1956, unranked Washington upset No. 13 Illinois, 28-13, in Seattle.

TV: Big Ten Network; Jeff Levering (play-by-play); Jake Butt (color analyst) and Brooke Fletcher (sideline reporter)

Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (play-by-play), Carey Davis (analyst), Michael Martin (sideline), and Steve Kelly (pre/half/post). The broadcast can be heard live on TuneIn online radio, SiriusXM 372, the SiriusXM App, and at FightingIllini.com/live.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 25, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

SEATTLE — The task of facing such a dynamic dual-threat athlete at quarterback isn’t foreign to the Illinois defense but Illini play-caller Aaron Henry may have to find the 2024 call sheets for the containment plan of Kansas’ Jalon Daniels, Michigan State’s Aidan Chiles and South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

Illinois went 3-0 against that type of quarterback in the 2024 season with none of those opponents scoring more than 17 points in the trio of games.

“I will tell you this...

October 24, 2025 The Illini travel to Washington in […]

For the third straight season, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema will be on the opposite sideline with Ryan Walters, the first defensive coordinator he hired in his Illini rebuild, on Saturday.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 24, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Nick Wagner/Seattle Times)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When a reporter asked about the dynamic of Bret Bielema’s Illinois team facing a defensive unit led by Ryan Walters for the third consecutive year, the Illini head coach quickly corrected the accuracy of the question.

“I would argue this is five years in a row,” Bielema said Monday with a smile.

The two other years are the daily routine of first-string offense versus first-string defense in the Illini’s practice sessions in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Bielema wouldn’t script those middle-of-the-week practice sessions in a way so the Illini could see some success in the type of way where in a given scenario and the defense could rebound in another scenario. No, this was Walters and his fellow lieutenants on the defensive assistant coaches including Terrance Jamison, Kevin Kane, Aaron Henry and Andy Buh game-planning to have success and build confidence against an Illini offensive unit where Bielema says he sat in on their meetings to scheme against Walters’ bunch.

“Even when (Walters) was here, I’d probably go over to the other side of the ball and work with them to even it up and make things fair and interesting,” Bielema said in his weekly media conference inside Gies Memorial Stadium.

Since arriving as the top-ranked junior college pass rusher in the 2024 recruiting class, Illinois OLB Daniel Brown has seen injuries delay what coaches have hoped is an instant impact.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 23, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Even two years later, Bret Bielema still tells the story of during an October bye week in the 2023 season, the Illinois head coach visited multiple junior colleges in the Iowa and Kansas area during a five-day period where nearly all of those program’s head coaches had the same question for the Illini third-year leader.

“They all stopped me and said, ‘Oh, you have to be in on (number) 32, that edge rusher from Hutch, right?,” Bielema said Wednesday.

While wearing number 32 at Hutchinson Community College in that 2023 season, Daniel Brown had already established a reputation as one of the nation’s best pass rushers at the junior college level.

Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry believes his unit needs to become more focused on creating takeaways that have led to their five wins in 2025.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 23, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Just because it’s been almost 15 years since he graduated with as a consumer trends major while playing at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Aaron Henry hasn’t forgotten what a mathematical trend looks like.

So, when the third-year Illinois defensive coordinator is shown a spreadsheet or statistical analysis split, it won’t take him long to identify during the five Illini wins in 2025 is when his defense and the Illinois special teams unit has produced 10 takeaways. It will likely take Henry even less time to find that in the two losses, Illinois has produced a single momentum-shifting turnover from the opposing offense.

Henry’s assessment of his defensive unit through the first seven games in an internal self-scout that his boss and former head coach at Wisconsin, Bret Bielema, requires of all his three coordinators during a off week produced a simple conclusion.

By IlliniGuys Staff October 22, 2025 (Cover photo courtesy […]

Mike Cagley, Co-Host IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular October 21, 2025 […]

With 12 FBS job openings before Halloween, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema acknowledges Monday his profession “is a hard deal” and he’s reached out to some of the terminated men in this 2025 season.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst

October 20, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Every time he sees that somebody in his coaching fraternity is terminated, Bret Bielema can’t help but recall the one and only time he was terminated from a job.

After a 48-45 loss to Missouri, Bielema was walking off the playing surface of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas when his interim boss, Julie Cromer, handed him termination papers immediately ending his five-year run as the Arkansas head football coach before he got to the tunnel of the home locker room of the season finale.

“Some of these guys (who have been fired) are guys I would consider friends. I know that when I was handed papers saying I was no longer wanted, I know I liked hearing from people even though I really, at the time, didn’t want to hear from them,” Bielema said Monday.