IlliniGuys.com can confirm the ESPN.com report that former Ball State head coach Mike Neu has agreed to join Bret Bielema’s Illini coaching staff as a senior offensive assistant coach.
By Matt Stevens - llliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst
(Cover photo courtesy Ball State Athletics)
January 29, 2025
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Bret Bielema has added another former college football head coach to his Illinois staff.
IlliniGuys.com can confirm former Ball State head coach Mike Neu has agreed to join the Illinois coaching staff for the upcoming 2025 season and will have a undefined assistant coach role for the Illini starting this spring.
ESPN.com senior reporter Pete Thamel was the first to report this news.
Thamel reported Wednesday afternoon that Neu’s title will be a “senior offensive assistant” and IlliniGuys.com has learned Neu will likely work closely with Illinois offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. with the Illini quarterbacks but also serve as an offensive analyst role during the season. Former Illini quarterback Art Sitkowski is slated to be entering his third season as an assistant quarterbacks coach in Champaign-Urbana on Bielema’s staff.
Neu’s role on the offensive side of the football is likely to be similar to the role former Western Illinois head coach Myers Hendrickson was hired to serve as an overall consultant in Aaron Henry’s second season as the Illini’s defensive coordinator. Hendrickson came to the Bielema’s Illini staff after two seasons in Macomb as the head coach of his alma mater, Western Illinois, from 2022-23. He was hired as the Leathernecks' 31st head coach in December 2021, returning to guide the same program where he played from 2008-11 during his father Mark's tenure as head coach (2008-12).
The Illinois head coach claimed Sunday he “for the most part, feel really good about” about the 10 primary assistants coaches to be back on his Illini staff when spring practices begin in late March and early April.
When addressing his 10 primary assistant coaches in his opening statement, Bielema claimed Sunday that Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman has given certain Illini staff members the option to sign contract extensions.
Several contract extensions amongst the Illini coaching staff including defensive coordinator Aaron Henry, defensive line coach Terrance Jamison, offensive line coach Bart Miller, running backs coach Thad Ward, tight ends coach/special teams coach Robbie Discher, and strength coach Tenarius “Tank” Wright that were approved by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees in March 2023 are set to expire on Jan. 31. The most recent board meeting in Chicago on Thursday didn’t have any athletics staff member contracts set for approval on the agenda. The next board meeting is slated for March 20 in Springfield.
Neu, 54, was born in Indianapolis and played quarterback at Perry Meridian High School before leading Ball State to the Mid-American Conference championship, was named the league’s most valuable player and offensive player of the year in 1993. Neu was the longest tenured head coach in MAC at his alma mater of Ball State before being fired on Nov. 16 two games before the end of the 2024 season. Neu has gone 40-63 in nine seasons at the university. He had four straight losing seasons since winning his only MAC title in 2020.
“Coach Neu has poured his heart into the Ball State football program," Ball State athletics director Jeff Mitchell said in a statement confirming Neu’s termination. "I commend him for his professionalism and the positive team culture he has constructed. His efforts have greatly impacted the lives of hundreds of young men. He has represented the Ball State brand with integrity and class, and I wish him well in future pursuits.”
Beyond his decade-long tenure from 1998-2008 as a offensive coordinator or head coach in the Arena Football League, most of Neu’s coaching experience in college and professional football has been working with quarterbacks. In 2014, Neu left his job as quarterbacks coach at Tulane Green Wave football team, to take the same position with the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. Neu, after getting a recommendation from then-Saints quarterback Drew Brees, was named the Ball State head coach on Jan. 7, 2016. In 2020, Neu guided Ball State to their first winning season since 2013 (Neu’s only winning season with the Cardinals) and first bowl victory in school history defeating San Jose State 34-13 in the Arizona Bowl.
Neu originally signed former Illinois quarterback John Paddock to Ball State where he played from 2018-22 and started all 12 games during the 2022 campaign before transferring to the Illini prior to the 2023 season.
Paddock’s 507 passing yards in a 48-45 overtime win over Indiana on Nov. 11, 2023 marked a Memorial Stadium record, the second-most passing yards in Illinois history, and the most ever by a winning Illini quarterback.
