Sep. 24—CHAMPAIGN — Sherrone Moore knows the feeling at Michigan. So does Jonathan Smith at Michigan State. And Luke Fickell at Wisconsin.
Like Bret Bielema at Illinois, Moore, Smith and Fickell understand what it’s like to work for an athletic director who also played football at your present employer.
Talk about a great source of information. And a person who has lived it, breathed it and loved it.
Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman played tight end for Ron Turner at the school from 1997 through 2000.
The Bielema-Whitman relationship was on full display this past Friday night following Illinois’ 31-24 overtime victory at Nebraska. As he does after every Illinois game, Whitman was one of the first to greet Bielema coming off the field, giving his fourth-year coach a warm embrace.
Bielema is at his third FBS school as a head coach.
His first boss was a doozy: College Football Hall of Famer and Wisconsin legend Barry Alvarez, one of the top football minds in Big Ten history.
“I was very blessed,” Bielema said of working for a guy like Alvarez who was invested so much in the Badgers despite graduating from and playing at Nebraska. “I kind of thought that was the norm.”
The next stop was Arkansas, with Jeff Long doing the hiring there.
And now, Bielema is working in his home state for a guy who spent endless hours in the Memorial Stadium locker room before the Smith Center was even on the drawing board.
Whitman has an appreciation for the school he came back to in 2016 to lead the athletic department.
“Josh, to walk the walk here … every day when I get off that elevator, his face is smiling there for the Academic All-American role,” Bielema said of the honorees’ photos that hang on the wall. “To have someone in that role — he obviously balanced in to playing in the NFL — it’s not just someone that kind of played…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/bob-asmussen-whitmans-faith-bielema-144800145.html
Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
Publish date : 2024-09-24 14:48:00
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