Can't Wait For Saturday Illinois football boss ranked among the best in college football
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Mar. 13—***
The big news from The Athletic's Stewart Mandel's annual list of Top 25 college football coaches, which was released Thursday, should be there is a new No. 1.
I will get to that later. But for the folks reading this daily column, the most important name dropped is No. 25: Illinois coach Bret Bielema.
Of the selection, the author wrote: "It was extremely difficult to decide which of several deserving candidates would get the last spot. But Bielema took over an Illinois program that had been floundering for 20 years and has led the Illini to at least eight wins in three of the past four seasons. He's won 19 games over the last two seasons, capping them with bowl wins over SEC foes."
Bielema made the list over UCLA's Bob Chesney, Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham, Navy Brian Newberry,Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz and TCU's Sonny Dykes.
Bielema is one of seven Big Ten leaders to make the cut, including Indiana's Curt Cignetti. A year after making the list for the first time, Cignetti jumped from No. 11 to No. 1.
Of Cignetti, Mandel wrote: "No coach in modern history of college football has achieved a more remarkable turnaround than Cignetti did in turning a program that went 9-27 from 2021-23 into a 16-0 national champion in two years."
Mandel is so right.
Cignetti is followed by Georgia's Kirby Smart, Ohio State's Ryan Day and Oregon's Dan Lanning. All good choices.
I am not as keen on Mandel's No. 5: Alabama's Kalen DeBoer.
Other honored Big Ten coaches include Michigan's Kyle Whittingham (No. 9), Penn State's Matt Campbell (No. 11), and Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (No. 14). Important to mention Whittingham and and Campbell are new imports, coming over from Utah and Iowa State, respectively. Both made the Top 25 in 2025 at their former schools.
Bielema has recent wins against No. 17 Josh Heupel (Tennessee) and No. 20 Lance Leipold (Kansas).
Getting on the list is a big deal for Bielema. Staying on it for 2027 is the next challenge. Four coaches from 2025 dropped off this time,
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