Bret Bielema could give us an actual Iowa-Illinois rivalry

Rivalries are organic. Which means they grow without chemically formulated fertilizers, growth-stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides.

That’s Iowa-Illinois language. It’s stuff they know about in Farmer City, an Illinois town you pass on I-74 as you’re most of the way from Iowa City to Champaign.

Farmer City. That’s an oxymoron. There is a Subway in Farmer City, which is too mind-blowing to process.

Anyway, rivalries. It would seem to be a natural that Iowa and Illinois would have a storied football rivalry, being in the same conference and being in bordering states. But they don’t.

On Iowa’s list of rivalries, the Illini rank below Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Iowa State, and even relatively recent Big Ten addition Nebraska.

It takes pushback for a real rivalry. Though Illinois leads the all-time series 38-37-2, how long has it been since anyone got worked up for a Hawkeyes-Illini game?

Iowa has won the last eight meetings. None were decided by just one score, and the Hawkeyes’ average margin of victory was 25 points.

Illinois has five winning seasons in the last 27 years, none since 2011. It hasn’t won more Big Ten games than it lost since 2007.

Ah, but tonight is different. Illinois is 4-1 and riding high after owning Wisconsin 34-10 last Saturday in Madison. The Illini are playing well on both sides of the ball, and were dominant in all four of their wins. No one in the nation has more rushing yards than the 733 of Illinois’ Chase Brown.

At the helm of it all is one Bret Bielema, former Iowa walk-on, team captain, and assistant coach. Having grown up in Illinois, played in Iowa and coached in Wisconsin, Bielema understood far better than most what it would take to turn Illinois from lifeless to a worthy combatant.

That started with recruiting his own state with fervor, something that sounds like it should have been automatic, but had not been. Eleven players in Bielema’s first recruiting class were from Illinois, the most the Illini had signed since 2003.

They weren’t just scrappy kids from Farmer City, either. Bielema’s first Illinois class was ranked higher than any has been at Illinois since 2011.

The Illini are a long way from being Ohio State/Michigan kind of good, but they’ve already come a long way from being the mess of the last decade. The way they took apart Wisconsin last week had the Badgers changing head coaches the following day.

The future, for Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and all the current West teams, figures to be ruthless. With the arrival of USC and UCLA into the conference and the expected dropping of divisions, the teams in the true Midwest will have an even harder chore (a word they use in Farmer City) wedging themselves in the Big Ten’s upper crust.

It will take recruiting classes with few whiffs combined with boundless energy and savvy from the coaches. Otherwise, Iowa, Illinois and the rest of the current West will be the definition of flyover country in the Big Ten.

Saturday night, we see where things are in the present. Is Illinois going to take another big step forward in Bielema’s second year? Or does Iowa extend its ownership of the Illini and keep a realistic chance of defending its West title?

Memorial Stadium had been a grim place for many years. It was just four years ago when the Hawkeyes came in and inflicted all sorts of indignities on the Illini in a 63-0 win. It was Illinois’ most-lopsided loss in 112 years.

Defense had been particularly woeful in Champaign. Iowa was one of three teams that hung a 63 on the Illini in 2018. This year, Illinois is leading the nation in fewest points allowed per game.

Winning is fun, but not losing is better. Should the Hawkeyes be a field goal worse than Illinois as the sportsbooks have placed them, the midseason story about Iowa will be “The Autumn of Their Discontent.”

Meanwhile, things will feel awfully good in Farmer City, enough to set off a dull roar. Because for a long time, the Illini winning in football has been conspicuously absent.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com