back here on the cover three podcast live on cbs sports network thrilled to be joined by

illinois head coach bret beulma and coach i believe this is your 17th major conference media day

as a head coach and sometimes coaches come with the message that they want to send. Sometimes

you're on the offensive. Sometimes you're on the defensive. So where are you coming off a 10-win season with a lot of great players back? You know, what's the message that you're trying to send as you not only spend time with us, but with the media a lot? No, great question. I think probably earlier in my career I would probably come in with agendas right and now I think the part that

I've learned as a head coach has just kind of handled the day as it comes, right? Really told our players, so one of the few things that I do that I don't know if everybody does, but I have a meeting with our players to go through from my voice what I think they're going to see, right? Brett Moore and Pat Pearson sit down and talk to him a couple days before. Hey, here's some questions you might get, but I walked this walk. I came here as a player. Then I came here as a head coach for 17 years at three different schools. This is the day you earn, right? Take advantage of it because you could build, I remember the first guy I met in the lobby of my first when I was a player was Kirk Herb Street, right? And you think about he and I started off in a business together and grew to where we are today. And it's just, it's relationships that you build right now last a lifetime. So this is your 17th, but I'm assuming this is your first in Vegas. How are you enjoying the change

of senior? Great question, Tom. I would say that when I first heard Vegas, I was kind of,

I distinctly remember seeing all the other Big Ten coaches reactions and we'll just say there weren't

some happy campers, right? And but right away, I said to myself, well, I know I'm going to have my

wife is going to want to come, right? So that was definitely going to happen. And then I would tell you, in my 17 years, when I've sat down and we've had, you know, when the Big Ten was at Chicago and at Indy and the SEC, it was in Hoover, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, when I said we're going to Vegas, they lit up like the Christmas tree, right? And just to see their reactions, a couple of their parents came and we had dinner with them last night, I think we're giving them a life experience that you can't buy. And that's pretty awesome. Your team this year, you guys were not crazy active in the transfer portal. Does that speak to kind of what you have coming back and the culture you built? You know, not portal but we've got 40 new players out of a 110 man roster in the building that

we're with us for the for the bowl game so um we brought in about 21 high school kids and 19

portal guys so uh not a complete overhaul but a lot of new faces um super excited about some of the

guys i call it acquiring, right, acquisition.

You know, in our conference, it took three players from Wisconsin on the defense side of the ball.

And I think James Thompson is a very, very special player. Leon Lowry, outside backer and Kurt is a de-tackle for us.

Those three guys, I think, are all going to help us in a hurry. Got a couple of secondary players that I think will help us. On the office side of the ball, we require two wide receivers that I think will help us. But a lot of our returning players are the guys we're leaning on. And I think it's just kind of what it is, right? I believe there's been a misconception that's created in college football a created in college football a little bit. If you pay a guy a lot of money, he's going to play really well. And I've seen that happen, not happen regularly as well. So we do what Illinois needs to do, and I think that's what's working for us. Now, you mentioned the guys coming in, but also with the players coming back. That includes your entire offensive line.

And I know, like, this sport has changed a lot in recent years, but I feel like in the Big Ten, no matter what changes, your offensive line is always going to be one of the more important parts of your team. How excited are you to have all five of those guys? You know, after the 22 season, we had a good 22, and we were going into 23, and everybody got excited and where was that, but I was going into that year.

I was really concerned about depth at the offensive line and that exactly where we got devastated by a couple of injuries, moving people around. And I am excited to have all five of our guys that pretty much started our games last year, but we also have three or four guys that I think are waiting in the wings that played good football for us that I think are going to really help us I think depth is your friend in the big 10 just because it's going to happen

So I think that's a really big part of it

But I you know the the offensive line is just you know there's no other position where five guys got to play together

And nobody really understands that until you either coached played it or watched watched it. And Josh Crutes are center. Obviously, Dad was an accomplished player. Josh Crutes is literally like having a coach on the field. He just, him in combination with Luke right behind him, anything he says up front, everybody listens. We had J.C. in here a little bit ago. I remember on our show, Tom was geeking out over some numbers like when JC was getting recruited and he's like, but do not talk about J.C. in here a little bit of go. I remember on our show, Tom was geeking out over some

the numbers like when J.C. was getting recruited and he's like, bud, do not talk about J.C. on the show. I don't want to blow the kid up. I don't want anybody to discover him. We're like, we're in on him. Oklahoma tried to get this kid. And then like, did you guys know what you had in him before he got in your building. So going into not, you know, at this time a year ago, we had gotten in, but honestly,

during the season, I think I had watched 58 offensive tackles in college football.

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