Bret Bielema’s overarching message to his first Illinois football team can be summed up in two words:
Enough already.
Or, the more elucidated version:
Before you can win a game, you’ve got to stop losing it.
That means cutting down on momentum-busting turnovers. It means avoiding the sort of mental errors that good teams find unacceptable. It means keeping the refs’ yellow laundry tucked inside their waistbands where it belongs.
The Illini were 2-6 last season and 17-39 overall under Lovie Smith, who just couldn’t turn around a program that has often seemed to be un-turn-aroundable.