Illinois coach Bret Bielema with his family during a Spring practice. | Bret Bielema Twitter
Illinois coach Bret Bielema with his family during a Spring practice. | Bret Bielema Twitter
The Fighting Illini will be without their head coach during Saturday’s game against Iowa after it was announced that he tested positive for COVID-19.
A Twitter user by the name of Ray Juray III posted on the website that the team hopes to have their head coach back in time for the Northwestern contest.
“Illinois HC Bret Bielema has tested positive for COVID and will miss Saturday Nov20th’s game vs Iowa. Good news is he did receive a booster shot last week. Prayers he returns to the sidelines Sat Nov27th vs NW #NCAAF @IlliniFootball,” he wrote.
Illinois coach Bret Bielema announced this week that he has tested positive for the virus and would miss the game against Iowa, according to CBS Sports.
The program is following protocol that it initiated when the pandemic began for situations such as coaches being unavailable for game day, according to the news outlet.
The Athletic reported that assistant head coach George McDonald will take over coaching duties for the Nov. 20 game.
Bielema was a defensive lineman for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 1989-1992.
“Everybody wanted to talk about me and this game, well I obliged everybody: I removed myself totally from this game, so now it truly is Illinois (versus) Iowa and I’m out of the equation,” Bielema said, according to The Athletic. “There’s no doubt in my mind that it’ll be probably one of the tougher things for me to see and witness, but I would also say I’ve really preached to our players: Don’t worry about things you can’t control.”
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