More than almost any other sport, building and maintaining an experienced roster is of critical importance to a college football program. Illini fans are all too familiar with young and inexperienced teams like those in 2013 and 2017 getting trounced by older rosters that were more accustomed to the college game. To his credit, Bret Bielema no doubt recognizes this concept and understood how it underpinned his success at Wisconsin.
The emphasis Bielema is placing on re-recruiting Illini seniors to return for a fifth or sixth season demonstrates that he realizes both the value that these players bring, as well as the dearth of experience in the 2021 roster in their absence.