CHAMPAIGN– When the Illini crowd first saw Bret Bielema in orange and blue standing on the sidelines just after news broke of his hire, it was a Saturday in late December, a few days before the early signing period.

The Illini already had 14 players on the hook for signing day, a going-away present left by coach Lovie Smith. Bielema was less than a week into his tenure when he began building a roster with players he didn’t recruit.

Ready to complete the first full year in a recruiting cycle that now features the microwave known as the transfer portal, Bielema is looking forward to the juggle of searching for high school recruits and hitting the transfer portal.

First, the Illini play at Minnesota Saturday in a matchup between an Illini program still stuck in transition in Bielema’s first year and the Gophers, who are leading the Big Ten West behind the salesman/coach P.J. Fleck, an Illinois native who knows how to recruit to his system.

Then comes the bye week for Bielema and the Illini.

“Bye weeks are beautiful,’’ Bielema said.

Moreso than the work done feverishly to lift up a roster thin on talent and skinny on depth when Bielema took the job, here’s his first chance to make serious improvement on the talent level.

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