Every day Illinois head football coach Bret Bielema is able to find enough time in his busy schedule to grab a pen and write a message in a pair of journals that are addressed to his two daughters Briella and Brexli.

It’s a daily routine for Bielema that began back in 2017, but it’s not a routine that he ordinally planned to make part of his day like a morning cup of coffee. Prior to Bielema’s final season as the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, Bret and his wife Jen became parents in July.

Due to Bret’s busy coaching schedule in the fall months, he bought the diary for Jen, hoping that she would be able to share the day’s happenings for her husband. But about three weeks into the season, Bret realized that the journal remained mostly empty.

Not because Jen didn’t want to share stories with her husband, but because she was so consumed with caring for a newborn. Instead of leaving the journal in the past, Bret decided he’d fill the diary with a daily message for Briella.

“Bella (Bret and Jen’s nickname for Briella) is four years old, as I look at the journal entry every day, I can look back two, three, years and see what I was doing on that.”

This is the Bret Bielema that Illinois fans don’t get a chance to see, and it’s not the Bret Bielema that many college football fans may remember from his time as the head coach at Arkansas from 2013-17 or Wisconsin from 2006-12.

At Wisconsin, people saw a head coach in his 30s that wasn’t afraid to ruffle some feathers by saying things that some viewed as arrogant. Even Bielema admits that he can come off that way, but he’s not shy about his personality, and his personality is what drew Jen to her husband when they met in 2008 in Las Vegas.

“We met on our way to dinner at our hotel at the blackjack table in the casino,” Jen said. “We played blackjack for literally four, five or six hours. We left the tables ahead, so that was fun. He was there very’ I think he left the next day.”

But before Bret left the table that night, he was able to get Jen’s contact information. The two messaged regularly for about six months until they met again in Chicago. Eventually, Bret got down on a knee and Jen agreed to marry one of college football’s brightest young coaching stars in 2012.

“Bret has a sense of charm,” Jen said. “We’ve been married for 10 years; he was a guy that always seemed passionate. He, in his busiest days, always found time to reach out to me, to check on me. I had my wisdom teeth taken out much later in life, and he sent me flowers. He was very sweet, in his busiest days he always found time for me. That resonated with me, and it’s just special.”

Bret’s ability to find time for the three girls in his life hasn’t changed since taking the head coaching position at Illinois in December. He welcomes Jen to the Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Center for lunch or dinner a couple of times a week, and when Briella and Brexli aren’t at daycare, pre-school or other activities, Jen buckles them into the back of the family’s SUV.

“If he’s pushing bedtime, and this is usually in the offseason, he’ll high tail it home and it might the last two minutes,” Jen said. “Some might just say, ‘they will already be in bed.’ He’ll hustle home and say, ‘Are they in bed yet?’ Usually, there is one that is still awake. It’s sweet to see that he puts them in first to the last second. Sometimes I let him go in there like they are still awake, but he puts them first.”

Even though Bret does everything he can to see his girls, there are still days that he doesn’t have the opportunity to see his daughters. Unfortunately, those days happen more than Bret – or Jen and the girls – would like them to occur. But Bret and Jen have found ways to make it work.

“We get creative,” Jen said. “Whether it’s stopping by the office, giving hugs or he quickly runs home to put them to bed. I think being creative is the biggest thing.”

Since moving away from New Jersey – where the Bielema’s lived while Bret worked for the New York Giants – Briella and Brexli have taken a liking to new activates. From seeing horses in fields on the south end of campus to painting pumpkins at this week’s Homecoming festivities, and they have already started to pick up on Fighting Illini traditions.

“A lot of excitement, especially my little one,” Jen said. “My oldest one, she’s four, she’s picking up on a lot of things. Actually, my youngest one, whenever I’m wearing an I or he’s wearing an I, she’ll say ‘look daddy.’ She recognizes the Illinois I and she’ll say, ‘look it's daddy!’ She’s really good at the I-L-L, but she says ‘L-L-L,’ it’s all L’s, but it’s good to see some of these traditions. They may not know what they are doing, but it’s cute to see them do that.”

Bret knows he misses a lot of moments in the growth of his daughters, and he knew that would be part of accepting the head coaching position at Illinois. But that’s what makes the little moments with Jen and the girls so special to him.

“I’m sure every father goes through it, the choices we make, I know had the opportunity to come here and knew this would be part of,” Bret said. “That’s why those little moments are so precious. I’m not asking for anyone to understand it, but that’s how I’m wired and that’s why it means a lot.”

The little things mean the most to Bret Bielema, it’s what he preaches as a football coach and it’s what he focuses on as a father. That’s one of the reasons he writes in two diary’s every day. One day, he’ll fill all the pages in the journals, but that’s not a big deal because he’ll just get another one – in fact it’s something he’s already planned for.

“Those little moments in time refresh my memory with them,” Bret said. “My goal is to finish that diary and start a new one when they are six. I’d like to get them three volumes when they are on their 16th birthday is my hope and goal.”