CHAMPAIGN – There have been the usual roster turnover, dipping into the transfer portal, a quick call to the high school football coaches association and even commitments from instate players who turned down rivals to stay close to home.

In these first seven months in coach Bret Bielema’s tenure as Illini football coach, he’s done the obvious, but he’s also playing the role of a college coach.

He’s made the decision on his style, recruited to his scheme and worked to find players in the various ways college coaches do it these days. He’s built a Zoom Room during a pandemic, hired coaches with an iPhone full list of contacts and actually got his own hands dirty. This is how it’s done nearly everywhere in college football. But when comparing to his predecessor, Lovie Smith, Bielema is more than doing an adequate job.

But as the Illini and the rest of the league prepare for the Big Ten Conference football kickoff luncheon and media days later this month in Chicago, there’s the realization that comparing Bielema’s gains to Lovie won’t get him very far.

He’s battling against Chryst, Ferentz and coach Fitz in the Big Ten West, so the challenge is much more than doing better than the last few years in the Illini football office. Nonetheless, Bielema has offered hope by building a plan to transition to a new style, turning over the roster and switching schemes to power, pro-style football.

This is always a challenge, starting essentially from scratch and attempting to build a winner. It’s been done here every five years or so during our lifetime. But with Bielema, there’s appears to be a plan and movement toward making the plan work.

There were eight scholarship players who transfered out: offensive linemen Blaise Sparks, Phifer Griffin, Brevyn Jones and Kevin Tyler; defensive linemen Tre’von Riggins and Anthony Shipton; receivers James Frenchie and Kyron Cumby.

It seemed to hit at once this summer, but this is typical. In 2014, Lovie watched kids leave as he talked about adjusting to a spread. It’s a typical maneuver. It’s not a big deal these days, you know, because it’s a business and all. Perhaps with the exception of the offensive line, Bielema is in a better position with the roster, and he appears to have a plan.

Frenchie and Cumby might have been special teams contributors who saw duty on offense, but the transvers were generally losses from players who were unlikely to climb the depth chart and didn’t fit the scheme.

The difference between Bielema and his immediate predecessor is that Bielema is acting on the plan, while Lovie’s staff never really gained traction on the recruiting front, whether it was a lack of effort by the man at the top, a shortage on pure recruiters (because of too many assistants with NFL background) or lack of coordination between the head coach and his staff.

Lovie created opening in the roster, then never filled them with Big Ten level talent.

In this latest Illini rebuild, Bielema has already put his stamp on the future by flipping the quarterback room to pro-style, recruiting while also recruiting bigger backs and linemen. This sure looks like big boy football.

Flipping the roster is always a gamble, a step back before taking two steps forward, but Bielema appears to be working on a plan.

The quarterback room is the first big change, evidence that there’s a new boss running the show. Nothing says overhaul quite like turning over the quarterback room, because that signals a shift elsewhere.

Brandon Peters is the starter this fall. That’s nothing new, but just about everything else is different. The backup is former Rutgers quarterback Artur Sitkowski, a former heralded recruit who is looking for a second chance. The future at the position just might be Donovan Leary, a senior this fall at Timber Creek High School in southern New Jersey. From all reports, Leary has a big arm, but one thing is for sure. Even his prep coached wouldn’t call him a dual threat quarterback, even if he’s sneaky athletic.

Meanwhile, Isaiah Williams made the move to wide receiver – the touchy conversation with Williams is the most impressive move by Bielema this spring -- and former Peoria High School star Coran Taylor is now a defensive back. As for the rest of the room, there’s some talent there, but they’ve been caught in a change in style.

The running backs and linemen are going to get bigger, too, if Bielema’s first swing as an Illini recruiter tells us anything.

Bielema’s plan is also coming along as expected, with the Illini going with a 3-4 and massaging roster changes to fit the scheme. The Cover 2 is gone. With a new scheme comes position changes. Defensive ends Owen Carney and Isaiah Gay, who were previously defensive ends during their time with the Illini, have been moved to outside linebackers. Seth Coleman is also there.

This all sounds so easy. Hire a coach. Change the scheme. Get some recruiting buzz. Head into the season. Win games. Go to a bowl. But this has been tried umpteen times with the Illini and elsewhere, and firing a coach seems to always lead to this kind of renovation project. Tearing it down to the foundation and starting over is always a risky project. Building it back can take years, and some programs just never make it to the finish line.

But with Bielema, there’s an apparent plan. He’s recruiting to a system and making moves with the roster that were needed. By working the phones and Zoom, Bielema isn’t afraid to get down in the trenches with a coaching staff filled with recruiters.

These rebounding projects aren’t easy. Just ask Tepper, Turner, Zook, Beckman, Cubit and Lovie. It’s a long way to the top, but Bielema has provided a splash of hope by making obvious moves, going with a system already proven in the Big Ten West, recruiting to a scheme (actually recruiting, not faking it) and building a foundation. Will it work? That’s to be seen, but it sure seems like he’s moving the program where he wants it to go.