CHAMPAIGN – In his second stint as a head coach in the Big Ten Conference, Bret Bielema’s challenge is building one from the ground up.

Bielema won big as the hand-picked predecessor to Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin roughly a decade ago, but now Bielema faces the challenge of remaking his name by starting from scratch. For a guy born in Illini Hospital in Silvis, just outside of the Quad Cities, the Prophetstown High School grad sounded like he’s glad to be home following the announcement of his hiring as Illinois football coach Saturday morning.

“I grew up in that league as an assistant coach, a coordinator and a head coach,’’ said Beliema, during an interview with the ESPN Gameday crew from his car on the side of the road on his way to the Illini-Penn State game. “I lived that life pretty good in that division. Getting back to my home state, I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity.

“The great thing is getting a chance to take Illinois to another level. I’ve seen them have success and times where there’s not much success. We’re going to recruit the state of Illinois like no other. I couldn’t be more excited and pumped for this day.’’