CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois native Harper Cole has been named the Illinois football program's offensive skill and special teams assistant, head coach Bret Bielema announced. Cole comes to Champaign from TCU, where he spent the 2024 season as an assistant running backs coach.

"We are excited to bring Harper onto our staff," said Bielema. "Harper is an Illinois native who also has strong ties to our staff with Coach Lunney and Coach Stepp. With his experiences in college football at TCU and Arkansas, he will be a valuable asset for our offensive skill players and special teams units."

"I couldn't be more excited to join Coach Bielema and the unbelievable staff here at Illinois," said Cole. "Being originally from the state of Illinois, it means a lot to me to be back home and have a chance to represent the Illini football program. There is a talented group of student-athletes on our roster that has helped this program win a lot of games. Coach Bielema has done an unbelievable job building the program, and I'm very excited to be a part of what the future holds in Champaign."

A native of Aurora, Illinois, Cole was a three-year varsity letterwinner at Waubonsie Valley High School for head coach Paul Murphy. As a senior in 2018, he helped Waubonsie Valley to a 7-4 record and a second-round berth in the IHSA state playoffs.

Cole went on to play college football at Arkansas, where he was a walk-on wide receiver from 2020-22. He helped the Razorbacks to a 3 OT win over Kansas in the 2022 Liberty Bowl, including his first-career reception on a 10-yard gain and a fumble recovery on a kickoff.

Cole started in coaching as a student assistant at his alma mater, Arkansas, before moving to TCU in 2023 as an offensive assistant. He was promoted to TCU's assistant running backs coach in 2024, helping the Horned Frogs to a 9-4 record and a win over Louisiana in the 2024 New Mexico Bowl. TCU rushed for 1,481 yards and 26 touchdowns on the season, including six rushing touchdowns over Arizona as part of a season-ending four-game winning streak.

Cole graduated from Arkansas in 2023 with a degree in business management.
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Did he make it for his visit?

We are better than both of these teams Wisconsin and Michigan.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Matt Ellerbrock was named the Illinois football program's assistant linebackers coach, head coach Bret Bielema announced. Ellerbrock joins the Fighting Illini with a decade of college coaching experience.

"We are excited to add Matt to our coaching staff," said Bielema. "Matt comes highly recommend from around the coaching profession. His experiences over 10 years in college football, including working alongside Archie McDaniel for two years, will benefit both our coaches and student-athletes."

"I am beyond excited to join the Illini family," said Ellerbrock. "My family and I are excited to get to Champaign and meet the special people of this community. I look forward to working everyday with an incredible group of coaches. I am fired up to work with a very talented linebacker room and continue to help them grow both as players and as men. Huge thanks to Coach Bielema for this amazing opportunity."

In his career, Ellerbrock has coached in five bowl games including helping lead Houston to a victory in the 2022 Independence Bowl over Louisiana. He spent four seasons over two stints at Houston, including working as a defensive analyst under current Illinois linebackers coach Archie McDaniel from 2022-23.

The 2022 Houston team reached as high as No. 24 in the AP poll in its final year in the American, before Ellerbrock helped the program in its transition to power-conference football in the Big XII in 2023. In 2024, Ellerbrock moved to IMG Academy, where he coached the team's linebackers.

Ellerbrock also worked at Houston from 2019-20 as a defensive graduate assistant focusing on linebackers and safeties, before spending the 2021 season as the linebackers coach at McNeese State. He coached McNeese's All-Southland Conference First Team honoree Kordell Williams, who registered 100 tackles and ranked fourth in the Southland with 9.1 tackles per game.

Prior to his first stint at Houston, Ellerbrock spent two seasons at Arkansas State from 2016-18 as the program's defensive graduate assistant working with linebackers and safeties. Arkansas State was one of the best in the country at defending the pass in 2017, ranking 11th in the nation in passing defense at 177.8 yards allowed per game. In his first season at Arkansas State, Ellerbrock helped the Red Wolves to an 8-5 overall record, a Sun Belt Conference championship with a 7-1 league record and a 31-13 victory over UCF in the 2016 Cure Bowl.

A four-year starter at Midwestern State, Ellerbrock got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2013, then moved on to Stephen F. Austin as a graduate assistant from 2014-15.

As a player at Midwestern State, Ellerbrock was a two-time Honorable Mention All-Lone Star Conference performer and helped lead the program to three Lone Star Conference championships and postseason play every year. He started 44 of 46 career games and totaled 231 career tackles, 28.0 tackles for loss, and 7.0 sacks. Named a captain as a senior, Ellerbrock was honored as the Lone Star Conference Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in the LSC championship-clinching win at No. 12 West Texas A&M.

Ellerbrock earned his bachelor's degree in sport and fitness management from Midwestern State University in 2012. He earned his master's degree at Stephen F. Austin State University in secondary education in May 2016.

Ellerbrock and his wife, Samantha, have one daughter, Ariella.

Did we have any football visits this weekend?

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Artur Sitkowski has been promoted to co-quarterbacks coach, head coach Bret Bielema announced. Sitkowski will work alongside offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. in leading the quarterbacks room for the Fighting Illini.

"Art continues to impress in our building every day," said Bielema. "He brings an exceptional energy and passion for Illinois football, and we are excited to be able to promote him from within our program. His voice, knowledge, and demeanor will continue to be a great asset for our current student-athletes and also on the road in recruiting."

"Art's knowledge of our system and ability to coach, teach, and connect with our quarterbacks has been extremely important in the development of our offense," said Lunney. "He is a special coach with unique leadership abilities. I am excited to continue our work together as we grow and develop our quarterbacks room."

"I am extremely blessed and thankful for the opportunity from Coach Bielema and the staff to continue to be a part of this great organization and university," said Sitkowski. "This university has changed my life because of the people in the Smith Center and around the Champaign-Urbana community. I am excited to continue to work and develop our quarterbacks and student-athletes not only in football but in life. ILL!"

Sitkowski finished his second season on the Fighting Illini staff and first as an assistant quarterbacks coach in 2024. He served as a student assistant in 2023 following five seasons playing college football, including two years at Illinois.

In his first season as assistant quarterbacks coach in 2024, the Illinois offense powered the Fighting Illini to a 10-3 record, tying the program's single-season wins record, and a final ranking of #16 in the AP Top 25. With All-Big Ten quarterback Luke Altmyer, Illinois featured one of the nation's most efficient passing attacks, which helped the Illini post the No. 3 red zone offense and No. 6 scoring offense in the Big Ten. Altmyer finished the regular season as one of four Power-4 quarterbacks nationally with 20+ touchdowns and five or fewer interceptions, and ranked 33rd in the nation in passing efficiency, to lead the Illini to four top-25 wins in a single season for the third time in program history, capped by a victory over #14 South Carolina in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl in one of the best bowl wins in program history.

Sitkowski finished his playing career at Illinois for two seasons under Bielema from 2021-22, following a three-year stint at Rutgers from 2018-20. He threw for 2,838 yards and 14 touchdowns during his career, including 807 yards and six touchdowns during his two seasons at Illinois. Sitkowski threw only two interceptions on 229 attempts (1 INT per 114.5 attempts) from 2020-21, the third-best among Power-5 quarterbacks over the two-year stretch (average: 39.7).

Sitkowski's career highlights include leading Illinois to a 20-18 win at #7 Penn State in the longest game in college football history (9 OT) in 2021. The next season, he entered the Iowa game in place of injured starter Tommy DeVito and helped lead the Illini to a 9-6 victory over the Hawkeyes as part of Illinois' six-game winning streak that vaulted the Illini to a #14 ranking in the nation.

Sitkowski is a native of Old Bridge, New Jersey. He played high school football at Old Bridge High School for three years before transferring to IMG Academy (Fla.) as a senior.

Couldn’t figure this out until today. This team was taller, rebounded better, and won more conference games. Otherwise it was the 2012-2013 team.

That team had some NBA guys (including the enigmatic Myke Henry,) shot a ton of threes at a poor rate, flashed potential early and struggled midseason. Won one game in each postseason tournament and earned a 7 seed and a 23-13 record.

Biggest difference is that team was a very rare NCAA Tournament team in its era whereas this is just one in a sequence of Illini teams that makes it to the NCAA Tournament every year.

Very different era at Illinois now if we have $6 million in NIL to build a roster. Certainly looks to be a more promising offseason than what we saw after the 2013 season. In this case, Illinois basketball really is in a great place.

I’m proud to be part of such a passionate fanbase that shows up and supports the team. This program is one of the “haves” in college basketball and as long as we have this fanbase we will continue to be at the top of the Big Ten.

I’ve been on this message board a long time and I start more than my share of threads so thanks for humoring me for another season. I always drink the Kool Aid starting in October and imagine the best case scenario. So days like this hurt so much and I appreciate you guys being an outlet.

Baseball message board fans are too cynical and analytical. NFL message board fans are way too reactionary and don’t really understand the game.

Illini fans here really get it and make the season more fun. Here’s to an exciting portal season and then October will get here before you know it.

Can someone post a link or links to the sites that computer rank the teams that is used by the selection committee for seeding?

It might be helpful to pin this if Doug thinks it will be useful.

TIA!

B10 is 8-0. SEC is 8-6. Three head to head this round. This will be big for conference bragging rights. B12 is 6-1, so they are right there too.

Congratulations to the Illini. Hard fought victory. Great to beat Purdue!

First time since before Christmas, 1977 that a Purdue player has had a triple double. Joe Barry Carol was the last one to do it. And the first one to do it. LOL

Part of it is coaching philosophy.
Ayo, Domask, and two more did it. BU gets it. That kind of thing is good for the program. In other words, when they got close the coach let them play.

Outstanding win tonight!