The 2025 Little League Softball World Series continues on Day 3 of the tournament following another exciting day of action that included standout play from the likes of Pennsylvania’s Reagan Bills.

It’s onto the elimination games Tuesday, with the losing teams from the previous two days playing with a chance to compete in Wednesday’s slate.

The Southwest regionteam from Tulsa, Oklahoma, edged the Southeast squad from Lake Mary, Florida on Monday, Aug. 4, while the Mid-Atlantic girls from Pennsylvania proved to be a juggernaut in their game against the West region team from Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Pitt County, North Carolina continues to represent for the tournament’s host state, collecting a second consecutive win, while the team from Iwate, Japan showed why their country is a powerhouse in all levels of softball with a victory over the squad from Canada.

The Day 3 schedule features four win-or-go-home games, beginning at 10 a.m. ET.

In the first game on Tuesday, Washington won the tournament’s first elimination game with a resounding win over California. Brazil was the next team to advance after its triumph over Canada. Two more elimination games are left on the docket

Follow along for live updates on all the Little League Softball World Series action today:

Little League Softball World Series scores today

Washington 10, California 0
Brazil 10, Canada 1
Indiana 1, Czechia 0 (through 1.5 innings)
Connecticut vs. Florida, 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2

Indiana holds 1-0 lead over Czechia after 2 innings

Indiana has five hits through two at bats but still just a 1-0 lead to show for it. Czechia has been held without a hit thus far. Indiana pitcher Briley Mercer now has four strikeouts.

Indiana takes early 1-0 lead on Czechia

Indiana has jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first inning in the third elimination game of Day 3 at the Little League Softball World Series. Indiana strung together three hits and a walk to get on the scoreboard in the bottom-half of the inning.

FINAL: Brazil 10, Canada 1

Brazil closes out its 10-1 win over Canada to advance to another elimination game on Wednesday, August 6. Brazil will play the winner of today’s elimination game between Czechia and the Central region representative from Floyds Knobs, Indiana. That matchup is coming up next in Greenville, North Carolina. Canada’s Little League Softball World Series run comes to an end with today’s loss.

Brazil adds to lead in sixth inning

Brazil loaded the bases again in the top of the sixth inning and Dani Fugisaki, Brazil’s pitcher, cleared them with a three-run triple that has turned this competitive elimination game into a blowout. Three-straight hits ignited a five-run inning and Brazil’s lead is 10-1 as Canada gets set for its final at-bat.

Brazil gets a 1-2-3 inning vs. Canada

Brazil is three outs away from its elimination game over Canada after recording a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth inning. The two teams head to the sixth inning with Brazil still leading 5-1 thanks to three hits, four Canada errors and a few too many walks.

Brazil blows open game vs. Canada

Brazil loaded the bases without the ball ever leaving the infield in the top of the fifth inning and then plated two runs on one play in which a Canada wild pitch turned into an errant throw to third base. Brazil tacked on two more runs during the rally on two infield singles.

Brazil’s lead is now 5-1 with Canada due up in the bottom of the fifth inning. Brazil had been 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position after loading the bases twice before in the game and leaving seven runners on base.

Brazil, Canada go to fifth inning in tight game

Brazil and Canada couldn’t do any damage to one another in the fourth inning. Canada heads to the fifth inning with the 2-1 lead it built in the first inning. Canada is switching pitchers for the second-to-last at bat of the game.

Brazil strikes out the side to close out third inning

Brazil will take a 2-1 lead on Canada into the fourth inning at the Little League Softball World Series after Brazil pitcher Dani Fugisaki struck out all three batters she faced in the bottom of the third inning. There are currently more runs than hits in the game. Canada is sticking with pitcher Arielle Prescott after she found a groove to close the top of the third inning.

Canada pitcher Arielle Prescott escapes trouble

Canada pitcher Arielle Prescott has been dealing with control issues that have also included several illegal pitches called by the home plate umpire. After loading the bases in the top of the first inning, she loaded them again in the top of the third inning. But this time, she successfully escaped the inning without giving up any more runs, dealing out a couple key strikeouts along the way.

It’s 2-1 Brazil as Canada bats in the bottom of the third inning.

Brazil jumps out to early lead on Canada

Canada walked the first three batters in the top of the first inning and Brazil took advantage of a couple miscues in the field to take a 2-0 lead on just one hit. Canada then came back by manufacturing a run in the bottom-half of the inning. It’s 2-1 Brazil as Canada comes to bat in the bottom of the second inning.

Brazil vs. Canada in elimination game underway

Brazil and Canada will attempt to stave off elimination in the second game of Day 3 at the Little League Softball World Series. Canada is represented by a team from Quebec and got the country’s first win at the LLWS in its opening game against Czechia before losing to Japan. Brazil, representing Latin America from Sao Paolo, is 0-1 in Greenville, North Carolina thus far and will bat first.

FINAL: Washington 10, California 0

Washington gets its first win in the Little League Softball World Series since 2018, according to ESPN. Overall, Washington had 10 hits to go along with those 10 runs while California was kept scoreless for the second straight LLSWS game and finished with only one hit and committed four errors. Washington’s Penelope Gahan (4 2/3 innings, one hit, three strikeouts) kept California off the scoreboard along with Camryn Brown (1 1/3 innings, one walk).

Washington tacks on another run

Phoebe Banks’ RBI-ground out, scoring Anna Yoo, increases Washington’s lead to 10-0 after the top of the sixth inning. Last chance for California coming up.

Penelope Gahan’s day in the circle is done

Gahan, who only gave up one hit, to the last batter she faced, California’s Mila McKay, leaves with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Gahan was perfect through four innings. Camryn Brown is the new pitcher for Washington and she gets her first batter to ground out to end the inning. 9-0 Washington after five innings.

Washington squanders a one-out single

Penelope Gahan, who is pitching a gem for Washington, got a one-out single but the Northwest Region champions can’t capitalize on that any more. After the top of the fifth inning it is still a 9-0 Washington lead.

California goes quietly in the fourth inning

A fly out, a strikeout and a ground out made this a short inning for California. Washington leads 9-0 after four innings.

Washington increases lead over California as the Little League run-rule approaches

Washington loaded the bases with no outs and the proceed to inch closer to the 10-run rule, which would end the game early. However, Washington’s Anya Miller got a sacrifice fly to push Washington’s lead to 9-0 and that’s all for the Northwest Region champions. The game will go at least five innings now as Washington leads by a hefty margin after the top of the fourth inning.

A flawless inning, yet again for Washington’s Penelope Gahan

California goes three-up, three-down with a pop up, a fly out and a ground out to end the bottom of the third inning.

Washington playing station-to-station softball

Washington loaded the bases with consecutive walks and then Daphnee Calsyn’s RBI-single pushed the lead to 4-0 and Liliana Delgado gets her second hit of the day, an RBI-single for a 5-0 lead. A fielding error, allowing another run to score, and Camryn Brown’s two-run single turned this into a big inning. 8-0 Washington after top of third inning.

California kept off the scoreboard again

Washington’s Penelope Gahan is cruising. She struck out the first batter for California in the bottom of the second inning and then got back to back ground outs. Still, 3-0, Washington after two innings.

Washington makes some miscues on the bases

Washington’s second inning started off promising with a walk and a single. But some baserunning errors, a 1-5-3-6 double play, and making the last out of the inning at third base doomed this potential rally.

California goes down 1-2-3 in the first inning

Washington’s Penelope Gahan induced three straight ground outs to make it a very quick inning.

Washington takes the early lead on California

Liliana Delgado got the offense started with an RBI-double over the left fielder’s head and then Camryn Brown added a two-run single. After the top of the first inning, Washington leads 3-0.

It’s elimination day at the Little League Softball World Series

First up, it is Washington versus California, with each team trying to extend its stay at the LLSWS in Greenville, North Carolina.

How to watch 2025 Little League Softball World Series

The 2025 Little League Softball World Series will be broadcast on ESPN platforms, with the championship game airing on ABC. Games will also be available to stream on ESPN+.

Dates: Aug. 3-10
TV: ESPN | ESPN2 | ABC
Stream: ESPN+
Location: Greenville, North Carolina

Catch the Little League Softball World Series on ESPN+

2025 Little League Softball World Series Day 3 schedule

Tuesday, Aug. 5

Game 9: (Purple Bracket) Northwest region: Mill Creek, Washington vs. West region: Westchester-Del Rey (Los Angeles), 10 a.m. ESPN2
Game 10: (Orange Bracket) Latin America region: São Paulo, Brazil vs. Canada region: Repentigny, Quebec, 1 p.m. ESPN+
Game 11: (Orange Bracket) Europe-Africa region: Prague, Czechia vs. Central region: Floyds Knobs, Indiana, 4 p.m. ESPN+
Game 12: (Purple Bracket) New England region: Guilford, Connecticut vs. Southeast Region: Lake Mary, Florida, 7 p.m. ESPN2

2025 Little League Softball World Series Day 2 results

Monday, Aug. 4

Game 5: (Orange Bracket) North Carolina region: Pitt County, North Carolina 5, Central region: Floyds Knobs, Indiana 3
Game 6: (Purple Bracket) Southwest Region: Tulsa, Oklahoma 2, Southeast Region: Lake Mary, Florida, 1
Game 7: (Purple Bracket) Mid-Atlantic: Johnstown, Pennsylvania 9, West region: Westchester-Del Rey Los Angeles 0
Game 8: (Orange Bracket) Asia-Pacific region: Iwate, Japan 6, Canada region: Repentigny, Quebec 1

2025 Little League Softball World Series Day 1 results

Sunday, Aug. 3

Game 1: (Purple Bracket) Southeast region: Lake Mary, Florida 9, Northwest region: Mill Creek, Washington 2
Game 2: (Orange Bracket) North Carolina region: Pitt County, North Carolina 4, Latin America region: São Paulo, Brazil 3
Game 3: (Orange Bracket) Canada region: Repentigny, Quebec 5, Europe-Africa region: Prague, Czechia 4
Game 4: (Purple Bracket) Mid-Atlantic region: Johnstown, Pennsylvania 2, New England Region: Guilford, Connecticut 1

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The Seattle Seahawks have undergone plenty of high-profile changes since the calendar turned to 2024. Mike Macdonald was hired as the franchise’s ninth head coach last January. This year, Seattle traded Geno Smith, signed Sam Darnold to a contract worth over $100 million, traded DK Metcalf and signed Cooper Kupp to play in his native state.

Will the changes result in tangible improvement?

The Seahawks haven’t clinched a playoff berth since 2022 and haven’t won a postseason game since the 2019 season, but former Seahawks great Shaun Alexander believes the team is on the cusp of something special.

“Coach McDonald, his style, his personality, I think the way he’s doing it is going to be very beneficial for us. The Seahawk family is in a good place to go on a great run,” Alexander said to USA TODAY Sports on behalf of USAA’s Salute to Service Bootcamp. “Last year, we were the only team with 10 wins and not make the playoffs.”

The Seahawks were a part of the quarterback carousel this offseason when they sent Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders and signed Darnold during free agency. Darnold is coming off an impressive 2024 campaign with the Minnesota Vikings in which he recorded career-highs in most major quarterback statistical categories. He became the first QB in NFL history to record 14 wins in his first season with a team and his performance earned him his first ever Pro Bowl nod.

But Darnold’s been a journeyman quarterback for a majority of his career. Seattle’s his fifth team in eight seasons.

The big question is whether Darnold’s lone Pro Bowl year in Minnesota was an anomaly or a sign of things to come? Seattle signed the 28-year-old quarterback to a three-year contract. However, the structure of the deal enables the Seahawks to cut Darnold after just one season and the club drafted an insurance plan in the third-round of the 2025 draft in Alabama product Jalen Milroe.

“I’m one of those people like, is the risk? Yes, but is it a good risk? Yes. One hand, I love Geno I thought he was very good for our team… Here we are with Sam, I think he’s gonna be a good quarterback,” Alexander explained. “Sam is a fine NFL quarterback that if put in the right situation, he can look really good.”

Alexander is the Seahawks’ all-time leading rusher. Suitably, he thinks Darnold is in a good offensive situation because of the current Seattle running back, Kenneth Walker, who could be motivated because he’s on an expiring contract.

Exclusive: Patrick Mahomes talks painful Super Bowl loss (and new haircut)

“I’ve always thought he was a steal. I always thought he was a jewel of a running back. I think a healthy him gives us a shot in every game. He could look like he just passively is going to put up 100 yards and score a touchdown,” Alexander said. “He’s gonna be in a good place to have a great year this year.”

Is Darnold going to be the franchise QB the Seahawks are paying him to be? It’s one of the more fascinating questions entering the season. Although, akin to all quarterbacks, the answer is largely dependent upon his surrounding parts.

Donald Trump is slated to sign an executive order later today that will create a White House task force to handle issues surrounding the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, according to a White House statement.

It is unclear who will serve on the task force, though multiple news outlets reported Trump will oversee it. A ceremony to sign the executive order is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

‘The President considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in the statement.

Leavitt added that Trump was ‘instrumental’ in bringing the 2028 Summer Games to the United States and described sports as ‘one of President Trump’s greatest passions.’

The White House also provided a statement from Casey Wasserman, the chairperson of the 2028 Los Angeles organizing committee, touting Trump’s efforts.

‘The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,’ Wasserman said.

It is unclear how closely the task force will work with state entities and officials in California, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Both are Democrats and have clashed with Trump over domestic policy issues in the heavily-Democratic state, including the Trump administration’s attempts to enforce immigration law. Protests broke out across Los Angeles earlier this summer after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided locations across the city.

The creation of the Olympics task force comes about five months after Trump created a similar task force to handle issues surrounding the 2026 FIFA World Cup for men’s soccer. The president appointed Andrew Giuliani, the son of his close ally Rudy Giuliani, as executive director of that group.

This story will be updated.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @tomschad.bsky.social.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has expressed support for Mexican referee Katia Itzel Garcia, who said she has been facing online abuse and death threats following a Leagues Cup match.

‘At FIFA, we stand in solidarity with the FMF and CONCACAF in condemning the actions of those who make these unacceptable threats,’ Infantino wrote on his Instagram. ‘We offer our unconditional support in holding those responsible to account.’

Garcia officiated a Leagues Cup match – a tournament that features top teams from the United States and Mexico – between FC Cincinnati, a Major League Soccer team, and Monterrey, a prominent Liga MX team.

In the match, she faced criticism for awarding FC Cincinnati a goal that was disputed as being offside. FC Cincinnati ultimately defeated Monterrey 3-2, which caused an outcry among the team’s fans.

The comments on social media blamed Garcia’s officiating for the team’s loss, and the abusive messages escalated to threats against her life and her family’s well-being.

A high school football state champion coach who recently got suspended from his coaching job is hanging up his whistle and sliding his helmet back on.

That’s right, Teddy Bridgewater is making another NFL comeback.

Bridgewater is meeting with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Tuesday and is expected to sign with the team, according to multiple reports. Should he sign as expected, the 32-year-old journeyman quarterback will be joining his eighth team in a career that will have spanned 11 years since the Minnesota Vikings selected him with the last first-round pick in 2014.

Here’s why the Buccaneers are signing the veteran quarterback:

Why the Buccaneers are signing Teddy Bridgewater

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Tampa Bay is bringing in Bridgewater in response to an injury to third-string quarterback Michael Pratt. Pratt, who spent last season on the Bucs’ practice squad, is dealing with a back injury, leaving starter Baker Mayfield with less depth behind him on the roster.

Schefter also wrote, ‘Bridgewater always has been widely respected and a player others want on their roster.’

Ten months after announcing his retirement from the NFL last February, Bridgewater made his return to the NFL. He signed with the Lions on Dec. 26 after he had led his former high school team to a state championship as their head coach.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell said at the time, ‘To be able to somebody back here that’s got experience – he’s staying in shape, he’s been throwing, just get him worked back in here a little bit – it just brings a level of professionalism, veteran presence, somebody that’s great for our team, great for the position.’

Bridgewater didn’t appear in any regular season games for Detroit, but he made a short appearance in the Lions’ divisional round clash with the Commanders as trainers evaluated starter Jared Goff for a concussion. He completed his one pass attempt and handed off the ball to Jameson Williams on a trick play that ended in a touchdown before Goff returned to action.

Now, he’ll join Mayfield and fellow backup Kyle Trask in Tampa Bay, adding another NFC South infinity stone to a gauntlet that already included Carolina and New Orleans.

Teddy Bridgewater stats

Bridgewater played in parts of 10 seasons across his 11-year NFL career – he missed the entire 2016 season with a knee injury.

Here’s how his career shakes out by the numbers:

Completion rate: 1,372-of-2,076 (66.4%)
Passing yards: 15,120
Yards per attempt: 7.3
Touchdowns: 75
Interceptions: 47
Passer rating: 90.5
Starter record: 33-32

Bridgewater also has one Pro Bowl appearance in his career, which came in 2015 – his second season and final year before the knee injury that altered the course of his career.

Buccaneers QB depth chart

Should he sign, Bridgewater would join a few other quarterbacks already on Tampa Bay’s roster for training camp.

Baker Mayfield
Kyle Trask
Michael Pratt (back injury)
Teddy Bridgewater (signing pending)
Connor Bazelak

Barring injury, Mayfield will be the Buccaneers’ starting quarterback for a third straight season in 2025. He earned his first two Pro Bowl nods in each of his first two seasons in Tampa Bay.

Trask has been the Bucs’ backup since the team drafted him in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft. He re-signed with Tampa Bay in March.

Pratt was a seventh-round pick by the Green Bay Packers in last year’s draft and ultimately didn’t make the team out of camp. He signed with the Buccaneers’ practice squad after his release and signed a reserve/future contract to stay in Tampa in January.

Bazelak signed with Tampa Bay as an undrafted free agent earlier this year. He played the final two years of his six-year collegiate career with Bowling Green after transferring from Missouri after the 2021 season and from Indiana after 2022.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Bret Bielema boarded a plane bound for California, days before Christmas. The Illinois coach needed to see his left tackle.

A federal judge issued a ruling in December that gave junior college transfers more runway to continue their NCAA careers. The injunction applied to players like J.C. Davis, Illinois’ offensive lineman who would have been out of eligibility if not for that court ruling.

Bielema flew to visit Davis at his home in Oakland. He pitched the idea of Davis putting the NFL on hold, returning to Illinois and improving his draft grade. Davis embraced the plan. He’ll protect quarterback Luke Altmyer’s blindside for another year as a 320-pound pillar of what Bielema believes “could be one of the best offensive lines in college football.”

Herein lies the roadmap of how Illinois positioned itself as a College Football Playoff contender for 2025, complete with a No. 12 ranking in the US LBM Coaches Poll, its highest preseason rank since 1990.

“We retained our best players,” Bielema says.

The Illini didn’t go on a player-buying spree, but they kept players like Altmyer and Davis. A stockpile of proven veterans, paired with an established coaching staff, remains a pathway to success amid college football’s transfer-fueled landscape.

By Bielema’s counting, the Illini return their best five players. Sixteen starters return from the team that finished 10-3.

That includes Altmyer, who enters his third season as Illinois’ starting quarterback. The fifth-year senior would have commanded interest in the transfer market, but Bielema told reporters in April there was a “zero point zero” percent chance Altmyer would transfer.

For Illinois, those proved ideal odds.

For Bielema, an Illinois native who played at Iowa and forged his career in the Midwest before getting fired as Arkansas coach, consider this his brilliant Big Ten homecoming.

“When we had it going in my past, we could play with anybody,” Bielema said, a nod to his 68-24 record at Wisconsin, where he coached the Badgers to two Rose Bowl appearances.

“Last year, at the end of the year, we could play with anybody.”

Can Illinois follow Indiana into College Football Playoff?

On the surface, Illinois draws comparisons to 2024 Indiana, which sprang up and crashed the playoff party. They’re basketball schools with limited football pedigree.

Dig deeper, and the threads come apart. Indiana’s Curt Cignetti built his playoff team with a cast of transfers from Group of Five schools. Bielema, by comparison, grew this roster over a span of years, at a job tailormade for this pig farmer’s son from Prophetstown, a small town in northwest Illinois.

Bielema came of age during a strong period in Illini athletics. Illinois basketball crested in the 1980s and spawned the Flyin’ Illini. Illinois football produced more winning seasons than not in the ‘80s, including a Rose Bowl trip.

“I was an Illinois fan,” Bielema says, before he became a Hawkeye.

Never mind his years in Iowa, because Bielema fits Illinois like a horseshoe on an empty stomach, or a cold Stag after a deer hunt.

As Bielema worked at other Midwest outposts earlier in his career, he told himself that Illinois could become something, if it ever signed enough top in-state talent. He’s made that a reality. Four of Illinois’ starting offensive linemen hail from state high schools. Better yet, every starting lineman is a junior or senior.

Illinois’ offensive and defensive lines constitute the program’s bedrock. That’s not lip service. Consider how the Illini travel.

“When we get on a plane, nobody sits in first class but linemen,” said Bielema, himself a big man. “I want people to know when they walk on a plane, that’s what we are.”

Bielema has this theory about big fellas. Their utility extends beyond protecting a quarterback or plugging an A-gap.

“When big people talk, people listen,” Bielema says.

When Bielema talks, keep the cameras rolling.

Bret Bielema’s mentality traces to career as Iowa walk-on

There’s this old story about Bielema that’s too amusing to not ask about, so I inquired about the details as we talked this spring in the Illinois coach’s office.

What was it Bielema, as an Iowa senior nose guard, said to Iowa State coach Jim Walden on the field after the Hawkeyes beat the Cyclones in 1992?

“I said, ‘You’ve been a pri**,’” Bielema concedes.

As in, the word for a male body part that rhymes with trick.

“What’s worse is, I repeated it,” Bielema says. “There was a camera on me the second time, not the first time.”

Bielema sent Walden a telegram apologizing days later, and the two would cross paths regularly after Bielema began his coaching career.

“Funny fact of that is, coach Walden and I ended up having a pretty good relationship,” Bielema says.

Walden, for his part, told ESPN in 2015 that he and Bielema later laughed about the incident.

“Bret is strung to a different wire,” Walden told ESPN. “I had no reason to hold it against him. I was well known for saying what I thought. Maybe that’s why he thought he could say it to me.”

Strung to a different wire? A man who speaks his mind?

Yeah, that’s Bielema.

As Arkansas coach, he called a postseason win against rival Texas “borderline erotic.”

Bielema started a borderline kerfuffle and set South Carolina coach Shane Beamer’s blood to boil when their teams met in a New Year’s Eve bowl game. Bielema, who says he was miffed about a Gamecocks kickoff return strategy, gestured toward the South Carolina sideline during an injury timeout. Beamer became so enraged that multiple South Carolina staffers had to restrain their diminutive coach from charging toward Bielema. Fortunately for Beamer, his staffers held him back.

Borderline comical, really.

This offseason, Bielema ripped Jim Harbaugh, cast some veiled shade at LSU’s Brian Kelly, and he openly challenged the SEC to beef up its conference schedule.

Part of Bielema’s offseason chirping, he admits, came as a design to attract spotlight for his team. It worked. The Illini attained their best preseason ranking in 35 years.

An offseason theme at Illinois: Program consistency

The best Illinois seasons typically emerge after a lack of preseason expectations. The Illini never have achieved back-to-back seasons with at least nine victories. Making players aware of the program’s history became an offseason point of emphasis.

“For every successful season that Illinois has had, there’s been a season of disappointment (that followed),” defensive coordinator Aaron Henry said. “When you’re trying to break a cycle, you have to remind people of that.”

Bielema tells his players to keep a chip on both shoulders.

“Not just one,” Bielema said. “We’ve got to have it on both. That’s the only way Illinois can survive.”

Bielema needed that mentality to succeed as a walk-on at Iowa. He didn’t know such a thing as a ninth-string player existed until he arrived in Iowa City and saw the depth chart posted in the locker room.

“There were only nine levels, and I was on the bottom line,” Bielema said. “I just kind of knew at that time, the only place I had to go was up, and the only way to get there was hard work.”

By his senior year, Bielema’s teammates had named him a co-captain. He made 37 tackles that season.

Bielema showed his grit at Iowa, but his mentality took root in Illinois.

Bielema put sweat equity into this state, long before he became the Illini coach. He grew up playing high school football on Friday nights, before helping with the hogs on the farm when the sun rose on Saturdays.

“I’d never been on a plane until I went to college. We’d never been on vacation,” he said. “My dad never took a vacation until my sophomore year, when we went to the Rose Bowl.”

When Bielema was in seventh grade, his brother, Barry, suffered injuries in a vehicle accident that demanded his parents’ attention. That left older brother Bart and Bret to tend to 2,500 pigs.

“My older brother used to pick me up every day at like 4:30 in the morning,” Bielema said, “and we had to go take care of everything before I got on the 7 o’clock bus.

“That (farm) was our family’s livelihood. My brother and I really kind of strapped it up, and, for about six months, we kind of took full authority.”

If hard work is the way to get somewhere, Bielema learned he can handle that.

Illinois has path to College Football Playoff

No database compiles third-party NIL deals or tracks teams’ roster payrolls, so approximations are the best we can do. By Bielema’s estimation, Illinois ranked last in the Big Ten in roster compensation two years ago, when his Illini finished 5-7.   

“I don’t need to be No. 1,” Bielema said, “but I sure can’t be (last).”

He’s not anymore. Bielema figures Illinois’ roster compensation is in the middle of the Big Ten. Bielema’s three years working for NFL coaching staffs after his Arkansas firing influence how he leads at Illinois, down to how dollars are allocated to players.

Put the dollars and formulas aside, though, and you’ll hear in Bielema’s voice how much he likes this group and believes in their potential.

Take the case of edge rusher Gabe Jacas and defensive back Xavier Scott. Bielema signed them as three-star recruits. They developed into standouts who outperformed their recruiting profile, a microcosm of this roster.

“I’ve never been at a blue blood,” Bielema said, and, in recruiting, “I really don’t care what other people see, I just worry about what I know.”

If Bielema knows he’s gained the upper hand, expect to hear about it from this coach who wears a chip on both shoulders and instilled some swagger to a program that needed it.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.