CHAMPAIGN -- Dutifully, reporters on Monday asked Illinois coach Bret Bielema about his team being ranked in the USA Today Coaches poll.
Illinois landed in at No. 12, between No. 11 Arizona State and No. 13 South Carolina.
Not surprisingly, the fifth-year coach downplayed the accomplishment.
"I get it. I understand it," Bielema said. "Everything seems to go back to 1990 or 2008 (Illinois rankings milestones). "I'm excited for our program. I'm excited for Josh (Whitman) and the athletic department."
Bielema isn't one of the voting coaches.
"I've never done that since I've come here to Illinois, and I stopped doing that when I was at Arkansas," he said. "It's just something I don't want to do. We got ranked that high, and I didn't even vote."
He told the team about the ranking during a meeting.
"It was one of the first couple things I showed them," Bielema said. "I said, 'Hey, this is great for the outside world to talk about. But the reason we got here is we attack practice three the right way, we can have good things happen.'"
Bielema has spent the past several months talking to his team about not getting ahead of itself. Yeah, yeah, the rankings are nice, but they won't mean a thing if the team gets off to a 2-3 start.
Bielema isn't worried about his team getting distracted.
"One of the things that I've kept my guard up here is it's such a new thing for everybody -- fans, media, ticket office," Bielema said. "They've never had this before so a lot of people don't know how to handle it around them. But these guys, I think we have enough carryover from the '23 roster as well as some of the guys we've brought in from other places that have gone through some setbacks and heartaches. We'll address it every day."
Bielema's best play is to push the good stuff aside. Save it for later. Way later. After the season later. If you make the College Football Playoff field -- as some, including me, project -- then you can revel.
Not until then.
What Bielema wants long-term at Illinois is for the rankings to become routine.
Like they are at Ohio State, Texas and Alabama. Think those schools are celebrating their rankings? Doubtful.
Don't get me wrong, there is certainly value for Illinois in being ranked.
As one wise reporter pointed out Monday, sitting among the Top 25 means inclusion on the ESPN crawl. And maybe more highlights shown on "SportsCenter."
Handling success
There is growing interest in the Illinois program, both locally and nationally.
Bielema's 10-minute press conference Monday was standing-room only. To be accurate, there are no chairs. But you get the idea.
Now, there are no games to evaluate. No next opponent to preview. The month before the season, which is so valuable for the team, tends to take on some sameness for those following the program.
Everything has a purpose and not everyone understands what that is. For Illinois, the two most important jobs in the next three weeks are to nail down the details and stay healthy. That's it. Try as best you can to get everyone to the starting gate, then play 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17 games.
Hope everyone enjoys the ride.
Coming soon
Unfortunately for the Illinois coach, there will be another round of rankings questions at next Monday's press conference.
That's the day The Associated Press Top 25 -- what I like to call the REAL rankings -- are released.
Illinois earning the No. 12 spot in the coaches' poll was a bit of a surprise. Most preseason magazines listed Illinois in the high teens.
Again, the coach isn't offended. If anything, he can use any perceived slight as another way to fire up his team.
Preseason AP ballots were due Aug. 1, four days before the coaches' poll was released. So, there will be no "Wow, I didn't realize Illinois was that good" shouts for the electorate.
Voters in the AP poll tend to take more of a wait-and-see approach when it comes to rising program, a category that fits Illinois at the moment.
My guess is Illinois will be ranked in the 13 to 16 range in the preseason AP poll. Not by me. My local knowledge dictated I rank Illinois No. 9. Could be the highest the team is ranked, which will lead to a full inbox from other fan bases. Not the good kind of messages. More like "Slob (a derogatory reference to Bob), you're in idiot. Why do they let you vote?" Or something like that.
I do not take offense. And will usually write them back.
I appreciate the interest and don't care about the bad-mouthing. It is all in good fun. Heck, I might even learn new phrases that will come in handy later.