Just weeks after a decorated 20-year head coaching career ended in retirement over NIL frustrations, Bobby Hauck is already back on the sidelines. However, with a demotion. Bret Bielema hired the former head coach as his defensive coordinator. Many wondered what had happened to make Hauck turn back from his retirement. Now, we hear from the horse’s mouth as he talks to the person who got him to Illinois.

On February 11, Fighting Illini Athletics hosted a unique coach-to-coach conversation in which Illinois head coach Bret Bielema interviewed his new DC, Bobby Hauck. During the interview, Hauck was asked whether there was any reason for joining Illinois for a coordinator role, despite having served for two decades as a head coach.

“Well, a couple of things,” Bobby Hauck told Bielema. “One, I like the fact that the players are getting compensated for what they do. What I didn’t like was all the ancillary stuff and being a prep school for others. I mean, we’re all susceptible to that. So, 20 years as a head coach is probably enough for me. I didn’t really know what I was going to do.

And then when you [Bret Bielema] called and said, “Are you interested in doing this?” I think the primary thing is, you are one of the best head coaches in all of football. From my observation, both competing against you and watching you in person, you’re masterful at multitasking. It’s what the job requires, and just the chance to be at Illinois in the Big Ten Conference and working for you—that’s a winner for Bobby Hauck.”

Hauck coached against Bret Bielema twice in his career. Both happened when the former was at UNLV, while the latter was the head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers. Unfortunately for the new DC, Bielema won both the matchups, and they weren’t close. However, those games left an impact on the Illinois head coach about the way Hauck built a culture at his programs.

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“Since meeting Coach Hauck early on in my head coaching career, I have had tremendous respect for who he is, what he stands for, and the program he has built. He is a family man with incredible attention to detail and a great ability to teach the game to both his staff and players,” Bielema said about Hauck while announcing the decision.

Despite a 38-year coaching career that includes 19 seasons as a head coach, Hauck is stepping into his first-ever defensive coordinator role, a surprising move for the winningest coach in Montana history.

With the Fighting Illini having a steady rise under Bielema, winning 19 games in the last two seasons, Hauck’s addition only raises expectations for the program. His aggressive 3-3-5 defensive scheme, which helped the Grizzlies rank among the top 10 in scoring defense, could help Illinois reach new heights. The position became vacant when Aaron Henry, in a surprise move, accepted a role at Notre Dame to work under Marcus Freeman. 

Bobby Hauck blamed NIL for his retirement

Bobby Hauck stepped down as Montana’s head coach, announcing his retirement on February 4. He lamented that the changing college football landscape made the coaching role unenjoyable due to the need to pursue agents and the shifting focus of young players toward NIL deals.

“Dealing with what college football has become is not always enjoyable as a head coach,” Hauck said in his retirement speech. “I just haven’t been enjoying it enough. I want to enjoy my career and my job. A lot of the head coach stuff in current-day Division I college football is not enjoyable.

“Dealing with agents and the transient nature of this and the lack of forward thinking by young people—which has never been a strong suit for centuries for young people, but now when they’ve got adults pushing them and pulling them in different directions—I kind of got tired of all that, the dealing with agents and the transient nature of it. Straw that broke the camel’s back—there was nothing like that. This has been residual.”

Hauck’s comments make it clear he was eager to leave behind the recruiting and NIL battles of a head coach. In Illinois, he can return to the traditional coaching role he has honed over his 38-year career.