The connection between Bret Bielema, George McDonald and Illinois football runs decades deep. McDonald, who played football at Illinois from 1995-1998 with Illini AD Josh Whitman, first met Bielema shortly after graduating while settling into the coaching world.
McDonald and Bielema crossed paths over 20 years ago as complete strangers at a high school in South Florida. The two knew some people in common and struck up a conversation which formed a close connection that the coaches kept from afar. But when Bielema left Wisconsin and was hired at Arkansas, he immediately knew he wanted McDonald on his staff.
While McDonald agreed to come aboard, weeks later he was offered an offensive coordinator at Syracuse that he couldn't pass up. Fast forward nearly a decade later, when Bielema got the keys to Illini football, he knew he couldn't let McDonald slip away a second time.
"Come full circle, to hire him back at his alma mater, it's just circumstance that it ended up being Illinois," Bielema said. "I long thought that Geo was one of the best wide receiver coaches in the entire country and much more than that because it's here at his alma mater."
But McDonald and Bielema's relationship has a completely different meaning at Illinois than it did in the early 2000s. Now, the coaches each have wives and children, that have changed their outlooks on life, family and coaching.
A couple months ago when the Illinois athletic department had a picnic, Bielema realized he and McDonald share more than just coaching similarities. The celebration included all the coach's families, so when Bielema arrived after training camp he saw his oldest daughter, Briella, standing on top of the bouncy house slide. Briella, who Bielema said is an ambitious kid until she realizes the consequences, looked at how big the drop was and immediately started screaming.
While Bielema couldn't do much to help from the ground, McDonald's oldest son — Roman — went over to Briella, put his hand out for her to grab and told her, "It's okay." The two jumped down the slide together and Briella came running over to Bielema to tell him all about it.
"From that day forward, the only person she talks about when she's coming to practice — she doesn't want to come and see me — she wants to see Roman." Bielema said. "I told Geo watch his business, but I think the flip side of it, the human nature of our kids is something that draws us even closer. That thing that we talk about, family, is really something we believe in."
Family has a deep meaning for everyone in the Illini program, but for McDonald to walk around his alma mater — about 23 years later — with a family of his own means the world.
"This summer, my parents came and visited me," McDonald said. "I'm from California, so they might have come to one game a season. So, we actually walked around the whole campus. And that was the first time that my parents have been on campus. And then I stopped and I'm like, oh, wow, there's my son and my two boys and my wife. I was like, who would have thought. I keep pinching myself, like who would have thought I would be back here with my family and my kids at a school that means so much to me."
McDonald brings a unique perspective that no one else in the current program has, aside from Whitman. While McDonald focused on football throughout college, he also ran track and field for the Illini during his freshman and senior years, earning All-Big Ten honors in 1999 after winning the Big Ten Indoor Championships 60m run.
Returning to the school he was a student-athlete at, means McDonald can relate to the current Illini players on a different level. While the campus and football facilities have upgraded since his playing career, he understands what the environment and the community is like as well as how much work it takes to find success on the field.
"There's so many things that Geo throws at us as a staff, and I know as players that he just has the unique perspective of being a former student athlete here," Bielema said. "From campus tours to academic awareness to the Champaign-Urbana community to relations that he built. But the number one thing he can say to these players, also in the recruiting process is like, (he) came from California and he thought he was going to be a running back, and they transition him to a wide receiver. And all the things he's been able to succeed in life, have been the things he's learned here. And that just speaks volumes about what they can expect once they come here. For me, as a head coach, I always say that I value the things I learn from my staff on a daily basis. And for Geo it's tenfold in a variety of different ways. But his, his perspective and history of being a former player is worth its weight in gold."
After four seasons as a wide receiver at Illinois, where he led the Big Ten in kickoff return yardage in 1996, McDonald has begun to make the current receiver room his own. McDonald brought in Notre Dame transfer Jafar Armstrong, brought back Casey Washington, and converted former QBs Isaiah Williams and Deuce Spann into two of the top receiver targets on the team.
While McDonald knows his group has a long way to go this season, he's committed to helping the Illini turn their program around and giving his alma mater the success it deserves.
"I remember walking onto the field going out to practice," McDonald said. "And I was telling some guys the first day, like, if you would have said in 98, you're going to be back with two kids married and coaching at the University of Illinois, I would have said, You're crazy. So, you know, it's awesome to be back. It's a sense of pride. There's a lot of stories and memories in the stadium. I think it just motivates me to continue to give these guys everything that I have to develop them, just because I know how special this place can be one when we're doing the things the right way."
