Bret Bielema Rails Against 'Clown Show' Officials After No. 24 Illinois Loss

All is not lost for Illinois, of course, despite the disappointment of Saturday's 25-17 loss to Minnesota, a team that has suddenly caught fire in the Big Ten. The Illini are 6-3 overall and 3-3 in the conference, with very winnable games ahead against Michigan State, Rutgers and Northwestern, teams with a combined 5-12 conference mark this year. 

But Illinois' Top 25 ranking will surely disappear after this week, and so will the chance at a 10-win regular season. 

Illinois coach Bret Bielema will carry around some regrets about the Gophers loss, especially after his team took a 17-16 lead on a touchdown with 9:03 to play before  being outscored, 9-0, down the stretch of the game.

Illinois' chances to tie ended with 29 seconds to go on the clock and quarterback Luke Altmeyer having driven the Illini to the Minnesota 16-yard line ona  first-and-10. But Altmeyer was sacked and fumbled on the play, with the Gophers recovering to seal the win. 

But it was after the game that Bielema really let his frustrations fly. At issue for him was a targeting call in the fourth quarter against Miles Scott, one of the best safeties in college football. 

The play came on a first-and-goal situation from the Illinois 5-yard line, and though Scott pretty clearly hit Minnesota's Elijah Spencer in the head, Bielema was not happy with the fact that Scott was sent off for the rest of the game and the start of next week's game, or that the call came in from off the field.   

"I was tired of that. It's kind of a clown show in regards to certain things," Bielema said in some eye-opening remarks. He did not stop there.

"I got extremely frustrated last week, with an non-targeting call that was called on the field then reversed and this one that gets called in from above," Bielema said. "I just get frustrated that--to me, if they're saying that he hit him and targeted him, to lose Miles Scott for the rest of this game and the next one, like, the first half of the next one, it's just ludicrous. There's no consistency and if he targeted him, he targeted him. But that's just really ridiculous."