When it comes to American college football, there’s a coach name that rings a bell. The name is Bret Bielema. Bret played college football as a defensive player at the University of Iowa under coach Hayden Fry from 1989 to 1992 and served as a team captain in his senior season. He also played for a team in the Arena Football League, the Milwaukee Mustangs.
Bret Bielema Biography – Age
Bret Bielema was born Bret Arnold Bielema on 13 January 1970 as the son of his parents – Arnie Bielema (father) and Marilyn Bielema (mother). His two sisters are Brandi Bielema and Betsy Bielema. Bret is from Prophetstown, Illinois. There is no information about the high school he attended, but for college, he attended the University of Iowa, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing. From 2006 to 2012, he served as head coach in football at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Career
In his first season as head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers, Bret Bielema’s team finished the regular season 11-1 (7-1 in the Big Ten Conference game) with a 14-0 win over the state of San Diego on September 16, 2006, making Bret the third Wisconsin coach to win the first three games of his career. In November 2006, with a 24-21 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes, Bret Bielema became the first head coach in the history of the Big Ten to win ten games in his first season.
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Bret was nominated as a finalist for the 2010 Bear Bryant Award, an award presented to the football coach of the year. He lost the award to Gene Chizik of Auburn, however. Bret Bielema is the only coach in Wisconsin history to lose the Rose Bowls in a row. On December 4, 2012, Bret announced that he will leave Wisconsin to become head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks (University of Arkansas). He left Wisconsin in part because he felt his assistant coaches were not being paid well and also because he wanted to play in the Southeastern Conference. His first season didn’t start out very well, and it was the worst record of Razorbacks in the Southeastern Conference since he joined the conference in 1992.
His second season saw some improvements. Bret won his first two games of the Southeastern Conference in a dominant manner. Although Arkansas lost the remaining conference games to Missouri, they were still the first unranked team in the history of college football to eliminate two consecutive higher-ranked opponents. In their third season, the team got off to a slow start and suffered some losses. They lost to Toledo and Texas Tech in the non-conference game.
The fourth season ended with two embarrassing defeats against Missouri in the regular season final. After five seasons as head coach of Arkansas, Bret was dismissed from his post as head coach on 24 November 2017 after a humiliating 48-45 home defeat to the Missouri Tigers. And after his five-year tenure at the top, he left Arkansas with the worst coaching record in the school’s history.
Bret Bielema Annual Salary, What is He Worth?
Bret Bielema received a salary increase in 2014 that raised his salary from $3.2 million to $4 million for the 2015 season and to an average of $4.25 million over the contract period. As a coach of American College Football, Bret had an estimated net worth of $8 million and received a salary of $4.14 million. After his dismissal in November, he was to become the fourth FBS coach to receive a contract worth more than $10 million.
Bret Bielema’s Wife and Kids
Bret Bielema became engaged to his wife Jennifer Hielsberg on 1 April 2011 after four years of dating. After one year, they married on 10 March 2012 and exchanged their vows in a Catholic church. In December 2016, Bret announced through his wife on Twitter that they were expecting their first baby. Jennifer gave birth to a little girl whom they named Briella Nichole Bielema.
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Height, Weight and Other Facts
Bret Bielema is said to be the highest-paid coach in Arkansas.
He is the eighth coach from the Southeast to cross the $4 million per season threshold.
Before he became famous, Bret Bielema was captain of the University of Iowa soccer team.
He made history in 2006 when he won his first ten games of his debut season in Wisconsin. Bret Bielema was the first Big Ten coach to achieve such an achievement.
He has worked under renowned head coaches including Hayden Fry: Iowa (1994-1998), Kirk Ferentz: Iowa (1999-2001), Bill Snyder: Kansas State (2002-2003), and Barry Alvarez: Wisconsin (2004-2005).
Details of his body measurements are unknown (including his height and weight), but from his physical appearance, the giant trainer appears to be losing some weight.