Nick Saban. Urban Meyer. Jimbo Fisher. Poof! Gone.

Time gets away from us all, and in the what-have-you-done-for-me-today world of college football, it moves even faster. The game is an ever-increasing grind, the coaching churn to be expected. Before you know it, stalwarts and icons move on to greener pastures – or simply head off to pasture. Even the greats have a shelf-life.

What does it all mean?

Opportunity.

Just look at the Big Ten, where Jim Harbaugh left a national championship-sized void at Michigan when he bolted for the Bolts and the NFL. Kirk Ferentz, the dean of Big Ten football coaches, remains a force, but, at 69, must feel retirement tugging at his hoodie. Who’s left? James Franklin? Greg Schiano? Fine coaches, sure, but not exactly Schembechler and Hayes in terms of name value.

Curt Cignetti? Red-hot. But also in his first season in Bloomington. Let’s see where it goes. Oregon’s Dan Lanning? Entrenched on the mountaintop. But the Ducks are still plucking most of their talent from the West Coast and Texas, not the Big Ten’s longtime backyard of the Midwest. Ryan Day? He can’t catch a break, despite winning almost 9 of every 10 games he coaches, because he lost consecutive Peach Bowls and last week’s big showdown with Lanning’s Ducks.

This is all a roundabout way of approaching the question in the back of minds in Champaign and perhaps further and wider: Can Bret Bielema, who has led Illinois to an unexpected 5-1 start ahead of a Saturday matchup with Michigan (2:30 p.m. CT, CBS) that feels like an inflection point, turn the Illini into a college football power?

The short answer: Kind of.

Bielema is a good coach. Ask around. You’ll get the same answer from a lot of longtime football people who know a thing or two about a thing or two.

Bielema is an Illinois guy (from Silvis, outside the Quad Cities), a Big Ten vet (seven seasons coaching Wisconsin to six bowl games) and a former player (a walk-on defensive lineman at Iowa who was named captain as a senior). He’s no-nonsense, yet in touch enough to crack a little bit when thinking on one of his guys:

Point being, Bielema already has many of the pieces in place to turn Illinois into a consistent winner. But what any Power Four coach really needs – and especially one hoping to turn a (too-often) middling Big Ten program into a regular College Football Playoff contender – is talent. Great college football coaches consistently land great talent. That’s no coincidence.

And how does one land talent? You guessed it: money. Lots of it. All the top college football programs have state-of-the-art facilities and luxurious amenities, and Illinois – in part thanks to plenty of generous alumni donors – is fortunate to have kept up with joneses there. But with NIL having grown into a cottage industry, it is money more than ever that draws athletic talent. Just take a look:

Highest athletics department expenditures among NCAA Division I schools (fiscal year 2022):