(KATV) — Bret Bielema will coach the Patriots’ defensive line, he told media in New England on Friday. The former Arkansas coach spent last season in Foxboro as a consultant.
“Last year, I would do a lot of that kind of big-picture stuff and then got a little more specific,” Bielema told the Providence Journal‘s Mark Daniels. “I think when you’re a head coach, you never lose sight of how important every details is, and then that does carry over to your approach with a certain group.
“So now’s the opportunity to take all the things I learned as an assistant before I became a head (coach) and all the things I learned about as a head coach that I wanted for my assistants, to be able to be the best I can be and obviously help this program in any way I can.”
Bielema’s impact on the Patriots’ past and current roster is evident. He coached James White, Trey Flowers, Deatrich Wise, AJ Derby and 2019 draft pick Hjalte Froholdt.
“I spent a lot of time in different rooms, but now to just to have that year as a work-in-progress transition to jump into where we’re at now, it’s been a lot of fun,” Bielema said. “And I knew a lot of those guys already, so even if they didn’t play for me [at Arkansas], they were guys that I’d recruited, guys that we competed against, so there’s a lot of familiarity and I think that part made it easier.”
You can watch part of Bielema’s media availability here.
