CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Former Montana coach Bobby Hauck has ended his brief retirement to become defensive coordinator at Illinois.
Fighting Illini coach Bret Bielema announced the hiring Monday to replace Aaron Henry, who left to be co-defensive coordinator at Notre Dame.
Hauck retired last Wednesday, saying he didn’t enjoy his job anymore because of the changes in college football in recent years.
“I want to enjoy my career and my job, and a lot of the head coach stuff in current-day Division I college football is not enjoyable,” Hauck said last week.
The 61-year-old Hauck is the Big Sky Conference's all-time wins leader with a 151-43 record. He led the Grizzlies to four national championship games in 13 playoff appearances over 14 seasons. Montana was 13-2 and reached the national semifinals last season.
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Hauk led UNLV from 2010 to 2014 and had a 15-49 record. He has been an assistant at San Diego State, Washington, Colorado, Northern Arizona, UCLA and Montana.
“Since meeting coach Hauck early on in my head coaching career, I have had tremendous respect for who he is, what he stands for, and the program he has built," Bielema said.
Illinois was 9-4 last season, finishing just outside of the AP Top 25.
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