Bret Bielema and Curt Cignetti don't have a long relationship but it is clear they admire each other's work.

They sat together at last year's Big Ten spring meetings, crisscross one another's recruiting paths and have built budding powers in the Big Ten, Bielema at No. 9 Illinois and Cignetti at No. 19 Indiana. Both have 3-0 marks this season and top 20 teams heading into one of Saturday's featured games.

"There's very few plays where they have mental breakdowns," Bielema said of Cignetti's teams. "We always say more games are lost that won because of penalties, mental errors, turnovers - and they just don't do those things. I think one of the tells is special teams. You can have a group that has a really good offensive unit, defensive unit, but when special teams fall in line with that

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