In the weeks ahead, Josh Kreutz will return home from Champaign to train with his father at his gym.
Olin Kreutz, the former six-time Pro Bowl center for the Chicago Bears, will work with his son on continuing to build up his strength and cleaning up his technique so he can take his shot at drawing NFL attention.
But first, Josh, a center like his father, has to close out his final chapter with Illinois. After five seasons, two stints as captain and 36 career starts, Josh will start his last game with the Illini (8-4) against Tennessee (8-4) on Tuesday in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn.
Departing players looking toward their next steps in football sometimes opt out of bowl games. The Illini will be without a couple of their stars — outside linebacker Gabe Jacas and left tackle J.C. Davis, who opted out as they look toward their NFL futures. But several other seniors will play, including quarterback Luke Altmyer.
And Kreutz will be there snapping to him.
“When there’s a football game to be played, I just want to play,” Josh said. “I want to be there for my teammates, want to play with my brother one last time. I want to just play honestly. I love playing football.”
Josh’s final Illini game will close out a special time for the Kreutz family. For the last four years, Josh and his brother, James, a redshirt junior rotational linebacker for Illinois with one start this season, have played together in orange and blue, trained together and even lived together for three years.
Tuesday’s game at Nissan Stadium will mark the end of a long football journey together that included watching the tail end of their father’s career and then finding their own love of the game — with the help of their father’s instruction.
Coach at home
Bears center Olin Kreutz (57) reacts during the first quarter against the Saints in the NFC championship game on Jan. 21, 2007, at Soldier Field. (Jim Prisching/Chicago Tribune)
Josh, 22, and James, 21, are old enough to remember their father’s last seasons with the Bears and his final NFL season, with the New Orleans Saints in 2011. James doesn’t remember a lot about the Bears-Green Bay Packers NFC championship game in the 2010 season, but he does remember how cold it was.
It was during their family’s time in New Orleans that they began their tackle football careers together, when Josh was a quarterback and defensive lineman and James was a center and linebacker. James, whose body type fit playing linebacker, stuck at that position and settled into it as his place in high school. When they moved back to Illinois the next year after New Orleans, Josh moved to the offensive line.
“Obviously I was decent at it, so I think that kind of just made me stick there,” Josh said. “I think I wanted to play quarterback, but I don’t know how good I was at throwing the ball.”
Olin coached the brothers in middle school at School of St. Mary in Lake Forest. The move to coaching after 14 years playing in the NFL didn’t come naturally. He consulted with coaches Tony Wise, Bob Wylie and Harry Hiestand about how to put the things you do in football into words — and how to explain that to young people — a skill that later translated into his broadcasting career.
The brothers said he taught them everything, from technique to film study to training to the way they should play the game.
“First of all I made sure that that’s what they wanted to do, and that they enjoyed it, and they did,” Olin, 48, said. “Then kind of just always talked about how the game should be played. Make sure you respect the game and how to learn the game and how the game can teach you about life and preparing for life. It actually can teach you about how to study things. Even your classes in school is the same way you study for football. So just always using football as a tool to really teach them how to become adults.”
Olin said it wasn’t all easy trying to guide his sons.
“Some days are good and some days are bad, right?” Olin said. “And some days, I’m sure I was harder on them than I should have been, and even now, I still am. I expect them to play at a certain level in a certain way, and talk to them a lot about that. But some days I was probably way too hard on them at their young age for football. But that’s the great thing about coaching kids football and coaching your own kids is you learn just as much from them as they learn from you.”
Illinois linebacker James Kreutz (41) calls out to teammates in the second quarter against Western Illinois at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 29, 2025, in Champaign. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Olin said he felt lucky that his sons had good coaches as they advanced in their playing careers. They played under former NFL linebacker John Holecek at Loyola Academy before moving to Bret Bielema’s staff at Illinois. Josh had committed to former Illinois coach Lovie Smith but stayed when Bielema was hired, and James, who wanted to play with his brother, followed a year behind.
Olin didn’t want to step in unless he was needed. He wanted them to learn the game their own way. He did offer help to Josh when he moved to center at Illinois, sometimes talking to him about different techniques and fundamentals and using his old film as a teaching tool. Josh said it was a big help to study his father.
“He’s really done a ton of work himself, to learn the position and put in the time to develop his craft and get better and better at being center,” Olin said.
Most of the instruction Olin offered in recent years was about their approach to the game: Hustle to the ball. Pick your teammate up off the ground. If a teammate is in a fight, make sure you’re there.
Bielema said on WSCR-AM 670 over the summer that Olin let his sons make their own marks at Illinois.
“Obviously Olin and all he has accomplished, he has a huge name in Chicago. But those two boys have made a name for themselves,” Bielema said. “There’s a reason he named them Josh and James. He wanted them to be who they are. And man, they have really set a standard here that’s pretty awesome to watch every day.”
Over the last four years in Champaign, it helped Olin and his wife, Wendi, feel comfortable, too, that the brothers had each other.
Pushing each other
Illinois offensive lineman Josh Kreutz (64) works through tackles in the first quarter against Western Illinois at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 29, 2025, in Champaign. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Olin’s gym has a cage in it where the family will sometimes train through boxing or wrestling.
His sons are naturally competitive and push each other “in a good way,” but every once in a while those training bouts need to be dialed down.
“Sometimes, it does get a little too intense and a little heated, and they’ve got to walk it back,” Olin said. “But they’ve been pushing each other and challenging each other for years to learn the game, learn about what they’ve got to do and help each other through their ups and downs.”
Josh and James were one of five sets of brothers playing for Bielema this season, along with wide receiver Hudson Clement and running back Murphy Clement, defensive backs Torrie and Tywan Cox and Xavier and Xanai Scott and offensive lineman Ayden and Nathan Knapik.
Even though they don’t play the same position, the Kreutz brothers said they help each other all the time, whether that’s pushing each other in the weight room, getting good reps against each other in practice, talking technique or explaining what the other sees on offense or defense.
Josh said he admires that his brother is smart, instinctive and physical and plays hard.
James has 26 tackles, 2½ tackles for a loss and three pass breakups this season and thought he was playing better ball at the end of the year. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker had five tackles, a tackle for a loss and a pass breakup against Rutgers at the beginning of November and had a deflection against Northwestern that resulted in a Torrie Cox Jr. interception.
James called his brother smart, rugged and tough and said he has learned from how he fights through injuries. He said he has set the standard for how he and his teammates need to work.
Illinois linebacker James Kreutz (41) works special teams in the fourth quarter against Western Illinois at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 29, 2025, in Champaign. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Josh, who is 6-2 and 290 pounds, has been an Illinois captain the last two seasons and was an All-Big Ten honorable mention player in 2023 and 2024. He started 30 straight games before he missed the Oct. 4 game against Purdue with an injury.
“Just seeing what he does every day, how he works, how he studies film, how he preps for a game,” James said. “We don’t play the (bowl) game until the 30th, but how much he’s prepping now (two weeks before the game), it just shows me like what you’ve got to do if you want to do this.”
James said he has loved watching Josh run out of the tunnel on game days as a starter, representing their family. They had a memorable last game together at Gies Memorial Stadium, a 20-13 win over Northwestern in a snowstorm.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget it, with all the snow and it being senior day, only half the stadium being full because of how much snow there was,” Josh said. “It was awesome. I mean, that first half was like something you dream about when you’re a kid, and you see people on TV playing in snow, and you go outside and play in snow. Getting that experience that was really awesome. I had a blast doing it.”
Former Chicago Bears center Olin Kreutz sets up tailgating equipment before an Illinois-Western Illinois game at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 29, 2025, in Champaign. His sons, Josh and James, play for Illinois. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Former Chicago Bears center Olin Kreutz sets up tailgating equipment with his family before an Illinois-Western Illinois game at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 29, 2025, in Champaign. His sons, Josh and James, play for Illinois. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Now, they hope to go out on a high note together at the bowl game, which Olin, Wendi and their four daughters will attend.
Both Kreutz brothers said they were so focused on the final game that they weren’t worried a lot about what’s next as Josh prepares for life after Illinois.
That’s part of what makes their dad proud of them.
“When I watch them play, the biggest thing is just to respect the game and look like you’re playing as hard as you can play and that you’re there for your teammates, you’re there for the team and you want the team to win,” Olin said. “And I always believe if you put the team first, everything else falls into place. So seeing them become those kind of young men that they are now is what makes you the most proud.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/28/illinois-football-josh-james-olin-kreutz/
