Bielema, Long facing first crossroads of season Saturday

When Arkansas dons uniforms that look like the Dallas Cowboys playing in cardinal red, that will be cool, but the game against Texas A&M may be more important.

Not just for the football program, but much deeper.

While the new-look uniforms that may be for just one game (although they should be the new full-time look, in my opinion), it doesn’t remove the looking-glass scrutiny that Bret Bielema and athletics director Jeff Long are under.

They may not want to admit it, but they are on thin ice.

Don’t throw the buyout up. The people with the strongest looking glass can write the check to pay off both of them and if they forgot about it still wouldn’t bounce a check. In case you’re wondering, none of them we’ve heard about are named Walton, Hunt, Tyson or Stephens.

They have the resources and, unlike some of the wealthiest in Arkansas, they also have a passion for the Hogs winning games.

Bielema’s problem is winning games. In his fifth year, it’s hard to find progress on the field, regardless of what’s going on in the classroom or off the field. Quite frankly, the majority of fans don’t care about that. They want wins.

Long’s problem is much deeper.

To finance his building projects, the key components in the bond issues were ticket sales and private fund raising.

We’ve heard in recent months about the number of Broyles-Matthews Scholarship donors that have drastically reduced and cut back their donation amounts.

Long’s problem is he’s trying to sell an economy sedan at a luxury car price.

Bielema’s problem is he needs to win games. In the last five years, Arkansas has fallen behind Vanderbilt in winning percentage. The only SEC team the Hogs are ahead of is Kentucky.

While Long says when he was hired, there was not a “win at all cost” mandate. Apparently there were some people that want the Hogs to be more like Vanderbilt than Alabama. They got away with it on the momentum of a 21-5 record over two seasons.

That momentum flew through the handlebars of a motorcycle on April 1, 2012, and it hasn’t come back.

Now they seem to talk about academic progress more than wins and losses.

There is a glaring problem with that.

Until someone starts handing over gobs of cash for high test scores, somebody better start winning some games in football.

As it’s been proven all across the SEC, nothing drives the overall economy of a university more than winning football games.

What Long needed was a win over TCU to keep momentum going forward with the fans. He also needed Texas A&M to be 3-0 coming into this game.

But he also needs a win. Desperately.

While no one is giving the Aggies or Hogs much respect (it’s an 11 a.m. kickoff which is the biggest clue there), a win will not immediately restore a fan base that has taking a couple of steps back.

A loss, however, will cause a backlash that will be hard to overcome.

And, by the way, the A&M game is not the only crossroads moment this season.

It’s just the first.