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Bielema tap dances again while fans look for leadership

While Arkansas football spins out of control with Bret Bielema’s doubletalk, fans are beginning to wonder where the leadership of the program is.

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Bret Bielema is now reduced to babbling in double-speak about who Arkansas’ quarterback is going to be against LSU on Saturday.

Yes, apparently it has come to that. It actually looks and sounds like a program run by a guy wearing shorts and flip-flops to work.

He was asked on more than one occasion about who the starter will be and he didn’t have an answer he could settle on … or would settle on.

You can hear the complete press conference here.

Apparently he thinks it matters to LSU.

“Anything that could be a strategic advantage for us, whether it’s the quarterback or how much T.J. (Hammonds) is gonna play or whether or not we’ve done certain things with him, (it’s) better staying in-house and showing up on Saturdays,” he said Monday at his press conference.

Uh, Bret, the Tigers really don’t care who you put at quarterback. Playing a cat-and-mouse game with who you’re going to start under center is hilariously silly.

The truth is he probably doesn’t know.

In over 40 years of doing this whenever a coach starts tap-dancing on who’s going to play quarterback he’s flailing like a drowning man who’s already gone under once.

Bielema is starting to sound like a buffoon in press conferences lately. Monday, at times it sounded like Kelley might be the starter, then he mentioned Allen being able to start and finally he wrapped it up by indicating it might be Kelley again.

Again, Bret it won’t matter.

LSU just finished beating up Alabama everywhere but on the scoreboard. The Tigers held Alabama to just 116 yards rushing for the entire game. The Crimson Tide had 106 on Arkansas in the first quarter.

No, LSU does not care one iota which quarterback is under center. Defensive coordinator Dave Aranda and his defensive line coach, Pete Jenkins (one of the great defensive game planners of all time), are going to do the same thing they’ve been doing lately.

There are a small group of Razorback fans who point to 2014 and 2015 as examples of the Hogs playing well against the Tigers, which are true. But things have changed in Baton Rouge.

And Fayetteville

Les Miles had a tendency to let losses to Alabama get him down and it was reflected in his team’s play.

Ed Orgeron doesn’t care. Aranda and Jenkins don’t care who the opponent is or the personnel they are facing because the game plan is basically the same every single week.

And this Arkansas team couldn’t block LSU’s second team and most of the third team.

Yet Bielema somehow thinks playing these little games will somehow help his team. It would invoke more respect if he just stepped up to the mic and announced a starter.

Instead he tap-danced his way through another press conference where he expressed confidence in both Cole Kelley and Austin Allen.

Offensive coordinator Dan Enos said whoever is the most healthy and gives the Hogs the best chance to win will get the majority of the reps.

Okay. We didn’t realize that.

At Monday’s press conference, it sounded for the most part like a head coach going through the motions of a season that is heading towards the ditch in a hurry.

Oh, they are 4-5, but it’s two points away from being 2-7, which would qualify as a nine-alarm dumpster fire. Instead it’s just your garden variety three-alarm fire.

And the future doesn’t look bright.

LSU is this week. They just got through holding Alabama to under 300 yards of total offense while putting up 306 yards of offense on that Tide defense.

After that is Mississippi State.

They are 7-2 overall and will probably be 7-3 when they come to Fayetteville in a couple of weeks after playing Alabama this week.

Then comes Missouri, who somehow seems to have righted their ship a little and can score points in bunches.

While Bielema is babbling on in Johnny Sunshine coach-speak while looking like a coach ready to go on vacation in shorts and flip-flops (seriously, that’s how he showed up at Monday’s press conference), the fan base wouldn’t particularly mind if he went ahead and left … now if not sooner.

He has lost the Razorback fan base. While the shorts and flip-flops were kinda cute to some fans five years ago, now it just looks like a guy making millions cruising his way to the finish line.

It’s a time where leadership is needed to pull football — the most visible marketing tool the University of Arkansas has — out of the misery it has become.

Yes, misery with back-to-back wins that leave nobody feeling positive about the direction of the program.

And fans wondering where the leadership is.

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2024 Razorbacks Football

Thu, Aug 29vs UAPB (Little Rock)W, 70-0
Sat, Sep 7@ Oklahoma StateL, 31-39 2OT
Sat, Sep 14vs UABW, 37-27
Sat, Sep 21@ AuburnW, 24-14
Sat, Sep 28vs Texas A&M (Arl)L, 21-17
Sat, Oct 5vs TennesseeW, 19-14
Sat, Oct 19vs LSUL, 34-10
Sat, Oct 26@ Mississippi StateW, 58-25
Sat, Nov 2vs Ole Miss11:00 AM
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Sat, Nov 16vs Texas11:00 AM
Sat, Nov 23vs Louisiana TechTBD
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2024 High School Rankings

Following is the Arkansas Sports Media High School Football Poll including the Overall Top 10, the top five in Classes 7A, 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A, plus the top three in the 8-man division, as voted by a panel of sports media from around the state for the week ending August 24. Ranking is given with first-place votes received, records, total points and ranking from last week's poll:
OVERALLRecordPtsPrv
1.Bryant (18)8-02521
2.Conway (6)8-02302
3.Greenwood (2)8-02103
4.Little Rock Parkview7-11714
5.Bentonville5-31416
6.Benton7-11265
7.Fayetteville6-21008
8.Pulaski Academy6-2757
9.Rogers5-3459
10.Shiloh Christian6-24010
Others receiving votes: Marion 13, Valley View 9, Joe T Robinson 8, Mountain Home 4, Cabot 3, Elkins 3.
CLASS 7A
1.Bryant (20)8-01241
2.Conway (6)8-01052
3.Bentonville5-3753
4.Fayetteville6-2455
5.Pulaski Academy6-2354
Others receiving votes: Rogers 5.
CLASS 6A
1.Greenwood (26)8-01301
2.Benton7-11022
3.Shiloh Christian6-2713
4.Marion7-1524
5.Mountain Home7-131
Others receiving votes: Little Rock Catholic 4.
CLASS 5A
1.Little Rock Parkview (23)7-11271
2.Joe T Robinson7-1902
3.Valley View (3)8-0803
4.Hot Springs Lakeside7-1484
5.Farmington7-130
Others receiving votes: Camden Fairview 4, Maumelle 4, Morrilton 3, Greenbrier 2, Harding Academy 1.
CLASS 4A
1.Elkins (19)8-01161
2.Arkadelphia (5)6-2792
3.Little Rock Mills (1)8-0703
4.Warren6-2404
5.Malvern (1)8-0315
Others receiving votes: Dardanelle 22, Southside Batesville 11, Mena 8, Bauxite 7, DeWitt 4, Highland 2.
CLASS 3A
4.Bismarck (15)8-01054
5.Fordyce (4)8-0765
Prescott (3)7-1531t
1.Osceola (2)6-149
3.Mayflower (1)8-036
Others receiving votes: Booneville (1) 31, Rivercrest 19, Mansfield 14, Charleston 4, Rison 3.
CLASS 2A
1.Carlisle (21)8-01211
2.Conway Christian (4)8-01042
3.Des Arc7-1663
4.Bigelow (1)6-2455
5.Murfreesboro6-230
Others receiving votes: Marked Tree 10, Mineral Springs 6, Junction City 5, Cross County 1, Mount Ida 1, Poyen 1
8-MAN SANCTIONED
1.Strong-Huttig (25)5-0761
2.Midland (1)7-0502
3.Cedar Ridge7-1253
Others receiving votes: Rector 5.

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ESPN ARKANSAS 99.5 IN FAYETTEVILLE, 95.3 IN THE RIVER VALLEY, 96.3 IN HOT SPRINGS, 104.3 IN HARRISON-MOUNTAIN HOME.