It will be interesting Monday to see if Bret Bielema comes up with some sort of new material at his weekly press briefing.
Most the fans — and pretty much all of the media — are starting to giggle when he says this team is getting close. Exactly what his teams are close to reaching has never been fully discovered in his five seasons.
Is he referring to an SEC title? Nah, not even Bielema can believe that.
Close to what?
It will be seven seasons now since the Razorbacks won nine games. That’s the longest stretch between nine-win seasons in 60 years.
Yes, that’s how bad things have gotten.
Arkansas’ football program is in the proverbial ditch. I don’t care what Bielema says about the team being this close or just making a tackle here, a tackle there.
With a 10-25 record in the SEC during his time, the Razorbacks are tied with Missouri and only one win ahead of Vanderbilt over that time.
In the SEC West, they are dead last and it’s not even close, even if you throw out the winless first season of 2013. Take away that 0-8 SEC mark and they are STILL last in their own division.
This is Bielema’s fifth season and it does not take three years to know what you have with a coach in the world of college football today. The Hogs peaked under Bielema in his third season of 2015 … with eight wins.
That’s not what the fans view as success.
When he was hired, he was the best name available and some thought that was enough. Those who thought that didn’t bother to drill down into the details (which is why paying attention to national analysts on things like that is an utter waste of time).
He came to Arkansas, told the fans he was here to win an SEC championship and has proceeded to fail to achieve even second-tier status in the league.
Yes, it’s that bad.
Bielema came in saying his Big 10 record was better than Nick Saban’s was when he was at Michigan State in the 1990’s, which is true. What he didn’t say was Saban himself said he changed when he went to LSU because, “I had to change because the SEC is different.”
As usual with Bielema, he only gives you one side of the facts … it’s always the side that paints him in the best light. Like most things, the truth is actually somewhere in the middle balanced against the argument on the other side.
Bielema probably isn’t a bad coach, although it’s a reasonable question now to ask how much of his success at Wisconsin was due to him or athletics director Barry Alvarez. The Badgers have improved since Bielema left through two coaches and Alvarez is the only constant.
Since coming in 2013, he has maintained the image that he wants a run-first culture where dominating offensive line play is the norm, not the exception.
While that may have worked in the watered-down version of Big 10 when he was coaching there, it won’t work in the SEC unless you can recruit at a higher level than Alabama.
The last coach as stubborn as Bielema was Les Miles at LSU. He was fired as much for his stubborn refusal to change and losing to Ole Miss and Arkansas more than losing to Alabama.
This hire in 2013 was simply a case where neither the coach or athletic director did a whole lot of in-depth research.
That has become painfully obvious.
About as obvious as if the Hogs win all six games left on their schedule, Bielema will be just three games above .500 since coming here.
Bielema won’t be fired in the middle of the season, athough with the new early signing period for recruiting the guess here is that’s going to become normal procedure sooner rather than later.
Sooner or later, we’re going to hear about 2015 and how that team pulled it together to finish 7-5. The guess is we’ll hear that this week.
But what they won’t mention is that team wasn’t still playing musical chairs with the offensive line. That team had proven playmakers at the skill positions.
Name me the players on this team that could have started for that team. Even second team?
No, Bielema will be given a shot to duplicate that success. That might be enough to keep his job.
Which means he gets rewarded for mediocrity.
