Things I think I know: Week 12
Well, that Ty Storey play they called sure worked out well didn’t it?
Once again, the players played their tails off, but the bastion of buffoonery known as the Razorback football coaching staff screwed it all up.
Arkansas was on it’s way to an upset of a top 20 team at home in front of small gathering at Razorback Stadium. Mississippi State had no answer to Sosa Agim. Everything was going great. Until the quarterback with a bum shoulder was told to throw it deep on 4th & 2 in a tie ballgame.
Brilliant.
It didn’t help that Arkansas’ short yardage quarterback Cole Kelley was in the Razorback student section, unable to play due to a suspension.
As one listener put it to me post game, “Just when I thought I couldn’t dislike Bielema anymore, he calls that 4th & 2 play.”
Another afternoon ruined on the hill.
Here’s what else I saw this weekend.
- Baker Mayfield did something really dumb, but he shouldn’t lose the Heisman trophy over it.
- Wisconsin, even with one loss, should be in the playoff. If we are looking for the four best teams, they are on that list.
- Watching LSU play Tennessee in a monsoon was pretty awesome.
- None of the top ten teams in the playoff rankings lost this weekend. This can only mean that the final weekend of the regular season is going to be bananas.
- I am not counting out Auburn against Alabama.
- If Ohio State makes the playoff, this whole thing is a sham.
Finally, I want to leave you with this cool fake out punt return executed to perfection by USC on Saturday.
Bret’s not gone … yet; an amazingly bad statistic
Apparently several online news outlets have waited until the Arkansas bandwagon got rolling full steam … now they’re throwing themselves under it.
No, there has been no official announcement from anyone with the UA.
But everyone has suspected for weeks that Bret Bielema will be fired. The questions started back in September, then picked up steam in October a simmering calm after one-point wins over bad teams and now are back at full throttle.
Bielema has the Hogs at 4-7 this season with a game against Missouri on Friday. The Tigers have an offense that’s breaking scoreboards and a suddenly effective defense.
It doesn’t look good. Missouri will be favored. They are already a 65.9 percent pick in ESPN’s FPI rating, which is remarkably accurate.
A loss drops Arkansas to 4-8 in a season of discontent that started the second week of the season for many fans when they fell apart in the final half of the fourth quarter against TCU.
Bielema’s problem is he doesn’t have a single big time marker in his time at Arkansas. He is currently 29-33 overall and 11-28 in the SEC. That is the lowest SEC percentage of wins since the Hogs came to the league in 1992.
In all that, though, is an even more amazing statistic that I wasn’t aware of.
In all games against Power 5 opponents, Bielema is 14-32. One game shy of half of Bielema’s wins have been against non-Power 5 teams.
With an 8-22 record in games against SEC West opponents, the only team he has a winning record against is Ole Miss. He has never beaten Alabama or Texas A&M. He’s only beaten Auburn and Mississippi State once each.
If LSU and Ole Miss had bothered to do a moderate amount of preparation in 2014 and 2015 he might not have a couple of those wins.
But, I’m sure Bret would be quick to point out, they were close on so, so many occasions in those games.
That will be penned on his Arkansas monument: “He was close a lot.”
But he hasn’t been fired yet.
Some online news outlets are reporting that a site said “it appears that Arkansas is ready to move on from Bret Bielema.”
The only shocking thing about that is, well, everybody in Arkansas knew that a month ago.
It’s just a matter of days, folks.
And, of course, that starts an entirely new conversation.
Razorbacks finish fourth at Art Adamson Invite on Saturday
FAYETTEVILLE — Behind numerous personal bests, the Arkansas swimming and diving team placed fourth at the prestigious Art Adamson Invitational, scoring 281 points.
In the 200 backstroke prelims, senior Chloe Hannam touched in season-best 1:56.97 to advance to the evening’s A-final. Junior Madison Umberger qualified for the C-final, swimming a 2:00.47 in the prelims.
Sophomore Ayumi Macias swam a 2:01.31 to qualify for the D-final. Freshmen Michaela Degnan (2:02.68), Katiana Porporis (2:02.78) and Aubrey Torkelson (2:09.04) each swam season bests in the qualifying round.
In the 200 back A-final, Hannam touched in a season-best 1:55.08 for a seventh-place finish. In the C-final, Umberger swam a season-best 2:00.19 for a sixth-place finish. Macias touched in 2:03.72 in the D-final for an eighth-place showing.
The 100 free prelims saw many bests, as senior Olivia Weekley touched in a season-best 50.45 to qualify for the C-final.
Juniors Kiera Michailoff-Russell and Erin Kelly each recorded lifetime bests as they clocked times of 50.82 and 50.83, respectively. Freshman Kenedy Thaman (51.13) and sophomore Dalton Chambliss (52.48) timed season-bests, as well as juniors Marlena Pigliacampi (51.30) and Annah Carney (52.02).
Freshman Shea Gregson touched in a personal-best 51.47, along with junior Madison Strathman who touched in 53.27.
In the C-final, Weekley and Michailoff-Russell finished sixth and seventh, respectively, with times of 50.65 and 50.97. Kelly and Thaman swam in the D-final, with Kelly swimming a 50.69 for a third-place finish, while Thaman touched in 51.34 in seventh.
In the 200 breast prelims, junior Sydney Angell finished 13th in a season-best 2:41.63 to qualify for the B-final. Freshman Peyton Palsha qualified for the C-final in a time of 2:17.63. Strathman qualified for D-final, swimming a season-best 2:19.17. Senior Madison Edwards also swam a season-best, clocking a 2:24.33, while freshman Alyssa Hale touched in a personal-best 2:24.80.
Angell clocked a 2:14.19 sixth-place showing in the B-final, while Palsha touched eighth in the C-final in 2:19.34. Strathman swam a 2:17.30 in the D-final to finish fourth.
Senior Chelsea Tatlow qualified for the A-final in the 200 fly with a prelim time of 1:57.12. Jessie Garrison (1:58.53) and Taylor Weiss (1:59.97) advanced to the B-final, as both swim season-bests. Pigliacampi touched in a season-best 2:01.93 to move on to the C-final.
Tatlow finished seventh in the A-final in 1:57.00. In the B-final, Garrison touched third in 1:58.57, while Weiss touched in 1:59.83 for a fifth-place finish. Pigliacampi won the C-final of the 200 fly in a personal-best time of 1:59.89.
In the 1650 free, Macias touched seventh in a season-best 16:30.55, while Palsha came in at a season-best 16:30.65. Freshman Alyssa Lemon had a 31st-place finish, touching in 17:16.90.
In the 400 free relay, Arkansas had squads finish 13th in 3:24.66, 18th in 3:25.26 and 24th in 3:27.69.
On the platform dive, senior Nicole Gillis recorded her third second-place finish on the weekend, scored a personal-best 249.85. Marissa Green scored a 201.15 for ninth place, while Caroline Welch scored a 178.85 for a 13th-place finish.
Could Huskers, Illini bail out Hogs on Bielema buyout?
Okay, I know there are a lot of Arkansas fans out there who will refuse to believe Bret Bielema would be wanted by a DII school, much less another Power 5 team.
But they would, apparently, be incorrect. At least based on rumblings as the coaching carousel continues to pick up speed going in circles.
While Bielema still has a job, even Jen probably doesn’t expect him to keep it for much more than a week or so.
Now his name is being linked to coaching searches at two Big 10 schools. Naturally, both of those schools still have coaches, but if you wait until you get rid of your current coach before you start looking then you might as well wait until the next season.
Nebraska’s Mike Riley is expected to be cut loose shortly after Bielema at Arkansas and Lovie Smith at Illinois, with just two wins, is likely to gone, too.
Bielema’s name has been mentioned in both cases.
In 2014, Bielema was approached about the Nebraska job before Riley was hired. He still had Jeff Long running interference for him here at Akansas and getting a raise for going 6-6 (okay, 7-6 with a bowl win over a terrible Texas team). The timing wasn’t good for the Huskers.
Now it couldn’t be a better time.
As we’ve said many times over the previous three months, fit is THE most important aspect in picking a coach.
Bielema was never a good fit at Arkansas and I didn’t care what the so-called experts said when he was hired in 2012 and I was ultimately proven correct.
Nebraska made a similar bad hire choosing Riley. That was never going to work. In fact, it would have worked out better at both Arkansas and Nebraska if they’d just switched coaches right then.
Bielema is a Big 10 guy. His slow-motion style of football works better in that league. Riley is an SEC guy that has had success on the Left Coast and had some okay years in the NFL and at Oregon State, but is a former SEC player (he won four SEC titles and a national championship playing for Bear Bryant in the early 1970’s).
If Nick Saban hadn’t backed out of going to Tuscaloosa, Riley very likely could have been the coach.
That isn’t to suggest he’s a candidate at Arkansas, but simply points out how looking at the fit is more important than what the record is to a certain extent.
What Nebraska fans want to do is run the football. They think all this spread offense stuff is some sort of new-fangled invention that should be ignored. Sort of the way Bob Devaney and Tom Osbourne felt about the Wishbone in its heyday.
Now the Huskers are probably going to fire Riley and the same fate awaits Bielema at Arkansas.
The Huskers’ first choice is Scott Frost, but it appears he’s going to be the top candidate at Florida and Tennessee. The guess here is whichever one Chip Kelly chooses, Frost gets the other one.
That leaves Nebraska looking and apparently they’re thinking the same thing I am. Even Adam Rittenberg at ESPN mentioned last week Bielema’s name being mentioned already.
Other places have mentioned Bielema’s name being thrown around when Smith is asked to leave Illinois after going 5-18 over two years and 2-15 in the Big 10.
Bielema is a native of Illinois. It’s home for him.
And a fan base that doesn’t expect much. Let’s face it, when’s the last time Illinois really mattered in the Big 10, much less nationally?
For Arkansas, though, it does help them on at least one front to hope he lands one of them.
It mitigates — and would likely eliminate — the buyout he’s due from Arkansas when he’s fired.
Which is also going to happen with Long, who is likely to be mentioned in any athletic director openings.
Williams on loss to Mississippi State, playing for Hogs
Arkansas running back David Williams talked after the 28-21 loss to Mississippi State about how much he’s enjoyed his last season.
‘Dogs overcome ‘hangover,’ Hogs with late win
FAYETTEVILLE — Dan Mullen didn’t have a hangover from last Saturday’s narrow loss to No. 1 Alabama.
His team, though, might have been suffering a little.
“I haven’t had a drink since last Saturday,” he said after the Bulldogs scored with 17 seconds left to beat Arkansas, 28-21, here Saturday. “I don’t think so. We had a great week of preparation.”
For the Razorbacks, though, it was another game of being close … again.
“I didn’t say that,” Bielema said in the postmortem of the Hogs’ locker room when asked about his comments earlier in the season about being close. “I know you like to play with that word, but I didn’t said it.”
And, this time, he didn’t mention anything about being close, although he could have referring to Arkansas’ effort against the Bulldogs. The question was about the season as a whole.
“Yeah, this was a case in point today,” Bielema said. “Put in a lot of time, a lot of effort and our guys believed in the way the game started, you saw they have every intention of not only just expecting or playing to win.”
That’s word for word how he said it.
The result of this game is there won’t be a bowl season for the first time since Bielema’s first season in 2013. His overall record at Arkansas dropped to 29-33 overall and 11-28 in the SEC.
With more offensive linemen knocked out of this game (starters Zach Rogers at center and guard Hjalte Froholdt left in the first half), Bielema had a comment about the line that could have applied to the entire season.
“We’re just piecing it together,” he said.
Yeah, it’s been that kind of year and this game maybe rolled all of the problems into a 60-minute package that turned out to be a tale of two halves.
Arkansas dominated roughly the first 25 minutes of each half.
Then fell apart.
Although Mullen refused to attribute the sluggishness of State to the loss to the 31-24 loss to the Crimson Tide last week, they weren’t as sharp.
Plus, the weather didn’t help. It was in the low 50’s at the start of the game, but felt much colder with a biting wind that was swirling in the stadium with gusts up to 40 miles an hour.
“It’s late in the season and you come out to a tough environment on a windy and cold day,” Mullen said later.
Just to be clear, he wasn’t talking about the crowd. Although it was announced at 64,153, there was never more than 40,000 in the stands. The loudest they were able to get just wasn’t much of a problem for the Bulldogs.
“The ball didn’t bounce our way all game long,” he said. “We had a great week of preparation. Our guys were ready to go.”
But they didn’t.
On the other side, the Razorbacks came out on the first possession of the game and looked like a team ready to just go through the motions after a tumultuous week where the athletics director was fired and everyone’s waiting on the axe to fall on Bielema.
The Hogs ran the ball twice and Austin Allen couldn’t connect with Jordan Jones, which was followed by a 29-yard punt from Blake Johnson.
But when it hit a State player in the head coming down, the Hogs got it at the Bulldogs’ 36 along with a big energy boost.
It took just three plays for graduate transfer David Williams to get the ballin the end zone from the 3 and Arkansas had a 7-0 lead with 12:46 to go in the first quarter.
The Hogs were due some luck and got it.
They got some more when State had to start a drive from their own 5 and Nick Gibson was hit in the backfield by McTelvin Agim and fumbled into the end zone and Briston Guidry fell on it for another score with 7:26 left in the first half and a 14-0 lead.
It held up until late in the second quarter when Bulldogs quarterback Nick Fitzgerald scored from 18 yards out with 5:17 to play, then Johnson couldn’t field a snap on a punt and State got an 8-yard run from Aeris Williams and it was tied with 2:18 left in the first half.
That’s how quick things changed.
It happened again in the second half.
Arkansas scored on it’s first possession in the third quarter on the only sustained drive the offense could muster, moving 75 yards in 10 plays with Devwah Whaley scoring from a yard out with 4:35 left for a 21-14 lead.
It looked like that might hold up until Fitzgerald found a wide open Reggie Todd, who broke free from Henre Tolliver on a nifty double move to score from 37 yards out to tie the game at 21-21 with 3:57 left.
“He ran a perfect route,” Mullen said about Todd o that play.
Still, the Hogs had one more chance.
They moved to their hown 44 before a fourth-and-2 pass from Allen to LaMichael Pettway fell incomplete. There was some bumping on the play, but it wasn’t called.
The Bulldogs then decided to either win the game or go to overtime.
Fitzgerald started making plays to keep the chains moving, including a 2-yard run on a fourth-and-1, then found Deddrick Thomas for a diving touchdown catch that was ruled good and upheld on replay with 17 seconds left.
There was nothing left to do for Arkansas but try a wild play where Allen’s pass was complete to Cheyenne O’Grady, who got it to Deone Stewart, who got it back to O’Grady, who got it to Johnny Gibson, who relayed it to Pettway, who got it to Whaley.
After all that it was a 4-yard gain and the clock was out of time.
“Unfortunately came up short,” was how Bielema described it later.
Which pretty much sums up the season.
Bielema on players’ effort in another close loss
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema talked with the media about the Hogs’ narrow loss to Mississippi State and injuries in the game.
