Razorbacks Trey Thompson and Daryl Macon talk about playing Oklahoma on Thursday in the PK80 tournament.
Bielema on Hogs’ final game against Missouri Saturday
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema talked about the final game for seniors and his plans to start recruiting Saturday.
Enos talks about offense’s problems in loss to MSU
Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos talks about the offense’s issues against Mississippi State last week in a 28-24 loss.
Rhoads on defense’s best effort of year against Bulldogs
Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads talks about the performance against Mississippi State which he said was the best of the season.
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.
