Should Bielema shoulder responsibility for TCU loss?
Based on Wednesday’s press conference, Arkansas coach Bret Bielema didn’t say the one thing many expected him to say.
Not once did he mention it was his responsibility for the 28-7 loss to TCU.
In fact, between Bielema, offensive coordinator Dan Enos and defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, only a couple of times did they came close with one sentence.
“We just need to do what we do better as coaches and players,” Bielema said.
“We’ve got to play better,” Enos said, “and coach better.”
For many of the Razorback fans, that last one is maybe more important than the first.
• COMPLETE BIELEMA PRESS CONFERENCE
• COMPLETE ENOS PRESS CONFERENCE
• COMPLETE RHOADS PRESS CONFERENCE
You can watch the video and draw your own conclusions, but the Bielema that stepped up to the microphone Wednesday was defensive, talked in coach-speak and never once took responsibility for the embarrassing loss.
As one media wag said later, “I was halfway expecting to hear ‘SMILE!’ come out of his mouth,'” a reference to a famous John L. Smith press conference in 2012.
That didn’t happen, but it was a strange press conference.
It was as close to throwing the assistants under the bus for the Razorbacks that I can recall since Lou Holtz pitched defensive coordinator Don Lindsey there after a loss to SMU in 1983 and backed it over him.
The most often-quoted stat over the past few days has been pointing out the Hogs have been outscored 70-0 in the second half against their last three big boy opponents.
And, yet, Bielema at one point basically threw it back at those saying negative things about the team.
“Understand, we all want to be successful,” he said wrapping up Wednesday’s press conference, his first appearance since Saturday. “Today’s world is mean. It’s just what it is. I don’t think it makes our players react any way. It probably unites.
“I don’t think people realize how much it means for an 18 to 21-year-old kid to get support. In today’s world it’s just so different. Support is not something that’s very common.
“I just look out for people’s well-being, too. I mean, Christ Almighty, if you sit there and scream bloody murder about how bad you suck, you’re going to carry that in your personal life. I feel bad for them.
“If they sat there and said, ‘Let’s go Hogs!’ they might feel better. Might have better blood pressures and better color. When you get your face red from screaming it’s not a good thing.
“Less negative, more positive might work for everybody.”
I put all that in there so you don’t miss it. Yes, you actually have an SEC coach asking the fans to be positive cheerleaders.
That doesn’t sound like a coach confident about the future.
Bielema has repeatedly asked for patience, said this is his fifth season and it’s time to produce, has said it’s time to raise the bar. The request seems to change with the score of the last game.
Some of the sports radio callers have listened, like Sterling from Center Ridge, who was advocating Wednesday that fans get behind Bielema and give him at least a couple of more years.
The only flaw in that reasoning is that it doesn’t take that long to see what you have with a coach and his program.
If you think it takes five years, well, then you haven’t been paying attention to the world of college football over the last decade.
You have a pretty good idea in three years, four at the most.
Don’t believe it?
Mike McIntyre took over a Colorado team in 2013, the same year Bielema came to Fayetteville.
Last year they won 10 games and were in the Pac 12 championship game. Don’t tell me he inherited a better situation there than what Bielema got.
The Buffaloes had won exactly one game the year before. Three the year before that. Four wins in two years.
Bielema inherited a team that a couple of national folks predicted would be in the BCS Championship Game and were legitimate contenders to challenge Alabama and LSU in the SEC West.
That was AFTER Bobby Petrino flew through the handlebars between Fayetteville and Elkins.
That team won four games. Bielema wanted to change the culture to a ground-and-pound running attack, and vowed to bring an SEC Championship to Arkansas. I was there the night he said it at Bud Walton Arena and everybody in the place wanted to believe.
The thought then was he better have some sort of secret formula because for that to work in the SEC West, because he was going to have to have better athletes than Alabama and LSU if he was going to win.
We got a clue when the Hogs were embarrassed on homecoming by South Carolina that first season and Steve Spurrier said afterwards that, “Bret’s just gonna have to recruit his way out of this and get better players.”
Not smarter. Not better citizens.
Better players.
Are we seeing now that he isn’t able to get enough to do what he wanted and, in fact, has the program headed downhill at what appears to be a staggering rate?
All of which is why the Texas A&M game is big.
Maybe the biggest of the season.
Hogs’ SEC schedule for TV loaded this season
FAYETTEVILLE — The Southeastern Conference released game times and television networks for the 2018 men’s basketball schedule on Wednesday afternoon, featuring all 18 Arkansas league games on national television.
The Razorbacks are slated to play on ESPN or ESPN2 eight times so far in 2017-18, including five of those coming inside Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas will be featured on SEC Network 10 times and ESPNU twice as part of the league’s television partnership with ESPN.
The only conference tip-off time not announced is the league opener against Tennessee on Saturday, Dec. 30, as the SEC will wait for bowl announcements to avoid head-to-head matchups between school’s football and basketball teams.
Games on ESPN/2
• Nov. 23, vs. Oklahoma
• Jan. 13, Missouri
• Jan. 17, at Florida
• Jan. 27, Oklahoma State
• Feb. 6, South Carolina
• Feb. 17, Texas A&M
• Feb. 20, Kentucky
• March 3, at Missouri
Saturday Tip Times in BWA
• Dec. 30, Tennessee, TBA
• Jan. 13, Missouri, 5 p.m.
• Jan. 20, Ole Miss, 2:30 p.m.
• Jan. 27, Oklahoma State, 5 p.m.
• Feb. 10, Vanderbilt, 7:30 p.m.
• Feb. 17, Texas A&M, 3 p.m.
Season Tickets
The Razorback Ticket Center is currently accepting requests for 2017-18 Men’s Basketball Season Tickets. Seats will be assigned by Razorback Foundation guidelines with season ticket prices ranging from $300 to $450. To purchase tickets call 1-800-982-4647 or click here.
SEC Tournament
The SEC Network will televise the first three days of the SEC Basketball Tournament (March 7‐11) from Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo. The semifinals and championship game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN. Arkansas has advanced to the championship game in two of the last three seasons, as it goes for its second SEC Tournament championship in 2018.
Non-Conference TV
The Southeastern conference will announce the non-conference television package at a later date.
Bielema’s midweek press conference on bye week
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema met with the media Wednesday and talked about the TCU game, getting ready for preparations to start for Texas A&M.
DC Paul Rhoads: ‘Third-and-1, third-and-1, third-and-1’
Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads talked about the number of times the defense couldn’t get off the field on short yardage.
Enos on disappointment with Allen’s play, offense
Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos met with the media for the first time since the TCU loss and covered a wide range of issues.
Long in LR: Arkansas not ‘win at all cost program’
For fans upset with the direction of the Arkansas football program, Jeff Long made it clear Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club that winning games isn’t the only goal.
Oh, he would like to win and he said repeatedly “it’s important,” but he made it clear that wasn’t all.
“Yes, winning is important,” he said. “Now contrast that if you’re a win-at-all-cost program which we’re not and I’ve said many, many times we’re not, then you don’t worry about the academics, you don’t worry about the conduct, you just win.
“And you know what? When I arrived here 10 years ago, that’s not what the leaders wanted at the time and certainly that’s certainly not what we’ve delivered.
“Yes, we want to win. Yes, it’s a priority. Yes, it eats us up from the inside that we don’t win more.”
So, apparently, for those fans that want to win the way the Razorbacks used to win, the problem starts at the top. Even above Long.
Based on what Long said Monday, the upper echelon wants Arkansas to be more like Vanderbilt than Alabama.
That’s not a knock on anybody. But apparently winning and losing football games is not as important as Long says it is. If it was, there wouldn’t be comments about not being a win-at-all-cost program.
There’s no way of knowing what Long’s expectations to the coaches are.
Is there a number of wins or is it, “do your best to get a few wins, keep ’em out of jail and make sure they go to class?”
We don’t know the answer to those questions. That’s between Long and the coaches and probably should be.
One thing is becoming clear, though: The rank-and-file fan base is not happy. Whether Long or the powers that be really care about that remains to be seen.
Naturally they’ll say they care, but those inside the athletic department and foundation have said privately for a few years the only things that really matter are “selling premium seats and ESPN.”
For Long, a former football coach, I’m sure the lack of wins and the way this program has fallen is not what he wants. He said it eats them up inside by not winning which means he and others may be in danger of an ulcer soon.
It’s only two games into the season. Like a lot of others I really, really want Bret Bielema to be wildly successful.
But I don’t think it’s going to happen. To make it really simple, Bielema’s offensive philosophy is playing 10 guys against 11 while most teams the Hogs play has 11 on 11. When your quarterback isn’t at least a threat to run, you’re handicapping yourself these days.
Pro style power offenses work when you have pro style offensive linemen and running backs, which Arkansas doesn’t appear to have many of. There have been a few guys drafted low by NFL teams, but not many are making it past a season or two.
The trend isn’t looking good and appears to be getting worse. The best Bielema team running the ball was his first one. Yes, the 2013 team that was 3-8 accounted for 58.4 percent of the offense by running.
It’s gone downhill since, falling to 53.7 percent in 2014, 42.4 percent in his best season of 2015 and to 38.3 percent in 2016.
By comparison, Bobby Petrino’s 11-win team of 2011 had 31.4 percent of the offensive yardage by running the ball. They TRIED to run the ball 46.6 percent of the time, but just weren’t that good at it.
Bielema’s teams have TRIED to run the ball progressively more and more. In 2013, it was just 56 percent of the time increasing each year to 61.2 percent.
It’s just flat not working for whatever reason. The running game has actually gotten worse each year if you look at the metrics.
There are still 10 games for it to improve.
But don’t look for any midseason firing. That’s not Long’s style. He does an “evaluation” at the end of every season.
It was the evaluation after the “almost orgasmic” win over Texas in the Texas Bowl that got him in the financial pickle he finds himself in now. The guess here is the excitement of beating a bad Longhorns team on the edge of chaos got everybody a little too pumped.
Long rolled the dice in January 2015. How they come up won’t be known for a bit longer.
But right now it looks more like snake-eyes than 7’s.
