Bret Bielema’s contract and extension:
Rebels hold off Arkansas late for SEC win, 73-64
OXFORD, Miss. – Arkansas rallied late but was unable to complete the fourth-quarter comeback, falling 73-64 to Ole Miss on Sunday afternoon in The Pavilion at Ole Miss.
Trailing by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter, Arkansas (11-3) went on a 14-0 run over 4:23 to pull within eight, 67-59, with 2:41 left in the game.
Arkansas got to within eight on two different occasions in the final three minutes, but they were unable to draw any closer. Erika Sisk hit a key lay-up for the Lady Rebels (12-2) with 2:06 left to end a 5:19 scoring drought.
Keiryn Swenson led all scorers with 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting, including 4-of-9 from 3-point range. Jessica Jackson recorded her second straight double-double, the 15th of her career, with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Jailyn Mason also tallied her second consecutive double-double, finishing with 10 points and 10 assists. Alecia Cooley added 12 points.
Ole Miss held a decisive advantage inside, outrebounding Arkansas 50-33, including 18-6 on the offensive glass. They outscored Arkansas 44-20 in points in the paint. The Lady Rebels outscored the Razorbacks 30-15 in the third quarter, including an 11-0 run in the period.
Arkansas returns home for back-to-back home games, beginning with its SEC home opener against No. 5 Mississippi State on Thursday night with a tip-off set for 7 p.m.
Key Run
After Arkansas had pulled to within two, 34-32, with 8:02 left in the third quarter, Ole Miss answered with a 16-3 run, including 11 straight to end the run, to lead 50-35 with 3:32 left. Ole Miss was 7-of-9 from the floor, while Arkansas was 1-of-8 from the floor during that span.
Notable
• Arkansas saw its two-game win streak against Ole Miss snapped and is now 16-26 all-time against Ole Miss, including 2-16 in games played in Oxford.
• Arkansas is now 4-21 in SEC openers, since joining the league for the 1991-92 season. Arkansas last won an SEC opener during the 2005-06 season.
• Arkansas used the same lineup from its 101-40 win over Houston Baptist on Wednesday: Jailyn Mason, Devin Cosper, Keiryn Swenson, Bailey Zimmerman and Jessica Jackson.
• Arkansas was held to a season low for first-quarter points (8) and tied for a season low for first-half points (26). The 30 points allowed by Arkansas were the most allowed since changing to quarters.
• Arkansas and Ole Miss combined for 53 first-half points, 33.9 percent shooting from the field and 11.1 percent shooting from 3-point range. Both Arkansas (26) and Ole Miss (27) set season lows for first-half points.
• Jessica Jackson has scored in double figures in all 14 games this season, finishing with 11 points, and is averaging a team-best 17.6 points per game.
• Jailyn Mason scored in double figures for the third straight game and recorded a double-double for the second straight game. She has 24 assists and just two turnovers in 109 minutes over the last three games.
• Keiryn Swenson scored 20-plus points for the second straight game and scored in double figures for the seventh time this season, tied for the second-most on the team.
• Alecia Cooley scored in double figures for the third straight game, finishing with 12 points in her second consecutive game off the bench. She has seven games in double figures, tied for the second-most on the team.
• Arkansas was outrebounded 50-33 and outscored 44-20 in points in the paint and 16-6 in second-chance points.
Up Next
Arkansas returns home for back-to-back home games against No. 5 Mississippi State on Thursday and LSU on Jan. 8. The Razorbacks play four of their first seven SEC games at home in Bud Walton Arena.
Bless Jeff Long’s heart, he just really may not get it with Hog fans
Either Jeff Long can’t really read the Arkansas football fan base or, well, he just doesn’t care.
In what is becoming something some view as a trend, Long took to Twitter on Sunday and tried to calm the waters of discontent after the Razorbacks’ meltdown in their last two games against Missouri and Virginia Tech.
And promptly opened a door he may not be able to close easily.
Razorback Nation I reject notion the sky is falling! We are strong & will make changes to become stronger!We will fight we will #Neveryield!
— Jeff Long (@jefflongUA) January 1, 2017
While that may have sounded like a good idea before hitting the final button to submit it, you have to wonder if he really believes it. Fans wasted little time responding.
@jefflongUA seriously how much worse does it have to get to fire @BretBielema hog nation has had enough of this guy #BelkBowl
— Cody (@codylastname) December 30, 2016
Long’s marketing gadgets may be backfiring as well, which was something predicted in these quarters when they came out with the hashtags #NeverYield and #Uncommon.
Several fans took to Twitter to point out that yielding is becoming a pattern in football the fans are starting to tire of.
Legacy of @BretBielema & @jefflongUA this predates smith & Enos. @ArkRazorbacks no blame shifting attempts. 25-26 4 year span #secjoke pic.twitter.com/qEzxxpO59M
— Secluded Solid (@f00zz26) January 1, 2017
As for the #Uncommon tag, well, the last four years of Razorback sports in football and basketball have indeed been very mediocre, which some could argue is very common.
When the Hogs blew a 24-7 lead at Missouri, the initial reaction was to just chalk it up as one of those things that happen. Then folks started looking at the history over Bret Bielema’s tenure.
Blowing second half leads is not unusual.
Having it happen again in the Belk Bowl, combined with a player shoplifting from the title sponsor’s store and a player ejected for spitting on another player has made the seat upon which Bielema sits suddenly become very warm.
One problem is there doesn’t appear to be any hope of a quick fix.
The other problem is Long seems to be fairly content with mediocrity. Standing three feet away from him at the end of the Little Rock embarrassment against Toledo in 2015, one expected to see something.
Instead, Long turned and walked back up the tunnel to the locker room … quickly. No, he didn’t wait to stand by his coach. You didn’t expect him to walk on the War Memorial Stadium field and fire him on the spot, but you’d think he’d at least stand by Bielema.
When it was compounded by a loss the next week against Texas Tech, there were still no public demands made from Long, who tends to shy away from that sort of thing which some perceive as weakness.
He was saved by the Hogs taking advantage of some luck and fortunate scheduling to scramble to a 5-3 league mark and a 7-5 finish.
This year’s record was also 7-5, but just 3-5 in the league and with the top three offensive playmakers gone due to graduation, it’s reasonable to have questions about next year.
Long has said in the past that wins and losses weren’t the most important things in an athletic program, which sounds all fluffy and nice, but fans don’t care about all that other stuff if there aren’t considerably more wins than losses.
At some point you start to sound like the Texas Longhorns, who brag about their revenue, but haven’t done anything in wins and losses, which is starting to wake up some of the longtime boosters over there.
The excuse will be given that Bielema has a $15.4 million buyout, which is true. But that doesn’t mean the UA has to be prepared to write a check on the dismissal date.
It can be strung out through 2020 and is payable every month on the last day of the month. While the overall number is rather large, it is manageable, especially considering it is reduced by whatever job he took next.
Having said that, any thoughts of firing Bielema now are unreasonable. He’ll get one more year.
But there will have to be changes made, with assistants, schemes and approach.
Most importantly there has to be a change in the culture.
While all of the off-the-cuff comments, laid-back dress and flip-flops are cute, it doesn’t project an air of seriousness in and around the football program unless it’s winning and competing for championships.
The fans don’t want to hear what Bielema did at Wisconsin. Considering the Badgers have gotten better since Bielema left doesn’t help his argument by invoking past history.
Make no mistake about it, the spotlight is fixing to be pointed at the football program over the next 12 months. Nothing will matter to most of the fans other than the number of wins.
How Long reacts to that is also going to be in the spotlight.
Long has 30 days from the end of the Belk Bowl to provide a written analysis to Bielema. It’s doubtful we’ll ever see that letter.
Let’s just hope it wasn’t what Long tweeted.
Four years without seriously competing for a championship is too long.
Mitchell a wasted four-star recruit under Hogs’ pro-style offense
We’ll never know how good Duwop Mitchell could have been as a quarterback in the SEC.
The four-star recruit from Cedar Creek, NJ, never really fit anywhere for the Razorbacks. He was a spread quarterback in high school, but played at running back, wide receiver, special teams and returning punts.
Now he’s going back home.
Mitchell announced he’s transferring to Rutgers to play his final year of eligibility for former Arkansas defensive coordinator Chris Ash.
He will be a graduate transfer and eligible immediately.
In high school, Mitchell was rated as a four star dual threat quarterback by 247Sports, checking in as the No. 321 player in the country, No. 12 quarterback in the country and No. 12 recruit in the state of New Jersey.
He originally committed to Arkansas over offers from Rutgers, UNC, Iowa, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse and several other programs.
At Arkansas, Mitchell was immediately moved from quarterback to running back, where he has seen limited action throughout his career.
He redshirted his freshman year, and in his redshirt freshman year he had six carries for 58 yards while also playing on the kick coverage and punt coverage teams.
As a sophomore, he had four carries for 29 yards while also catching six passes for 84 yards and scoring his only college touchdown. Again, he also played on special teams.
As a junior, he was expected to have a breakout campaign, but that never happened, as he played in just three games carrying the ball seven times for 18 yards.
From 247Sports.com:
Ultimately, Mitchell was underused in Brett Bielema’s pro-style offense and should be able to make a bigger impact in Rutgers power spread. He has great agility and quickness and is very versatile. Expect him to line up all over the field next year, at running back, slot receiver, kick returner, punt returner, and on the coverage units for both punts and kickoffs.
National picture of Bielema starting to fade after Belk Bowl collapse
It didn’t take long after Arkansas’ historic collapse in the Belk Bowl on Thursday night for the national media to start weighing in.
Clay Travis at OutKicktheCoverage.com had an interesting take:
I think the way the Razorbacks lost coupled with a senior tight end getting popped for stealing from Belk in the Belk Bowl — seriously, this is the best viral marketing in Belk Bowl history — it’s clear that Bret Bielema, who is now 25-26 and 10-22 in the SEC after four years, is not the answer if your goal is to compete for championships
Now, if your goal is to go 7-5 or 8-4 and win half of your SEC games and every four or five years contend for the SEC West, I think Bielema can pull that off. But anything more than that isn’t happening. Arkansas’s problem is two fold: 1. Bielema has a 15 million buyout and 2. who else can you hire that’s definitely better?
I think Bielema would be a good coach in the Big Ten — where we already know he won big at Wisconsin — or the Big 12. But the problem is he’s at Arkansas and right now the Razorbacks are the 8th or 9th best job in the SEC. (Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M, LSU, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida are all definitely better jobs. And South Carolina, Missouri and Ole Miss are roughly equivalent jobs. The only schools in the SEC that Arkansas is definitely a better job than are Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt.)
So if you’re going to win big at Arkansas you need to have a coach who either has a schematic coaching advantage, like Bobby Petrino, or one who recruits consistent top ten talent. Bielema offers neither of these. So how is Bielema ever winning at a high level at Arkansas?
It’s simple, he isn’t.
But who would definitely do better at Arkansas? I’m not sure there’s an easy answer.
Travis, who also does a national morning radio show on Fox Sports Radio, is saying the same thing a lot of Arkansas fans are muttering right now on various message boards.
You can read Travis’ blog here (there is adult language for those who might find that offensive).
The harsh reality of what to expect from Hogs going forward
The guessing game on Arkansas’ record next year started for many fans before the post-mortem on the Belk Bowl loss.
That’s normal.
Stepping back and looking at it, the outlook for the future is, well, grim.
The three top receivers on the team are gone. While the Hogs have gotten a pair of wide receivers from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, the best wideout on that team signed at Central Arkansas.
The last time the Razorbacks lost their top three receivers to graduation and had a senior quarterback coming back was 2012.
Dan Skipper finally ran out of eligibility. Some will applaud that, but he was the best lineman on the team and filling his left tackle spot is not going to be easy.
While many of the talking heads who don’t look at anything other than well-worn propaganda have spewed the line that the Hogs are a running team. No they aren’t. They are a passing team because they don’t have the linemen to run the ball consistently. Just over 61 percent of their yardage came through the air.
With four years in the book, it’s clear Bielema is out of his element at Arkansas. Making blowhard claims, crying at the drop of the hat and looking like a bum in flip-flops at the office has worn thin.
So has references to what he did at Wisconsin. Considering that the Badgers have actually improved since Bielema left is a sign that maybe Barry Alvarez had something to do with it. Even in basketball, too.
Wisconsin has become what Arkansas was in the late 1970’s through the 1980’s with football and basketball competing for national championships.
Arkansas has fallen to almost laughingstock status in the SEC in football and basketball.
Maybe Jeff Long thought hiring a coach like Bielema back in 2012 — a coach that liked to do the same things Nick Saban was doing at Alabama — was the way to go.
He should have called around. That doesn’t work.
Maybe the scariest part of that whole scenario is that Long couldn’t see that or didn’t ask anyone. To do what Saban is doing at Alabama can’t be accomplished in his way … Arkansas has never recruited at the level the Tide does.
The only way Arkansas can win at a big-time level is either take recruiting to a level that is light years ahead of what has happened in the last couple of decades or have a coaching scheme that works. Petrino proved that can work.
At a time when the SEC coaching talent is at an all-time league low, the Hogs are stuck at the lower part of that ladder.
With a football coach that has made such ridiculous statements like telling Texas high school coaches, “If you don’t play with a fullback, we’ll kick your ass. If you throw it 70 times a game, we’ll kick your ass.”
That made its way through the coaching circles rather quickly and even made it over to Arkansas coaches. Considering that pretty much was looking down his nose at over 90 percent of high school coaches, the lack of success in recruiting isn’t surprising.
He even criticized the hurry-up, no-huddle offenses, even making up supporting data out of thin air. At the time, Saban thought he shared the view.
Now Saban has incorporated tempo and a dual-threat quarterback.
“I looked at what types of offenses gave us the most trouble and incorporated that into our scheme,” he said.
At times this season, Bielema has looked completely bewildered during games. While he is goofy at times and often engages his mouth before his brain, he’s not a complete idiot.
But he may be stubborn.
It’s interesting to see these national media types talk about how Bielema “was successful recruiting players to his system and coaching them up at Wisconsin.” The implication is he can do the same thing at Arkansas.
In reality, he couldn’t do it at Wisconsin today.
College football has changed dramatically in the last five years, especially on offense. Time of possession, controlling the ball and balance have been replaced with run-pass options, scoring points and taking what the defense gives you.
We’ll hear in the offseason how the Hogs scored the second most points on Alabama this year. True, but the last 13 points came against the backups. Remember, the Tide led 35-17 at halftime of that game and still won by three touchdowns coasting in the second half.
Bielema is not at the crossroads in this offseason. That was last year after the win over Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl.
They went backwards this season.
And it’s hard to find a rational way to see improvement next year. The Hogs will play two nonconference games, then get their bye week followed by 10 straight weeks of play, eight against league opponents.
Bielema’s seat is hot now.
This time next year could see flames.
Did getting caught shoplifting hurt Sprinkle’s status in NFL Draft?
ESPN talks about Arkansas tight end Jeremy Sprinkle’s draft status after getting arrested for shoplifting at the Belk Bowl.
Anderson on Hogs’ opening SEC play with home loss to Gators
Video from WholeHogSports.com
After four complete seasons, Hogs haven’t made much improvement
Bret Bielema is about to find out the limit on patience of the Razorback fans.
Maybe he knows it. After an epic meltdown in the Belk Bowl against Virginia Tech on Thursday night, if he doesn’t, the guess here is he’ll figure it out pretty quickly.
“It’s not OK to accept this,” he said later.
Bielema’s seat was warm after what was the previous meltdown — against Missouri in the final game of the year when the Hogs blew a 24-7 halftime lead.
But this one was worse. It was 24-0 and the Hokies weren’t showing many signs of particularly caring.
Bielema told ESPN Radio on his way to the locker room at halftime that, “we’ll play a four-quarter game … I guarantee it”
It only sounds good later if it works. When it doesn’t, there’s usually a whole string of questions that have to be answered.
“I’m very disappointed,” was his answer later. “I apologize to the fans who made the trip that we couldn’t close this thing out.”
Now he’s going to have to do it on a seat that’s going to get progressively hotter.
When you get helicopter pimped-slapped in the second half of your last two games after leading by 17 and 24, yeah, there’s going to be questions.
Part of the problem is a lack of depth on the team. There are some good players on the roster, but not enough. The dropoff from the first to the second team is just too great.
Steve Spurrier said it back in 2013 after giving up an opening scoring drive in Fayetteville, then watching his Gamecocks roll off 51 unanswered points.
“Bret’s just going to have to recruit his way out of it,” he said then.
The problem is Bielema hasn’t.
His best class was his first. The best players from that class went early to the NFL and they didn’t have enough playmakers ready to go behind them.
Bielema simply hasn’t picked up any ground in recruiting. In the latest 247Sports.com composite rankings, the Hogs average No. 22 in the country.
While that sounds decent on the surface, it’s not making up ground. In the SEC, they rank 10th. In the SEC West, they are sixth, ahead of only Ole Miss who is paying the price for their 2013 and 2016 classes from the NCAA.
Bielema likes to compare things at Arkansas to his time at Wisconsin in the Big 10. While it makes for a good soundbite on TV and sports radio, causing the talking heads to nod and impart that he’s capable of repeating that at Arkansas, it’s not accurate.
It won’t work at Arkansas.
With the Badgers, there was only one or two big games a year Bielema had against teams that recruited better than he did. In the SEC, he plays against five or six teams every year in his own division that are out-recruiting him.
No one can coach players up enough to win in that situation. To compare the two situations is basically lying to the fan base.
While the Big 10 this year may be the best conference, top to bottom, in college football it wasn’t two years ago, much less when Bielema was there.
Of his three Rose Bowl teams he had, one they completely backed in (2012 when Ohio State and Penn State finished ahead of the Badgers, but were ineligible for postseason).
When those teams got to the Rose Bowl, they lost. All three of Bielema’s Rose Bowl teams lost (although he wasn’t coaching the last one after the 2012 season because he was in Fayetteville).
In fact, his bowl record was 2-4 at Wisconsin. Now it’s 4-5 and two of those wins came at Arkansas.
We were told it was a rebuilding project. Some in Fayetteville with the UA said it was a five-year job. If they believed it, then they were either sadly out of touch with the world of college football today or flat-out lying to themselves.
It doesn’t take that long. You can either recruit winning players or you can’t and you know by the third year.
Some of the Hog faithful want it both ways, though.
When Bobby Petrino replaced Houston Nutt in December 2007, many in the media were already making excuses about the total lack of players he inherited.
In three years he had the Hogs in the Sugar Bowl and relevant in the SEC and national pictures.
Of course, the excuses for Bielema are what he inherited in December 2012 was worse.
And, while we’re talking about answering questions, there are a few for Jeff Long, too.
Long’s contract extension for Bielema after the Texas Bowl win has put Arkansas in a position where it’s tough to do anything for at least two years.
With a $15.4 million buyout through the end of next year, then an $11.7 million buyout through 2018, Bielema has job security, particularly with an athletic director that doesn’t seem as concerned about wins and losses as he does the finances.
Schools worried more about finances than wins and championships are usually in the Big 12, although Texas DID just bite the bullet and fire Charlie Strong after just three seasons.
In the SEC, coaches winning 72 percent of their games are run off and, in at least one example, also causing the athletic director and president of the university to be run off as well.
Is it time for Arkansas to figure out if it wants to play for championships?
Or to just make money?
Arkansas drops conference opener to Florida in late game, 81-72
Arkansas fell to 11-2 (0-1) on the season after dropping its SEC opener inside Bud Walton Arena on Thursday night, 81-72, to the Florida Gators.
In the opening period, Florida had an answer for every Arkansas basket. The Razorbacks were only able to build a three point lead, before the Gators took it into the halftime break up, 44-35.
Daryl Macon lead the Razorbacks in the first half with 12 points, after scoring nine of Arkansas’ first 12 points, sinking his first three shots from behind the arc in a span of one minute, 23 seconds. Moses Kingsley was all over the boards in the opening frame, pulling down seven first-half rebounds.
Arkansas opened the second half on a 7-1 run to cut the deficit to three, but the Razorbacks were unable to fight off the Gators. Florida built a 16 point lead late in the second half and Arkansas could not recover.
Macon finished with a game-high 22 points, his second 20-point effort of the season, to make it six straight games scoring in double figures. The Little Rock native also recorded four rebounds.
The Southeastern Conference’s active leader in double-doubles, Kingsley recorded his third of the season, 20th of his career with a 13 point, 14 rebound effort. The big man also had four swats to extend his streak to 43 of the last 46 games with a blocked shot, including multiple blocks in nine this season.
The Razorbacks continue to get good production from the bench as Arkansas has recorded 20-plus points in nine straight games, after a 20 point performance against the Gators. Arkansas has yet to trail in bench points in that nine-game stretch.
Anton Beard led all scorers off the bench with a 10 point performance, scoring in double figures in three straight contests.
UP NEXT
Arkansas will go on the road for its next two games as the Razorbacks travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, to face the Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday, Jan. 3 at 5:30 p.m. CT on the SEC Network. The Razorbacks will conclude their two game road trip by playing the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
Bielema talks with media after Belk Bowl loss to Hokies
Video from WholeHogSports.com
