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UA confirms sophomore guard Jordan Danberry has left Razorbacks women’s team

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Sophomore guard Jordan Danberry, one of six players who took a knee during the national anthem earlier this month, has left the Arkansas women’s basketball team six games into the season.

There is no clear answer why she left, but a spokesperson for the UA confirmed the report Tuesday. Coach Jimmy Dykes was not available for comment.

Danberry was averaging 4.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game for the Razorbacks.

After the incident that drew criticism from much of the state, Danberry said the following week she knelt because of “social injustice that we recognize in our society,” but stood for the anthem in subsequent games.

As a freshman last season, Danberry played in all 30 games and started 13 times. She led the team with 70 assists and averaged 6.7 points per game.

Danberry had not started any of the six games this season for the Razorbacks, who are coming off two wins at the Nugget Classic in Reno, Nev. They are scheduled to play at Tulsa on Wednesday.

ESPN rated Danberry a five-star recruit out of Conway High School and she was the Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior.

Hogs return to form, downing Mount St. Mary’s behind

Andy Hodges
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Arkansas improved to 4-1 on the season with a 89-76 win over the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers on Monday night inside Bud Walton Arena.

Arkansas improves to 4-1 to start the season for the 10th time in the last 14 years, while Mount St. Mary’s falls to 1-7 on the year.

The win marks the 50th victory against unranked non-conference opponents in Bud Walton Arena under coach Mike Anderson, moving to 50-1 in such games.

The Razorbacks saw two new faces in the starting lineup Monday night as Anton Beard recorded his first start of the season, 18th of his career, while Manuale Watkins started for the first time this season and the 10th time in his career.

Arkansas had five players score in double figures with Daryl Macon leading the way with 15 points. Jaylen Barford and Dustin Thomas finished with 13 each, while Dusty Hannahs tallied 12 and Anton Beard added 11. The Razorbacks have had four or more players score in double figures in four of the first five games this season. Hannahs has now scored in double figures in 13 straight games dating back to last season.

Moses Kingsley entered the game ranked second in the nation in blocks per game and added to that total in the second half as he finished a point shy of his second straight double-double with nine points and 13 rebounds.

The Razorbacks outscored Mount St. Mary’s 21-9 in transition to improve their streak of tying or leading their opponents in fast break points to 10 straight games. Arkansas has also outscored its opponents in the paint in six straight games dating back to last season after outscoring the Mountaineers 48-34. The Razorbacks capitalized on Mount St. Mary’s turnovers, turning 11 miscues into 18 points the other way.

QUOTABLES
“Some of the things I wanted to see in his particular game, I saw. We cleaned up our turnovers and talked about sharing the basketball and I thought we did a much better job at that. We played a lot of guys and got efficient minutes out of them. I thought Dustin Thomas was the highlight guy in the first half. He was on the receiving end of a lot of nice passes, rolled to the basket and was able to finish around the basket. It was good to see us attack inside.” — coach Mike Anderson

“Tonight, we played with a lot more confidence on the offensive end. We played our game and we weren’t thinking about it. Last week, when we played Minnesota, we were thinking about our shots and hesitating. Tonight, we went out there and played with a lot of energy and played our game and offensively good things happened for us.” — junior guard Daryl Macon

UP NEXT
The Razorbacks will play their second game of a five-game homestand on Thursday, Dec. 1, hosting Stephen F. Austin at 8 p.m. inside Bud Walton Arena. The non-conference showdown will be televised on SEC Network.

Anderson talks about Hogs’ win over Mount St. Mary’s

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Sprinkle accepts invitation to play in Senior Bowl in January

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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MOBILE, Ala. — Arkansas tight end Jeremy Sprinkle has accepted an invitation to play in the 68th annual Reese’s Senior Bowl game on Jan. 28, 2017 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, the bowl announced Monday.

Sprinkle becomes the second Arkansas player this year to accept an invitation to the Senior Bowl, joining punter Toby Baker who was among the first dozen players from around the nation to accept on Nov. 14.

Arkansas has had at least one player participate in the Senior Bowl each of the last 10 seasons, and 20 Razorbacks have played in the game during that span.

Sprinkle has caught 33 passes for 380 yards and four touchdowns this season. He ranks fourth in both receptions and receiving yards and is tied for second in touchdown catches among SEC tight ends.

For his career, Sprinkle has made 71 receptions for 921 yards and is Arkansas’ all-time leader in touchdown receptions by a tight end with 11. Of his 71 career catches, 47 have resulted in either a first down or touchdown for a conversion rate of 66.2 percent.

Baker, a Burlsworth Trophy semifinalist, has punted 50 times for 2,228 yards, ranking fourth in the SEC and 14th nationally with a 44.56 average.

He’s boomed 19 punts 50 yards or longer, including a career-best 60-yarder last Friday at Missouri that was downed at the 1-yard line. In addition, he’s showcased his accuracy, placing 19 punts inside the 20-yard line with only three touchbacks. Of his 50 punts, 17 have been returned, while 20 have been fair caught.

His 19 punts of 50-plus yards are 13 more than his career total entering the season. The Memphis, Tennessee, native has pinned at least one punt inside the 20 in 12 straight games he’s punted in dating back to last season.

Senior Bowl practices will begin on Jan. 23. The game will kick off at 1:30 p.m. CT on Jan. 28. ESPN2 and NFL Network will broadcast live from the practices and NFL Network will carry the game.

Bielema may stick with status quo, which likely will have similar results

Andy Hodges
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After watching his team fall on it’s face in the second half against Missouri, some asked Arkansas’ Bret Bielema if he was planning any staff changes.

Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was close enough to get it all:

Bielema specifically was asked by a reporter whether he would be evaluate his staff during the Razorbacks’ bowl preparations.

“Evaluating our staff?” Bielema said. “You mean am I going to make changes?”

Yes, the reporter replied.

“No,” Bielema said.

But do you start the evaluation process?

“Well, you always do a season review obviously before the bowl game,” Bielema said. “And obviously after the final game, which will be our bowl game, you always take self-inventory as a head coach. You always make evaluations and make decisions. You sit down and talk to your coaches.

“I can’t predict what’s going to happen in the world of college football, but I know what we’re going to do.”

Another reporter asked Bielema whether he’ll make staff changes after the bowl game?

“I don’t plan on making changes,” Bielema said.

While you wouldn’t expect a coach to announce the changes right after a game, if he gave himself a lot of wiggle room you really can’t complain.

A flat-out rejection of the idea was a little surprising.

Considering Bielema doesn’t make changes, there’s really only a few reasons why:

• He doesn’t see a problem that’s due to coaching. In other words, it’s a shortfall of talent. The problem with that is there is absolutely no ground being gained on the rest of the SEC West. In fact, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, in the top five in this recruiting cycle, four are from the SEC West. The Razorbacks currently rank 10th in the league and sixth in the West, ahead of the only school bogged down in a never-ending NCAA investigation.

• Bielema is loyal to his assistants. That has been the downfall of more than one coach for the Hogs. A head coach is only as good as his assistants because, quite frankly, they do most of the work.

• He’s convinced himself the program is still moving upward. We covered this in another story, but the cold, hard truth is they are not. This year saw Bielema’s program go backwards in the SEC.

• Bielema just flat-out didn’t want to talk about it. This one might be closer to the truth. No coach is going to throw his staff under the bus immediately after a loss. In many ways it’s not fair to ask it then, but it is a question that is going to be asked.

• He doesn’t grasp the situation. If he thinks the cupboard was bare when he came in, most felt Bobby Petrino inherited worse back in 2008. That’s a subject that can be debated for about a week or so.

Bielema has got to do some things to get the football program jump-started, according to people far more familiar with how to do these things than me:

• Recruiting has to improve. Not by just a little bit here and there. Four of your division opponents are in the first 11 right now while the Hogs’ current commitments rank 24th. You’ve got to make a leap and get a whole lot faster in a hurry.

The inevitable result is you aren’t going to make up any ground. The only way to close a gap that large is by getting some highly-rated junior college players.

• Change your approach. With Ed Orgeron being hired at LSU and saying you have to have a spread offense with dual-threat quarterbacks, that should get your attention. He was a pro-style, run-first coach and in the past vowed to never change.

While Arkansas’ current style may be unique, that doesn’t matter if the other side is signing bushels of fast defenders who run around your slow, clumsy offensive linemen.

Bielema may think sticking to what he’s done the last four years is the way to go. That’s certainly his decision and worked for him, as we’ve been told, in the Big 10.

Only thing is that’s like comparing winning wagon races with Clydesdales and applying the same thought process to running with thoroughbreds in the SEC.

And, in case you weren’t aware, no Clydesdale has ever won the Kentucky Derby.

Oh, and the only Big 10 team to win a national title since 2002 was Ohio State in 2014. With a spread offense and the speed to compete with an SEC team.

No, Bret may not replace any assistants.

But the guess here is some will get job offers to go elsewhere. With a strong recommendation from Bielema.

Of course. Problem solved.

 

Loss to Tigers shows Hogs haven’t really gotten out of middle of the pack

Andy Hodges
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Nobody expected Arkansas to lose at Missouri on Saturday.

If there was any question previous to today, it was put to rest when Tigers linebacker Eric Beisel couldn’t pronounce the name of Arkansas correctly, then more or less challenged the Razorbacks.

He then proceeded to have eight tackles in the Tigers’ 28-24 win Friday, including six of them solo. Everybody apologized, but it may have fired up Beisel more than the Hogs.

That’s just one of the wrinkles to a game that exposed a lot of Arkansas’ problems that have been bubbling near the surface for most of the year.

And now, it’s time for reflection and examination.

Despite what Bret Bielema and some were saying this was not a year of progress. The talking heads on TV and radio say that because they’re just looking at the won-loss schedule and giving you affirmation, not information.

Arkansas had four gimme wins, two of them that were much closer than they should have been. The wins over Louisiana Tech and TCU early showed this team might not be that far ahead of last year.

It turns out it’s not as good.

The final record will show 7-5, the same as last season, which could have been anywhere from 9-3 to 5-7. It was that wild in games against Toledo, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Auburn, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

Let’s face it, there’s seven games that could have gone either way, affecting the final record. But it is what it is and that’s what counts.

But — and this is the most important stat — the Razorbacks were 5-3 in the SEC last season, with losses only to Alabama, Texas A&M and Mississippi State. You could easily see a couple of plays that could have made that 7-1.

Fast-forward to this season and the Hogs’ finish of 3-5 in league play. Again, where you finish in the league should be the only barometer of whether you’re making progress or not.

There’s not a lot of ambiguity in there, either. With the exception of the Missouri game, the Hogs were blown out four times in the league and their conference wins were not really in doubt in the fourth quarter.

The only quality league win was over a Florida team that played four quarters like Arkansas did the second half against the Tigers.

Here are the straight-forward numbers of where the Hogs’ program sits four years into the Bielema era:

SEC Record: 10-22. At this same point, Bobby Petrino and Houston Nutt were both 17-15 after four years as a sidenote, but they were both getting to play an extra game against an SEC East opponent.

SEC West: 7-17. Throw out the first season at 0-6 and you’re still 7-11.

Overall Record: 25-25.

November Record: 7-9 overall, 7-5 over last three seasons. Pick the side of .500 you like.

This is not a call to fire anybody. That’s something others decide, using whatever criteria they like.

But you have to wonder what the expectations are these days.

Some of us old-timers remember when eight wins a season had coaches in a dead panic over whether they would be fired or not. Anything less than being in contention for a league championship in November every season was not acceptable.

It wasn’t that long ago that Arkansas was in a position of putting up double-digit wins. They still finished third in their own division when the smoke cleared, but at least it was close enough to be there if somebody fell apart in November.

Over the last 10 years, Arkansas has finished tied for second one time (2010), third (2011), tied for third twice (2015, 2007), tied for fourth twice (2009, 2008), tied for fifth (2016), sixth (2012) and two seventh-place finishes (2014, 2013).

The averaging finishing position is 4.5, just below the middle of the pack.

It was former athletics director John Barnhill nearly 60 years who said, “teams are remembered less for what they accomplish in November than what was expected of them in August.”

That means, simply, the November result better match the August guessing or it’s an uncomfortable winter.

Or at least it used to be.

The Razorbacks are an SEC program mired in the middle of the pack in the West.

And the guess here is until expectations change, the results won’t.

Spinning a shocking loss to Tigers will be hard for Hogs to do

Andy Hodges
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To his credit, Bret Bielema wasn’t trying to control the spin Saturday evening after a second-half collapse allowed Missouri to come away with a shocking 28-24 win over Arkansas.

That will come later. You can count on that.

As he usually is, Bielema was pretty straight-forward.

“One (thing) that was very, very obvious was a tale of two halves,” he said later.

Yes, it was very obvious. The Razorbacks led 24-7 at halftime. The Tigers’ biggest boost in the first half was a 44-yard field goal attempt by Adam McFain that hooked left of the uprights.

Yeah, the Hogs dominated the first half that badly. Oh, they did give up an 82-yard run by Missouri wide receiver Johnathon Johnson down the left sideline. Only a deep angle by Ryan Pulley kept it from being a 92-yard scoring play.

The Tigers scored when running back Ish Witter dropped the ball before crossing the goal and, since the Hogs’ defenders were looking at each other while Missouri celebrated, J’Mon Johnson reached down to get the ball that was lazily rolling around and got a touchdown for his effort.

But that was it for the Tigers in the first half. You could see the potential problem looming as Missouri’s wide receivers kept getting open on deep patterns down the sideline but quarterback Drew Lock missed some and the receivers dropped some.

You got the idea if they started clicking it was going to be trouble.

Missouri took the second-half kickoff and drove 63 yards in nine plays to cut the lead to 10, 24-14.

No problem, right?

Arkansas then proceeded to drive to the Tigers’ 3, but another uh-oh appeared. Austin Allen’s third-down pass was hurried and Cale Garrett intercepted in the end zone and brought it out to the 4.

Still, no worry. The Razorbacks’ defense had Missouri set up to punt from the end zone, except the Tigers ran a fake punt and got it out to their own 21. Lock then hit two passes, including a 67-yarder to Johnson, and it was suddenly 24-21 with the entire fourth quarter left to play.

Missouri scored on it’s first possession of the second half after a 49-yard pass completion to Moore set up three straight runs by Nate Strong to put the Tigers on top, 28-24 with 12:48 to go.

From there, Missouri’s defense was hanging on by it’s fingernails. Meanwhile, Arkansas couldn’t get a big play when it needed one and ended up getting bogged down in the red zone twice.

The result, well, was not what the folks in Hog Country expected.

“(We) felt like we were going to come back and do what we did in the first half,” Allen said in the initial post-mortem later. “But it just didn’t happen.”

Whatever Tigers coach Barry Odom said at halftime worked.

Whatever Bielema said didn’t.

“We didn’t match the intensity that we needed to in the second half,” Bielema said.

In the SEC, regardless who you’re playing, that’s a problem.

“I don’t care what the records are, you can throw that out the window; it’s about who executes,” Bielema said. “Give credit to Missouri. Obviously they responded well in the second half.”

Well, yes, and the result will keep the radio talk shows going for at least a few weeks.

Missouri stuns Hogs with second-half comeback for 28-24 upset

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Drew Lock completed 16 of 26 passes for 268 yards and a touchdown, and Missouri scored 21 unanswered second-half points in a 28-24 victory over Arkansas 28-24 on Friday.

Austin Allen led Arkansas on a 10-play drive on its final possession, but he was hurried on fourth-and-goal from the 20 and was whistled for intentional grounding.

J’Mon Moore caught six passes for 135 yards, becoming the only 1,000-yard receiver this season for Missouri (4-8, 2-6 Southeastern Conference). Moore was also credited with a rushing touchdown after picking up a ball that running back Ish Witter dropped prior to crossing the goal line.

Witter had just five carries for 12 yards, but an early injury gave way to Nate Strong as the primary ball carrier. Strong finished with 17 carries for 52 yards and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead score with 12:48 remaining.

Allen was 24 of 39 for 348 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions for Arkansas (7-5, 3-5). Drew Morgan had six catches for 54 yards, and Keon Hatcher caught three passes for 105 yards.

Arkansas took a 7-0 lead in the first minute after a 66-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage set up a 1-yard touchdown by Rawleigh Williams. By halftime, the Razorbacks led 24-7 and had outgained Missouri by nearly 200 yards.

TAKEAWAYS

Arkansas: In the first half, Williams rushed 12 times for 68 yards and a touchdown, and Whaley had eight carries for 54 yards and a score. In the second half, the two were held to 49 yards. After converting 7 of 10 third-down attempts in the first half, the Razorbacks were 2 of 7 on third down in the second half.

Missouri: The Tigers struggled defensively in the first half, surrendering 318 total yards. In the second half, Missouri had six tackles for a loss and forced two interceptions in the red zone, one of which set up a touchdown. The Tigers finished with 11 tackles for loss and four sacks.

UP NEXT

Arkansas will await bowl selection, marking the third consecutive season the Razorbacks have attained bowl eligibility. They defeated Kansas State 45-23 in the 2016 Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2.

Williams leads Hogs to seventh win, rolling past Bulldogs

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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STARKVILLE, Miss. — Sophomore running back Rawleigh Williams had a career performance Saturday night in Davis-Wade Stadium, rushing for 205 yards and four touchdowns and passing for a touchdown to lead Arkansas to a 58-42 win over Mississippi State for its seventh win of the year.

Williams’ performance will go down as one of the best under current head coach Bret Bielema as he is the first Razorback player to rush for three or more touchdowns and pass for one touchdown since Darren McFadden against LSU in 2007.

Williams’ yards on the ground and rushing touchdowns were easily new career-highs, while his passing touchdown in the third quarter to Austin Cantrell was his first of his career.

Overall, the Hogs were able to endure some success by Bulldogs’ quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, who ran for four scores of his own and passed for two, but with each Mississippi State touchdown, Arkansas responded.

Nine of the Razorbacks’ 11 possessions resulted in either a touchdown or a field goal with Williams responsible for five of those scores. Arkansas didn’t have to punt, either, for the second time this season.

As a team, Arkansas put up 661 yards of offense, the fourth highest in a game in school history and highest ever in an SEC game.

Quarterback Austin Allen was strong through the air, completing 18-of-25 passing for 303 yards and two touchdowns. Wide receivers Drew Morgan and Keon Hatcher combined for 10 catches for 156 yards and two touchdowns from Hatcher, but it was the run game that had the Hogs rolling all night.

How It Went Down

The Hogs set the tone early with the ground game, grinding out 134 yards in the first quarter, 122 coming from Williams on four carries. The Dallas native broke through on the Hogs’ second play from scrimmage to open the game, going for 72 yards for the touchdown. It was his longest run of his career and second longest run for Arkansas this season.

Arkansas and Mississippi State traded scores throughout the entire first frame as Williams had both of Arkansas’ scores and Fitzgerald had both for Mississippi State. Williams’ second touchdown of the game was another long run as he capped another two-play, 70+ yard drive with a 42-yard run.

The second quarter was where the Hogs took control.

Three times Arkansas found the end zone, twice on the back of Williams as the Razorbacks busted open a 38-14 lead at the break. In just the first half, Williams had already rushed for 122 yards and four touchdowns, giving him his sixth 100-yard game this season, seventh of his career.

Mississippi State tried mounting a second-half comeback, scoring four times in the final 30 minutes, but with each Bulldog score, Arkansas had a score of its own.

The Razorbacks utilized some trickery for their only score of the third quarter. In what was its longest drive of the game, the Hogs ended a 12-play, 79 drive with a touchdown throw from Williams. In what looked like a run play, Williams took the handoff from Allen and stepped back from the line of scrimmage before finding an uncovered Cantrell in the end zone.

It was the first time an Arkansas running back passed for a touchdown since Jonathan Williams achieved the feat against  Rutgers in 2013.

Hatcher and freshman running back Devwah Whaley provided the final Razorback touchdowns in the game. Hatcher caught his second touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter to keep the Hogs in front by three scores. It was Hatcher’s second game this season with two touchdowns and fourth of 60 yards or more.

For Whaley, he now has two touchdowns this season and finished with 112 yards against the Bulldogs, his second highest total and second 100-yard game this year.

Up Next
Arkansas finishes off the regular season next week when it travels to Columbia, Missouri to take on the Missouri Tigers. Kickoff is slated for 1:30 p.m. and will be televised by CBS.

Razorbacks come back from 17-point deficit to down Mavs

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Arkansas moved to 3-0 for the fourth time in the last five years after erasing a 17-point first-half deficit to beat Texas-Arlington, 71-67, Friday night inside Bud Walton Arena.

The win is the first after trailing by more than 10 points at the half since beating Georgia 72-68 on the road on Feb. 3, 2010.

The Razorbacks improved to 49-2 against non-conference opponents inside Bud Walton Arena under Anderson.

UT-Arlington used an 11-0 run to start the game to get ahead of Arkansas early. Down 17 with 12:37 left in the opening half, Arkansas went on a 15-3 run of its own, including 10 free throws, to bring the game within four.

The Mavs sank a trio of three pointers late in the half to extend their lead and eventually take an 11-point lead to the locker room.

The Razorbacks responded fast in the second half, using a 20-2 run to take a 52-45 lead. Junior guard Jaylen Barford used a steal and one-handed slam to bring Bud Walton alive and give Arkansas its first lead of the contest.

Barford finished 6-of-12 from the field, scoring a career-high 17 points to go with six boards and two assists.

Despite shooting 2-of-10 from the field, Dusty Hannahs scored 11 points to extend his streak of double figure scoring games to 11 dating back to last season.

Junior guard Anton Beard was big off the bench, scoring all 12 of his points in the second half, including a late jumper with the shot clock winding down to extend the Arkansas lead to five with less than a minute to go

Through three games this season, Beard has recorded 11 assists against only one turnover.

Arkansas finished 24-of-32 from the free throw line and forced UT Arlington into a season-high 18 turnovers.

QUOTABLES
“This was a good test for our basketball team and I thought they responded well because they did it with their defense. In the end, we made free throws and we had guys make plays down the stretch.” — Mike Anderson

“I think the steals helped out a lot because it picked up our whole energy. We fed off of defense and emphasized it the whole time. Every timeout and dead ball, we were talking about defense.” — junior guard Jaylen Barford

UP NEXT
Arkansas will go on the road for the first time this season, as the Razorbacks will face the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. inside Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

Recruiting for system seldom works as well as being flexible

Andy Hodges
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With Arkansas’ four losses this season coming to four SEC West opponents, a lot of the fans are asking why.

Some don’t want to hear the answer. Those are the ones that want the media to provide affirmation, not information.

The honest truth is Bret Bielema either has to figure out how to get more players that are better or change his system to match the type players he can get.

Not to knock Bielema, but it’s going to be easier to do the latter than the former.

In today’s college football world it doesn’t take five years to rebuild a program. By year four — at the latest — you have a pretty good idea of what you’ve got with a coach and his program.

Right now, Arkansas has a program that is mired in the lower half of the SEC West. It’s pretty much where the Razorbacks have been for most of the last decade.

When Bobby Petrino took over from Houston Nutt, the excuse from fans was he inherited a mess. Two years later, they were battling for BCS bowl bids, getting to the Sugar Bowl in 2010.

Petrino’s record over his first two years was 13-12 while Bielema was 10-15. Okay, close enough to not cause panic. After the third year, Petrino was 23-15 while Bielema comes in at 18-20.

Now we’re in Bielema’s fourth year and he sits at 6-4 with a 24-24 overall record. Petrino, with two games left in his four season was 32-16.

Some will say the mess Bielema inherited was worse than Petrino. You can argue that one until the cows come home. The same things were said when Petrino came in after Nutt.

Bielema rode into town after guiding Wisconsin to three straight Rose Bowl bids. When you really look at it, that’s not quite what it seems, although the Badgers did get there.

In the last season, Wisconsin was third in their division with a .500 record. The year before was their best year, getting to Pasadena after tying Penn State in their division before falling to Oregon in a 45-38 track meet. It was his best team.

The year before, the Badgers beat Ohio State, finished in a three-way tie at the top of the Big 10 with the Buckeyes and Michigan State, went to TCU and lost to the Horned Frogs.

What does that mean? Well, Bielema’s system was slowing down before he left the Big 10, which is not the SEC. His best team at Wisconsin would have been no better than 9-3 in the SEC West and that would require some fortunate bounces.

At Wisconsin, Bielema was able to recruit the type players that fit his system. Big, burly, strong linemen and good running backs are more plentiful in that area of the country. He did get some good players out of Florida that fit his system.

Now his recruiting has been better than Petrino, but the results not as good.

Which means the system isn’t as effective.

Petrino had an offense that almost blew up scoreboards. He recruited receivers and skill position players, then put them into a system where they could be successful. In Arkansas and Texas, the overwhelming majority of high schools run some version of the Spread offense.

Not many run a ground-and-pound pro-style attack. Even pro-style offenses are going more to a spread look with a mobile quarterback. Look at Petrino’s current Louisville team or, closer to home, what Nick Saban has done at Alabama with a freshman quarterback.

In a conversation two weeks ago after his radio show in Tuscaloosa, Saban said he looked at what offenses gave his defense the most trouble, then, well, adapted his style to match what works.

As a result, he was able to sign Jalen Hurts, who has started all but the season opener for the Crimson Tide and they are rolling along offensively with a look unlike anything Saban has ever had. They even have some tempo and RPO (run-pass option) discussed at his press conferences.

No one would have dreamed it possible a couple of years ago.

Even Petrino, who never had a mobile quarterback, adapted his high-flying offense to what Lamar Jackson could do best. All that’s done is vault the Cardinals into the College Football Playoff discussion.

Bielema and the Hogs should win their last two games against Mississippi State and Missouri. That will put Bielema at 26-24 with a bowl game left.

More importantly, winning these last two will give Bielema an 11-21 mark in SEC games. After year four, Petrino was 17-15 and, in case you happened to be wondering, Houston Nutt was also 17-15 after year four.

That IS some cause for concern.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the way, Bielema is at a crossroads with a couple of clear choices:

• Get better players for his system. Exactly how is not really clear. What he’s been doing isn’t working, though.

• Get a system for the players he can get. His overall recruiting is rated higher than what Petrino or Nutt did.

Neither option is pleasant for Bielema. He’s repeatedly said he believes in his system, which worked before.

Maybe he’s realized that the SEC West is not the Big 10. You can’t get a bunch of 3-star players and coach enough of them up to win in the world Bielema is now in.

Of course that’s assuming that competing for championships is the no-excuses expectation.

Which SHOULD be the expectation.

Again, with no excuses.

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