Considering his name didn’t pop up in any of the coaching carousel this time around, you got the idea Bret Bielema either isn’t working too hard to find another gig or just wasn’t that desirable.
Sports Illustrated was obviously wondering the same thing when Andy Staples did a story on what Arkansas’ former coach is up to these days.
As it turns out, he’s not doing a whole lot.
“I had a morning last week where I had to drop the dogs off to get groomed, pick up a UPS package, make a stop at the pharmacist to pick up a prescription for my daughter and pick the dogs back up,” said Bielema, who became a dad for the first time in July and who was fired in November after five seasons at Arkansas. “I said ‘I need to get back into coaching pretty quick. This is getting to be too much.’”
According to the story, Bielema has been offered assistant coaching jobs in the NFL and television analyst positions.
It doesn’t appear he’s that anxious to get back into the college game, though, as the growing social media trend is something he’s not really that fond of.
Bielema said “about a half dozen” NFL teams have reached out to him about coaching at that level next season. He’s thinking about it, too. He realizes he wouldn’t be able to walk into a head coaching job, but he’s intrigued by the idea of coaching the best players without dealing with some of the more annoying aspects of recruiting. “I don’t mind Twitter,” Bielema said. “But when a kid makes a decision based on how many Twitter followers he gets, that’s when I’m about ready to tap out.”
In the article, he does lament that he made mistakes with the Razorbacks, particularly in understanding the depth necessary to compete for championships in the SEC.
He admitted in the story he didn’t do enough homework. It was obvious halfway through his first season to some that he was completely out of his element in Arkansas and the SEC.
After getting a ridiculous new contract from former athletics director Jeff Long after a 7-6 season his second year that featured a ridiculously high buyout, he thought he had more time than he obviously had.
“I just wish I’d had a little bit more time, but the powers that be made that decision,” he said in the story.
He also realized he’d put on a little weight in his time at Arkansas and claims to be working on that, too.
“In the morning, I start off with one grapefruit. I’ve had 14 days of that now,” he said in the story. “I loved grapefruit 14 days ago. I don’t know about that now.”
