Arkansas...wow

[bluehenbillk]

Bret Bielema from Wisconsin. Didn't see that coming.

[dal4018]

Bret Bielema from Wisconsin. Didn't see that coming.

Transfer????Hope he knows they have no coach in place.

[Franks Tanks]

Bret Bielema from Wisconsin. Didn't see that coming.

Very interesting.

[bluehenbillk]

Bret Bielema from Wisconsin. Didn't see that coming.

Transfer????Hope he knows they have no coach in place.

He is the coach now..dope.

[bluehenbillk]

Could you imagine if Pitt loses another (Paul Chryst) coach after one year????

[Franks Tanks]

He will get a raise, but also has a high chance at being fired within 5 years even if he wins. Everything associated with Arkansas football is just strange.

He could've stayed with the Badgers for many years.

[dbackjon]

Wow - shocking.

Wonder what kind of bank they were throwing at him?

[rkwittem]

Nice hire for Arkansas. Won't mean more wins than they got from Petrino. My theory is, if you're not a conference blueblood (like Alabama is in the SEC, USC is in the Pac-12, Ohio State in the Big Ten, FSU in the ACC, Oklahoma in the Big XII, et al), you should hire a guy that goes against your entire conference's philosophy. My favorite example of this is Jim Harbaugh. We all know that the Pac-12 has traditionally preferrred a finesse, offense-driven style of football. The great thing about Stanford hiring Harbaugh was that he went totally against that. He felt that you could out-muscle and physically bludgeon teams in the conference and they wouldn't be used to it. Now Stanford is sitting pretty. If they keep Shaw and their scheme, the Pac-12 will be stuck playing catch-up.

Now fast-forward to this hiring. What's the SEC's bread-and-butter? Power running. What's Bielema's bread-and-butter? Power running. Bielema is way too lock, stock, and barrel for me to really truly believe he will have major success at Arkansas. You won't be able to out-man Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, etc. consistently- they recruit too well, are coached too well, and are too well-adjusted to that style of play.
I think they should have tried to go after a Kevin Sumlin-type (obviously not Sumlin- he's not going anywhere) guy who wants to sling it, run no-huddle offense, and challenge SEC defenses in the secondary (where they are weaker). Plus, Arkansas' in-roads into Texas recruiting (where there are a lot of elite QB recruits lately) will only improve with Texas A&M in the SEC now. So you use that Texas connection to get QB's you can use to sling it around like the Texas A&Ms, Oklahomas, Baylors, and West Virginias of the world. Art Briles would have been an interesting hire. We know he can put together a productive offense, even with the deck stacked against him.

[Gil Dobie]

I know a lot of Wisconsin fans that are glad to see him go, but they may miss him if they get a real clunker for the next coach.

[BlueHen86]

Transfer????Hope he knows they have no coach in place.

He is the coach now..dope.

I assume that he knew there was no coach in place when he took the job as coach.

[SuperHornet]

While I'm sure they had no shot at Gruden, I wonder if they were even trying. Did he actually blow them off like it seems he's doing to TN? That video trying to get him was pretty funny....

[dal4018]

Transfer????Hope he knows they have no coach in place.

He is the coach now..dope.

Oh thought he was a player better recruit some speed to keep up with the Joneses.

[griz37]

Did someone say Pig Sooie?

[tampajag]

Nice hire for Arkansas. Won't mean more wins than they got from Petrino. My theory is, if you're not a conference blueblood (like Alabama is in the SEC, USC is in the Pac-12, Ohio State in the Big Ten, FSU in the ACC, Oklahoma in the Big XII, et al), you should hire a guy that goes against your entire conference's philosophy. My favorite example of this is Jim Harbaugh. We all know that the Pac-12 has traditionally preferrred a finesse, offense-driven style of football. The great thing about Stanford hiring Harbaugh was that he went totally against that. He felt that you could out-muscle and physically bludgeon teams in the conference and they wouldn't be used to it. Now Stanford is sitting pretty. If they keep Shaw and their scheme, the Pac-12 will be stuck playing catch-up.

Now fast-forward to this hiring. What's the SEC's bread-and-butter? Power running. What's Bielema's bread-and-butter? Power running. Bielema is way too lock, stock, and barrel for me to really truly believe he will have major success at Arkansas. You won't be able to out-man Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, etc. consistently- they recruit too well, are coached too well, and are too well-adjusted to that style of play.
I think they should have tried to go after a Kevin Sumlin-type (obviously not Sumlin- he's not going anywhere) guy who wants to sling it, run no-huddle offense, and challenge SEC defenses in the secondary (where they are weaker). Plus, Arkansas' in-roads into Texas recruiting (where there are a lot of elite QB recruits lately) will only improve with Texas A&M in the SEC now. So you use that Texas connection to get QB's you can use to sling it around like the Texas A&Ms, Oklahomas, Baylors, and West Virginias of the world. Art Briles would have been an interesting hire. We know he can put together a productive offense, even with the deck stacked against him.

Arkansas was already a throw it around team (2008 -2012) averaged no less than 259 yards passing. So for them this will be a change in philosophy. Besides people in SEC country are gonna wait for a system to take hold. They wanna win and win now.

[bluehenbillk]

Glad to see Alvarez coach Wisky in the Rose Bowl, class move.

[rkwittem]

Nice hire for Arkansas. Won't mean more wins than they got from Petrino. My theory is, if you're not a conference blueblood (like Alabama is in the SEC, USC is in the Pac-12, Ohio State in the Big Ten, FSU in the ACC, Oklahoma in the Big XII, et al), you should hire a guy that goes against your entire conference's philosophy. My favorite example of this is Jim Harbaugh. We all know that the Pac-12 has traditionally preferrred a finesse, offense-driven style of football. The great thing about Stanford hiring Harbaugh was that he went totally against that. He felt that you could out-muscle and physically bludgeon teams in the conference and they wouldn't be used to it. Now Stanford is sitting pretty. If they keep Shaw and their scheme, the Pac-12 will be stuck playing catch-up.

Now fast-forward to this hiring. What's the SEC's bread-and-butter? Power running. What's Bielema's bread-and-butter? Power running. Bielema is way too lock, stock, and barrel for me to really truly believe he will have major success at Arkansas. You won't be able to out-man Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, etc. consistently- they recruit too well, are coached too well, and are too well-adjusted to that style of play.
I think they should have tried to go after a Kevin Sumlin-type (obviously not Sumlin- he's not going anywhere) guy who wants to sling it, run no-huddle offense, and challenge SEC defenses in the secondary (where they are weaker). Plus, Arkansas' in-roads into Texas recruiting (where there are a lot of elite QB recruits lately) will only improve with Texas A&M in the SEC now. So you use that Texas connection to get QB's you can use to sling it around like the Texas A&Ms, Oklahomas, Baylors, and West Virginias of the world. Art Briles would have been an interesting hire. We know he can put together a productive offense, even with the deck stacked against him.

Arkansas was already a throw it around team (2008 -2012) averaged no less than 259 yards passing. So for them this will be a change in philosophy. Besides people in SEC country are gonna wait for a system to take hold. They wanna win and win now.

Yes, they were a throw it around team, but they didn't use tempo or 4-wide sets like spread teams in the Big XII do. Arkansas hasn't beaten Bama in awhile because of that. That's what I was getting at- the tempo is the key. You want to be different from the rest of your league in a way that forces the rest of them to play catch-up with you. I bet you $20 Nick Saban spends a lot of this summer trying to figure our Texas A&M's scheme and how he can get around it.
The SEC is not an up-tempo conference. So you should try to force them out of their comfort zone. Merely throwing it around won't be enough. Doing it with tempo is the way to go.

[BDKJMU]

Glad to see Alvarez coach Wisky in the Rose Bowl, class move.

I normally don't like coaches who abandon their team before their bowl game (like Kelly abandoning Cincy before their Sugar Bowl Game to take the ND job). At least Wisconsin has Alvarez currently at Wisconsin as AD. I wonder if that was worked out internally before they made announcement Bielema was leaving. Anyway, good handling of the situation by Wisconsin.

[gobears14]

Nice hire for Arkansas. Won't mean more wins than they got from Petrino. My theory is, if you're not a conference blueblood (like Alabama is in the SEC, USC is in the Pac-12, Ohio State in the Big Ten, FSU in the ACC, Oklahoma in the Big XII, et al), you should hire a guy that goes against your entire conference's philosophy. My favorite example of this is Jim Harbaugh. We all know that the Pac-12 has traditionally preferrred a finesse, offense-driven style of football. The great thing about Stanford hiring Harbaugh was that he went totally against that. He felt that you could out-muscle and physically bludgeon teams in the conference and they wouldn't be used to it. Now Stanford is sitting pretty. If they keep Shaw and their scheme, the Pac-12 will be stuck playing catch-up.

Now fast-forward to this hiring. What's the SEC's bread-and-butter? Power running. What's Bielema's bread-and-butter? Power running. Bielema is way too lock, stock, and barrel for me to really truly believe he will have major success at Arkansas. You won't be able to out-man Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, etc. consistently- they recruit too well, are coached too well, and are too well-adjusted to that style of play.
I think they should have tried to go after a Kevin Sumlin-type (obviously not Sumlin- he's not going anywhere) guy who wants to sling it, run no-huddle offense, and challenge SEC defenses in the secondary (where they are weaker). Plus, Arkansas' in-roads into Texas recruiting (where there are a lot of elite QB recruits lately) will only improve with Texas A&M in the SEC now. So you use that Texas connection to get QB's you can use to sling it around like the Texas A&Ms, Oklahomas, Baylors, and West Virginias of the world. Art Briles would have been an interesting hire. We know he can put together a productive offense, even with the deck stacked against him.

We've (im an arkansas fan too) done pretty well against south carolina even since spurrier has been there. But i agree with what you're saying...he hired jim chaney as our OC so maybe we'll throw it more than he did at wisconsin. I like the staff he's put together so far.

Yes, they were a throw it around team, but they didn't use tempo or 4-wide sets like spread teams in the Big XII do. Arkansas hasn't beaten Bama in awhile because of that. That's what I was getting at- the tempo is the key. You want to be different from the rest of your league in a way that forces the rest of them to play catch-up with you. I bet you $20 Nick Saban spends a lot of this summer trying to figure our Texas A&M's scheme and how he can get around it.
The SEC is not an up-tempo conference. So you should try to force them out of their comfort zone. Merely throwing it around won't be enough. Doing it with tempo is the way to go.

We ran 4-wide sets pretty often under petrino...we had bama beat in 2010 until mallett started throwing INTs. But the other years our OL couldn't handle their defense. Nutt did win the SEC west 3 times with his run-first style but the conference is much better than it was then and a trio of RBs like we had in 05-07 doesnt come around very often. Im just glad to have someone other than John L. Smith

[UNI88]

Im just glad to have someone other than John L. Smith

John L's greatest success came when he had Petrino as an assistant. Without him he's been pretty mediocre.