Stewart Mandel article: Bret Bielema's fall from coaching grace

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Arkansas' decline last year flew largely under the national radar, but now Bielema finds himself in the news for an entirely different reason. Over the past two weeks, he has become the face of an unpopular NCAA rules committee proposal designed to slow the sport's hurry-up offenses. Breaking a week of silence on the matter last Thursday, Bielema set off a self-inflicted PR nightmare by referencing recently deceased Cal player Ted Agu in justifying his push for the slow-down rule, which he says is a player-safety measure. Asked by reporters covering a Razorbacks booster function about the lack of hard data linking up-tempo offenses to injuries, Bielema bluntly replied: "Death certificates. There's no more I need than that."
The jaw-droppingly tone deaf comment sparked a national controversy

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The bad news, though, is that even with the three league titles that Bielema won with the Badgers, his Wisconsin teams rarely beat opponents with more touted high school talent. Under Bielema, the Badgers went 1-5 against Ohio State, 2-3 against Penn State and 2-4 in bowl games. In a study that strongly correlates recruiting rankings with victories, SB Nation's Matt Hinton divided the major-conference FBS programs into five tiers (five-stars, four-stars, etc.) based on their recruiting rankings from 2010 to '13. Wisconsin fell into the two-star group, alongside the likes of USF and Purdue, yet did not overachieve to the extent that one might assume. "They were actually very ordinary in that span against blue-chip competition, putting up losing records against five-star (2-3), four-star (3-6) and even three-star (5-6) opponents," wrote Hinton. "Much of Wisconsin's success is based on thorough, consistent dominance of its two-star peers in the Big Ten -- Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue -- against whom the Badgers have won 17 in a row."
That trend does not bode well for Arkansas, considering five of its six SEC West opponents (Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M) fell into Hinton's four- or five-star tiers. Yet, so, too, did the Razorbacks, so theoretically they're not that far behind their competition. But there aren't many Indianas on the schedule to help boost their record.

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ut whether the 10-second rule ultimately passes next week, Bielema now has a lot of detractors across the country. His handling of the controversy, and his comments about Agu, won't soon be forgotten. All of that could contribute to a cloud of negativity much like the ones that previously hovered over Rodriguez and Kiffin.
The best ways for Bielema to turn around his reputation? Field an elite SEC team and, in the meantime, maintain a low profile. Both of those may be difficult to accomplish.

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