re: Bert speaks with the media

You can vet and vet and vet and vet and kids are still going to bust. It's just the nature of the game.

Nothing earth shattering as far as news but I heard him speak tonight. He had a few funnies in there, someone asked about the kicking woes and why we didn't go out and get an all american yadda yadda and he said yeah, that's what we thought too so that's what we did last year and you see how that turned out. Then at one point he was talking about D Wise and how he was Jens fave player because of how he danced after a sack and Bert was like no no no that's exactly not what we like but he complimented Wise a lot. Also, talked about recruiting and tweeting a kid at 1200 am on the first day he was able to and debating it because it felt wrong then the kid tweeted him back at 1202 and he felt even dirtier like he should be arrested.

Eta: that's all paraphrased of course.

Eta2: someone asked him about who would be top few in sec west this season he sorta mentioned several of them but point being he said State keeps grinding - so of course he does read the rant.

Also, does anyone else find it odd that Reggie Mitchell has never been inside the state of Arkansas before?

Good read from DD


Arkansas head football coach Bret Bielema and chief in-state recruiter Barry Lunney, Jr., explain the thorough and deliberate way the Razorback staff goes about offering the state's top prospects.

Just about this time every year, some Arkansas football fans begin to grumble about Razorback head football coach Bret Bielema being slow to issue in-state offers.
This year is no exception as the Arkansas staff has offered only 2017 in-state prospect so far in Cabot athlete Jarrod Barnes, who committed to the Razorbacks a week after getting his offer.
There are others inside the state who already have at least one Power 5 offer in Ashdown safety Montaric Brown, Central Arkansas Christian wide receiver Josh Johnson and the Fayetteville duo of quarterback Taylor Powell and defensive lineman Akial Byers.
It’s possible that more offers could be issued on Saturday as Arkansas hosts a Junior Day.
Bielema, who landed all four in-state prospects he offered in the 2016 class, addressed the subject during a Monday press conference to introduce a pair of new assistant coaches in Paul Rhodes (secondary) and Billy Mitchell (running backs).
“Especially as we get closer to home, I don’t ever want to mislead a kid,” Bielema said. “I can’t imagine being in a position as a head coach and pull an offer at any point that is committed to me after his senior year has started up.
“There are a variety of things that can happen. I had to pull one my first year at Wisconsin because I hadn’t offered him and there is a whole scenario about that.
“…So to avoid that situation from happening we are extremely slow in the offering process.
“I want to have them check off five areas – academics, athletics, social media, I want to be able to have a thorough background analysis of their high school – counselor, high school coach, principal and athletic director.
“And the last thing is that if all possible I want to meet them. I want to sit down with them, I want to look them in the eye and I want to find out what they are about.
“Because that is so hard to happen here in Fayetteville, it makes it a little bit slower to happen overall, but I feel so much better about it on the back end.”
Bielema noted that there were a couple of athletes who need to pick it up academically before an offer will arrive.
“We have got kids in our immediate recruiting region that have either a test score or GPA that isn’t anywhere near to qualifying and somebody else offers him a scholarship because they can just back out on it or back away from it.
“I just can’t do that and sleep at night. That is probably why we are a little bit slower and is the number one reason we are slow.”
Arkansas tight ends coach Barry Lunney, Jr., is the chief in-state recruiter for the Razorbacks.
“We want to know everything we can about a young man before we extend that offer,” Lunney said. “We want to do our due diligence and be absolutely sure about the student-athletes we are bringing into the program.
“It is much better to make sure on the front end that there won’t be any issues on the back end. It certainly doesn’t mean we don’t love the young man and we make sure they know that upfront.
“We want our offers to guys – especially in our home state – to be ones that there are no questions about whatsoever.
“There may be some schools out there that throw out a lot of scholarships, but they may or may not be committable.
“When we offer one, it is a 100 percent one and we are ready to take your commitment right away. It is a bond that won’t be broken between between this coaching staff and the student athlete.”

I like his approach. That being said, Taylor Powell should easily check off all Bielema's areas. He's smart as hell and a high character kid.

I think Byers probably has some academic/ACT concerns.

quote:

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Taylor Powel

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He's the younger brother of Walker Powell, correct?

thx, wasn't sure