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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — No more. Not again. Never longer.
Time to hit the reset button at Arkansas. Not just the Arkansas football team. The Arkansas athletic department.
Saturday was, for all intents and purposes, the most embarrassing win in modern Razorbacks football.
That’s the absolute best thing that can be said about Saturday. Arkansas rallied to beat Coastal Carolina, 39-38, in front of a half-empty Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on homecoming.
That’s Coastal Carolina, in its first year of FBS football up from FCS.
Coastal Carolina, which didn’t even have a football program 15 years ago.
Coastal Carolina, the would-be harbinger of the end of the Bret Bielema/Jeff Long era at Arkansas.
There is a reason the stadium was rather bare. Arkansas was 3-5 entering the game. The calls for Bielema’s job ceased being made by only the “crazies” several weeks ago. Now, it seems, the only crazy line of thinking is if someone thinks Bielema should definitely get another year.
What’s more is the revelation about the top of the athletic department. The Associated Press’ Kurt Voigt asked for comment from Long, the Arkansas athletic director, a couple weeks ago. Voigt said he was told that expecting a comment was “arrogant.”
Long, allegedly, sent an email to one of his lieutenants, Chris Freet, the senior associate athletic director for external operations and strategic communications. The email had just one word of text in the body: “Advice?”
The question about which Long was seeking advice from Freet was how to handle a harmless query from a media member. While Voigt isn’t with ESPN or SEC Network, The Associated Press is the most recognized and respected news organization in the world (disclosure: I am a former AP employee).
Calling Voigt’s request “arrogant” is appropriately ironic.
The back-room whispers and private conversations among the six-figure crowd in athletic departments has always been unfit for public ears. There are reasons a lot of such talk is never made public. The fear, however, of any outside questioning is paranoid to the point of delusion. Circling the wagons in a time of crisis is cowardly.
Arkansas finds itself in an untenable position. Fans are fed up with the coach. They tire more and more every week of Long. If the email and Voigt’s assertion are true — and there is zero reason to believe otherwise — Arkansas needs to be gutted from the top down.
Now, the almighty dollar may preclude that from happening. Long and Co. have been at the helm during the most financially successful time in SEC history. They bring in major bucks. They also have improved the academic standing of Razorbacks athletics.
Disdain, however, for the fan base, the media and anyone who questions the Arkansas athletic department’s omnipotence, is beyond the pale. Take the criticism, Arkansas. It comes so rarely that occasional bouts should not elicit such a haughty response.
“We don’t really bring the outside world in our program,” Bielema said after the win Saturday.
He was talking about how he keeps players positive when fans are increasingly negative. Coincidental that quote would apply to the athletic department’s interactions with the media, too.
Bielema is not the root problem here. Actually, this is only barely about him at all. The culture is the problem. Perhaps Bielema is a product of that culture. Any arguments stating as much, I won’t dispute. Nor will I defend his 29-31 record in four-plus seasons.
Time and time again I have done so. Time and time I again have gone on the record — in columns, in Hogs for Breakfast and elsewhere — as saying the Razorbacks athletics administration was positive for Arkansas the university and Arkansas sports overall.
I renege.
Something stinks.
It isn’t everyone. It isn’t everything. But angry phone calls, emails and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are back.
Arkansas basketball may be good this year. Arkansas baseball certainly will be. Track and field and cross country are dominant. But Arkansas, like a lot of other places, is college football. And between the on-field product and the off-field conceit, it’s time.
Time for Arkansas to start over.