Great article about Petrino, Bielema and the Arkansas program

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If it were just football; if it were Xs and Os and finding the right call or the right play, Arkansas would have been winning the day Bielema stepped on campus after the 2012 season.

But because it was so much more; because what others take for granted on a daily basis had been overlooked for so long and infected the very culture of the program, the heavy lifting began off the field at the source of the problem.

The areas that destroy programs off the field — academic indifference, social and behavioral issues — were the very things translating to a lack of success on the field.

When Bielema arrived, players were flunking out, missing class and changing majors to find the easiest roads to staying eligible. There was a saying within the football team: “Ds get degrees.”

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Just this past offseason, defensive end Tevin Beanum was arrested for DWI and illegal possession of alcohol to break the 29-month string. So after talking to Beanum’s mother, Bielema did what any parent would do: he took away Beanum’s car.

Bielema didn’t run off Beanum like he did 20 other players in the first 18 months who didn’t get it or refused to buy in. He used it as another teaching moment, another chance to reinforce the most critical value of change to the roster: respect yourself.

There are no rules against earrings or tattoos. No rules for facial hair or social media. But for this thing to truly change, it had to begin and end with what each and every player expects from themselves.

The way they dress, the way they talk, the way they treat each other and those they associate with on a daily basis. The way they accept responsibility and move forward.

Beanum, a projected starter this fall, responded with a 4.0 GPA this semester.

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Despite winning 21 games in Petrino’s last two seasons, the foundation had cracks all over it. If academic and behavioral problems weren’t enough, the NFL atmosphere Petrino had created was feeding it on a daily basis.

Petrino’s office was on the second floor, and if a player was on the second floor, it usually was because he was in trouble.

“There was no such thing as an open door like there is now,” Allen said. “With (Petrino), I never wanted to go up there. No one did. It was kind of a scary deal.”

Now imagine this: Napoleon is banished and the leader of the minions is elevated to head coach — and he’s simply holding on until the next head coach arrives.

“So you’re playing for a tyrant, and you’re tight. He leaves, and now you get a little loose,” said Alfred Davis, a captain on the 2012 team and currently a graduate assistant. “I don’t think our starting free safety went to class the whole week when we played Ole Miss. He didn’t have to; the coaches weren’t going to do anything, they weren’t checking up on him. They were worried about their own futures.

“I had one coach who told me in the middle of the season, ‘Hey, Al, this thing is going bad. Do what you can and get yours. You need tape for the NFL.’ Players were doing whatever they wanted to do.”

Said Allen: “We kind of just threw in the towel.”

This is what Bielema walked into. This is what it had become for a group of players who, at the very least, signed on to play for Petrino — who, despite his flaws, was winning games and getting players to the NFL.

Or as one Arkansas staffer summed it up: “he was an a-hole, but he was our a-hole.”

It should come as no surprise then, that when Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long hired Bielema, he specifically told him he wasn’t expecting anything in Year 1. Or Year 2.

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Hours after that emotional senior meeting, Bielema met with his freshman class alone in the team room.

This group of 24 players might be the best recruiting class assembled at Arkansas — and surely the best since the Hogs entered the SEC in 1992. There’s tailback Rawleigh Williams, who Bielema compares to Wisconsin All-American Montee Ball, and linebacker Derrick Graham, who already has grown out of his position (he has added 25 pounds) and likely will move to rush end.

About and hour before meeting the freshmen, Bielema is told by a staff member that a few of the freshmen stayed overnight in the football complex for fear of oversleeping. He smiled.

He has them right where he wants them.

“In 20 years as a coach and five as a player,” Bielema’s voice booms in the meeting room, “I have never, ever, ever been late to a meeting or anything. If it’s important enough for you, it can be done.”

If it’s important enough, if you want to change bad enough, it might just end with the unhappiest day of your life.

For all the right reasons.

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