re: Arky fans..seriously, where did it go wrong with Bielema?

quote:

---

Not on the style of play being impossible to run (though very few high schools in Arkansas run that system). Its on the he failed because the SEC had adapted to the Bama/LSU style of play.

Bielema failed in three ways.

Effort. He honestly believed, and it was part of his coaching strategy... that players and coaches should take it easy in the off season so they would be fresh for the final month or so of the season. Which was a great strategy in the Big 10. In the SEC it meant that by the time your team got into game speed you already had a couple of SEC losses.

Conditioning. His holy mantra, which his S&C coach shared with him, was bigger is better. Not stronger is better, but bigger. He preferred to add pounds over speed and conditioning. So not only was our defense gassed by midway through the third quarter but you had things like Alex Collins, who is now showing he can run away from NFL speed, being bulked up to the point where he couldn't run away from college speed.

Flexibility. Bielema could not change. Giving huge cushions on the WRs when he was a DC was the way to go. And he stuck with it, even though teams could not wait to get a 3rd and 3 against us because our DBs were at least ten yards away from the line of scrimmage. Do we play better going fast? To bad. Is our O-Line coach not cutting the mustard? Give him another three or four years.

---