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re: Arky fans..seriously, where did it go wrong with Bielema?
Posted on 8/25/18 at 4:57 pm to RidiculousHype
Posted on 8/25/18 at 4:57 pm to RidiculousHype
quote:
He went from 0-8 to 2-6 to 5-3 in the league his first 3 years. Now, as tough as the SEC is I doubted he would take that next step, but I figured he’d be able to sustain that 5-3/4-4 level by recruiting those huge linemen and building a brand around physical play.
When we played y’all in 2014/2015 and had to stop your NFL RB’s running behind 375 lb linemen in November, I was like “well this is gonna be a huge pain in the arse every year”. And then it all went south. What happened?
Missouri happened to stop Arky in their tracks!
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Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:01 pm to jdevers
quote:
Look at quality and depth of offensive linemen year to year and then then look at the one year we actually “broke through” and see the massive difference in defensive statistics versus all others. The stars aligned that year, we all thought it was a stepping stone but it was a pinnacle. The three players that made our defense solid (very good on one side of the field actually) all left that same year with no one behind them. He tried to build Wisconsin but didn’t know how Wisconsin was built in the first place. For his system to work we would need our entire starting offensive line to be first or second team all SEC with a backup crew good enough to be third team. Then a defense solid but not flashy, think maybe a defense littered with third team all SEC guys and guys behind them nearly as good. None of that came close to happening. We were starting freshmen every year on the offensive line because of necessity not talent and we never had depth.
I like where AggieChad’s recruiting for 2019 is going, if we can sustain that level for another year and maybe win some games this year and get close enough to winning in some losses to be talked about then we could potentially break through into serious Texas recruiting and build something. A lot of ifs, but there are very few sure things in football.
Yeah, that's part of where I was going with it. With a few exceptions, Arkansas has rarely been a fertile recruiting ground. Either you run something like Bobby did, hoping to just cover defensive and line issues with offensive firepower or you get overwhelmed. And, as cardboardboxer said, he wasn't recruiting well from the beginning. Kind of a missed opportunity, given the chaotic ups-and-downs of the Texas schools next door during his tenure.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:05 pm to HeavyHog222
quote:
The job was tougher than he expected. I'm not sure he had the work ethic to succeed at a place like Arkansas. His style wasn't a good fit. You can't bully around schools like bama, LSU, or Auburn.
You left out Missouri! Got to beat Missouri too and coach Odom have Arky numbers so far.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:10 pm to UltimateHog
quote:
Like asking you where it went wrong with Les Miles.
But that’s easy, 1/9/12.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:15 pm to randomways
quote:
Yeah, that's part of where I was going with it. With a few exceptions, Arkansas has rarely been a fertile recruiting ground. Either you run something like Bobby did, hoping to just cover defensive and line issues with offensive firepower or you get overwhelmed. And, as cardboardboxer said, he wasn't recruiting well from the beginning. Kind of a missed opportunity, given the chaotic ups-and-downs of the Texas schools next door during his tenure
Houston Nutt was a lot more one dimensional than people assume Bert was. Nutt recruited a lot worse too. I'm glad we have an offensive minded coach now, but the premise that Arkansas "needs" offensive firepower to succeed is a myth. Bert's problem wasn't recruiting. Aspects of his recruiting and his roster management were bad, but the problem was Bert. He actually recruited better than anyone has at Arkansas in the rankings era. You claimed the SEC adjusted to his "style." The problem is we resembled the type of team people associate with Oinky one time in five years, and he Berted his way to 7-6 with that group. Otherwise, I would cackle when announcers would say things like "Bret Bielema's tough, physical ground game" because we were the antithesis of that. We were soft as wet toilet paper for the majority of his tenure here and fielded some of the worst defenses in college football history.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:18 pm to cardboardboxer
quote:
He couldn’t recruit well enough to run his system. It’s as simple as that.
And the problem was obvious day one.
Recruiting was not the issue in my opinion. He recruited on par at Arkansas historically. The hire of Kurt Anderson can't be emphasized enough. We had a lot of momentum as a program at the end of the 2015 season. Kurt Anderson was hired, o line went to hell, and so did everything else. Our QBs had the protection of a busted condom.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:20 pm to TrueLefty
You're right. Bielema's problem wasn't that he couldn't "out Alabama Alabama," it was that he couldn't "out Alabama" the likes of Toledo, Missouri, or anyone in the SEC except Ole Miss.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:29 pm to cardboardboxer
quote:
He couldn’t recruit well enough to run his system. It’s as simple as that.
O line recruiting and coaching was his downfall.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:35 pm to RidiculousHype
He became enamored with hiring asst coaches who had a year or two of flimsy "NFL experience" and pretty soon we were a staff full of graduate assistants.
The Robb Smith hire was just stupid. He was probably the worst SEC defensive coordinator hire in history. There was no reasonable thought process behind it other than, again, some strange "NFL" thing in Bert's mind since Smith had done a year or two as a linebacker coach or something with dipshit Schiano.
It's as if Bielema decided his own experience was not good enough to evaluate coaches, and so he resorted to thinking "NFL" low level guys were some hidden gems.
In other words, he was lazy as hell.
Plus he's a fricking alcoholic. He needs to get help.
The Robb Smith hire was just stupid. He was probably the worst SEC defensive coordinator hire in history. There was no reasonable thought process behind it other than, again, some strange "NFL" thing in Bert's mind since Smith had done a year or two as a linebacker coach or something with dipshit Schiano.
It's as if Bielema decided his own experience was not good enough to evaluate coaches, and so he resorted to thinking "NFL" low level guys were some hidden gems.
In other words, he was lazy as hell.
Plus he's a fricking alcoholic. He needs to get help.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:40 pm to Arksulli
great post
you nailed it
you nailed it
Posted on 8/25/18 at 5:46 pm to randomways
I don't think he intended hostility toward you. It's easy for a Hog fan to get hot when thinking back to watching that dude sink our program.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 6:55 pm to randomways
quote:
None of this tells me why I'm wrong. It just tells me what other factors you think were involved. The hostile tone of your comment suggests you're upset by any theory that isn't openly and unambiguously critical of Bielema, so I don't see any basis for continuing this particular discussion of the issue with you
I'm... a bit lost here. I did not attack you personally in any way. I disagreed with your hypothesis but at no point in time did I, for example, imply that you have sex with roadkill.
I'm almost certain I've said that about BowlJackson and I actually more or less get along with him.
If I offended you I do apologize. It was not my intention to do so. People can attest to the fact that I am not subtle. When I set out to offend people on here I do my best to make sure it is, in fact, obviously offensive.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 8:17 pm to RidiculousHype
Bielema somehow recruited for a system that fit a guy like Chad Morris.
He couldn't settle on an identity or recruit to fit it.
The loss of Sam Pittman did Bielema in.
He couldn't settle on an identity or recruit to fit it.
The loss of Sam Pittman did Bielema in.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 8:28 pm to RidiculousHype
He got lazy. There were reports of him sleeping in the film room among other things.
Like Joey Freshwater said, no one out works Saban. An nobody succeeds in CFB without some sweat.
Like Joey Freshwater said, no one out works Saban. An nobody succeeds in CFB without some sweat.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 8:46 pm to weremoose
An actual serious answer:
The early departures of Denver Kirkland and Alex Collins.
When they left, it put his team in a bind; the experienced upperclassman feature back was gone, so they had to lean on very young guys to do things like pass pro and handle the carries. Throw in that you ended up with Dan Skipper forced to play out of position, downgrading two offensive line positions from the get-go, and you could see pass protection was going to be a real problem. He was barely adequate as a pass protector at RT, but then played LT-- and got his QB beaten on a regular basis.
This led to RW3 and the running game being forced to carry the load even moreso- and arguably contributed to the eventual recurrence of RW3's neck injury. When that happened, the writing was pretty well on the wall- no truly experienced feature backs, and an OL that had been playing left handed for a couple of years, under new coaching, and without a playmaker on the perimeter after Drew Morgan graduated. Last year was a shite-storm that could be foreseen offensively.
Honestly, I think he'd still be at Arkansas if Kirkland had played his last year of eligibility, allowing a smoother bridge to the future at OT.
The early departures of Denver Kirkland and Alex Collins.
When they left, it put his team in a bind; the experienced upperclassman feature back was gone, so they had to lean on very young guys to do things like pass pro and handle the carries. Throw in that you ended up with Dan Skipper forced to play out of position, downgrading two offensive line positions from the get-go, and you could see pass protection was going to be a real problem. He was barely adequate as a pass protector at RT, but then played LT-- and got his QB beaten on a regular basis.
This led to RW3 and the running game being forced to carry the load even moreso- and arguably contributed to the eventual recurrence of RW3's neck injury. When that happened, the writing was pretty well on the wall- no truly experienced feature backs, and an OL that had been playing left handed for a couple of years, under new coaching, and without a playmaker on the perimeter after Drew Morgan graduated. Last year was a shite-storm that could be foreseen offensively.
Honestly, I think he'd still be at Arkansas if Kirkland had played his last year of eligibility, allowing a smoother bridge to the future at OT.
This post was edited on 8/25/18 at 8:47 pm
Posted on 8/25/18 at 8:50 pm to RidiculousHype
Recruiting is year round in the SEC and much more ruthless than B1G
Posted on 8/25/18 at 8:54 pm to RidiculousHype
I heard the man had traveller's diarrhea and isolated himself in hotel rooms because of it 
Posted on 8/25/18 at 9:09 pm to RidiculousHype
Honestly he tried to play big boy football against the big boys and didn't have the talent to do it. You can't take 3 star players and line up against 4 & 5 star players and blow them off the LOS it just doesn't work that way. The only way Arkansas can compete with the big boys of the conference is speed and accuracy.
Posted on 8/25/18 at 10:11 pm to ARKY61
quote:
where did it go wrong with Bielema?
The day JL hired him
Posted on 8/25/18 at 10:17 pm to Barneyrb
I still think there's room for another wisci in the sec ...a couple big fla guys with mostly Midwest hosses...run the ball ..a couple speedsters that can take the top off
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