Arkansas hires Brett Bielema

[blt4584]

Originally Posted by coachmcneil71

Arkansas and the surrounding area of Texas,Oklahoma,Louisiana, and Mississippi is loaded with talent.
Arkansas has never had a problem drawing talent.They were just in a BCS game the Sugar bowl 2 years ago. When Arkansas has a GOOD coach they always reqruit well!

Arkansas usually gets the talent the schools from those states don't really recruit. The main reason that they made a BCS game is that Petrino was a great playcaller and could out scheme other coaches on offense. Beilema won't do that unless he has something big planned for OC and can find a QB. Maybe he can be bailed out again by a transfer, but that almost blew up in is face this year.

To get to the part that you added in after I quoted you, recruiting in the SEC is different in the Big 10. He already through a fit over the way that Meyer was recruiting. It's not going to be better going to the conferce Urbz learned it from. In the Big Ten, Bielema went 23-1 against Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, and Purdue and 16-18 against everybody else. The top of the SEC is trembling I'm sure.

[coachmcneil71]

While I agree with some of this I feel you're missing the point.For one thing the SEC is a lot more lenient on its academics which changes things dramatically reqruiting wise. It's nothing to do with any other coach or school being "scared" of his arrival. Where that came from is beyond me really? It has to do with the ratio of talented HS players to number of scholarships available. Arkansas will have no trouble finding talented reqruits and Bielma will get that program back into the mix with discipline and hard work which is something that their program has lacked for quite some time.Wait and watch! Urban Meyer HC at Utah before 2 NC's at Florida...Nick Saben HC MSU before NC's at LSU and Bama...Les Miles HC OK State before NC at LSU. Brian Kelly HC Cincy Bearcats before ND, playing for a NC AGAINST Saben! Now plz tell me more about how Bielma will be so terrible at Arkansa which recently produced such products as D.McFadden,Felix Jones,Ryan Mallet, and Nile Davis.

[blt4584]

Originally Posted by coachmcneil71

Your missing the point. It's nothing to do with any other coach or school being "scared" of his arrival. Where that came from is beyond me really? It has to do with the ratio of talented HS players to number of scholarships available. Arkansas will have no trouble finding talented reqruits and Bielma will get that program back into the mix with discipline and hard work which is something that their program has lacked for quite some time.Wait and watch! Urban Meyer HC at Utah before 2 NC's at Florida...Nick Saben HC MSU before NC's at LSU and Bama...Les Miles HC OK State before NC at LSU. Brian Kelly HC Cincy Bearcats before ND, playing for a NC AGAINST Saben! Now plz tell me more about how Bielma will be so terrible at Arkansa which recently produced such products as D.McFadden,Felix Jones,Ryan Mallet, and Nile Davis.

The cupboard is looking pretty bare right now. The QBs behind Wilson were terrible when they had to go in. Could they get better, of course, but with the info I have right now I think that they are in trouble there. The guy who became their top RB just finished his senior year and Knile Davis seems to enjoy fumbling and getting hurt. Top Wr will also be gone. The D was never the strong point of the team and there hasn't been much improvement there either.

All the teams you listed had much better talent waiting for their new coach than Arkansas. Wisconsin was already a pretty good team when he got there and I don't know how he will do walking in to a worse situation. Miles built up Ok State from a disaster to a respectable team before going to LSU. Saban built LSU before going to Bama by way of the Phins. Kelly did the same with CMU and UC as did Meyer with his schools. These guys have proven that they can not only maintain, but build programs. Bielema has only shown he can do fine coming into a stable situation, something that he doesn't have right now at Arky.


As far as the players they have produced in past, most of them were on offense and received great coaching there and that isn't Bielema's background. He will need to do a massive makeover of the team and assuming he is capable, I don't know that Arky wants to give him the time to do it.

[coachmcneil71]

Originally Posted by blt4584

The cupboard is looking pretty bare right now. The QBs behind Wilson were terrible when they had to go in. Could they get better, of course, but with the info I have right now I think that they are in trouble there. The guy who became their top RB just finished his senior year and Knile Davis seems to enjoy fumbling and getting hurt. Top Wr will also be gone. The D was never the strong point of the team and there hasn't been much improvement there either.

All the teams you listed had much better talent waiting for their new coach than Arkansas. Wisconsin was already a pretty good team when he got there and I don't know how he will do walking in to a worse situation. Miles built up Ok State from a disaster to a respectable team before going to LSU. Saban built LSU before going to Bama by way of the Phins. Kelly did the same with CMU and UC as did Meyer with his schools. These guys have proven that they can not only maintain, but build programs. Bielema has only shown he can do fine coming into a stable situation, something that he doesn't have right now at Arky.


As far as the players they have produced in past, most of them were on offense and received great coaching there and that isn't Bielema's background. He will need to do a massive makeover of the team and assuming he is capable, I don't know that Arky wants to give him the time to do it.

I'm not doubting you and I am enjoying the discussion. Arkansas has a tough "row to hoe" for sure but the academics in most of the SEC is not nearly as strict as other coferences which makes reqruiting easier and I don't think you're giving Bielma enough credit as a coach. I reckon we'll see but I think he will do just fine in the SEC.

[blt4584]

Originally Posted by coachmcneil71

I'm not doubting you and I am enjoying the discussion. Arkansas has a tough "row to hoe" for sure but the academics in most of the SEC is not nearly as strict as other coferences which makes reqruiting easier and I don't think you're giving Bielma enough credit as a coach. I reckon we'll see but I think he will do just fine in the SEC.

I just not sure his strategy of being bigger than the other team is going to go over too well against the athletes that A&M, LSU and Bama will put out. We will just have to see, I have been wrong before.

I would also argue that the population shift from the north to south also has a lot to do with the Big 10 struggling in recruiting. If you want me to go really off topic I can talk about the southern states gashing the education budgets at every level while giving a giant money gift to their friends privately run prison after running a campaign saying that government should stay out of private businesses! But that is really off topic (**** you Bill Haslam.)

[whodey21]

Originally Posted by blt4584

I just not sure his strategy of being bigger than the other team is going to go over too well against the athletes that A&M, LSU and Bama will put out. We will just have to see, I have been wrong before.

I think he worked with what he had. People in Wisconsin are bigger, and he used that. The fact that he could recruit anyone to come play in the middle of dairy country instead of near a beach or historical powerhouse tells me he's better than his record indicates.

[Magikod]

Originally Posted by Stewy

Is Arkansas a job upgrade to Wisconsin? *boggles*