Bielema recruiting strategies

[Richard Davenport]

Dixon was missed by every major program. Hence signing with La Tech....Tre, on the other hand, was offered by Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Okie State, Tennessee, Minnesota, and Louisville. 

OU did the same with Felix Jones. I'm not saying Arkansas was right or wrong on Tre or Kenneth, I'm just saying it happens.


If a school evaluates a prospect based off of other offers they likely won't be employed long.

[Smashmouth2004]

Like most of you, I've watched Ark football since the 60's and seen plenty of games. I think Bielema's recruiting after his first year turned downward. I think you recruit players that are rated as high as you can get. I don't believe you can "coach up" kids to be competitive in the SEC. You either have the talent or you don't! Arkansas pride during a game when your going up against another player who is faster or stronger isn't going to put a W in the win column.

When Bielema was at Wisconsin he already had an established pipeline of H.S. talent at his disposal that he could rely on to reload every year. His problem was he thought it was brilliant coaching and he thought he could duplicate it here by just coaching up kids. While we flounder, Wisconsin has just plugged in a new coach like nothing has changed.

Now I agree, we will never recruit like Bama, Georgia, Auburn or LSU but we should hire a coach who realizes he needs coaches who can recruit so we can at least be competitive in those games and if we get some breaks have a chance to win.

[Piggfoot]

OU did the same with Felix Jones. I'm not saying Arkansas was right or wrong on Tre or Kenneth, I'm just saying it happens.


If a school evaluates a prospect based off of other offers they likely won't be employed long.

I heard way back when the reason Felix came to Arkansas is because he was dodging Adrian Peterson at OU and Cedric Benson at UT. He didn't know about Mcfadden. It worked out well for us.

[Letsroll1200]

So much more to that.

What about Bishop? I like Josh Liddell but if there is not anybody on the sidelines that can challenge his playing time than the Hogs are in trouble for the next 2-3 years.

[Grizzlyfan]

Got people in Fort Smith and Norwood A ain't that good and B didn't like Arkansas. He can have fun playing for ChOkeU for all i care and i could care less.

Your people are idiots.  Norwood is that good and he wanted an Arkansas offer.

[Grizzlyfan]

Arkansas evaluated Tre and obviously decide not to offer.

Petrino didn't offer Kenneth Dixon, who's now in the NFL.

So Arkansas' evaluation skills under Bielema are suspect?

[factchecker]

I heard way back when the reason Felix came to Arkansas is because he was dodging Adrian Peterson at OU and Cedric Benson at UT. He didn't know about Mcfadden. It worked out well for us.

That's pretty funny if true.

I'm glad we got Felix regardless of the reason.

[Richard Davenport]

What about Bishop? I like Josh Liddell but if there is not anybody on the sidelines that can challenge his playing time than the Hogs are in trouble for the next 2-3 years.

Arkansas was planning to sign a small class and wanted an answer at some point and Ladarius wasn't ready.

[Richard Davenport]

So Arkansas' evaluation skills under Bielema are suspect?

Tre attended a camp and Arkansas watched him in a game. Each school has a board and evidently they had others in front of Tre and were able to sign them. Three of the four CBs had 20 plus offers while Jordon Curtis had 10 or so. They also signed Korey Hernandez, who could play S or CB. He had a pretty good offer list too.

They signed six DBs and Devion Warren and Jarrod Barnes as athletes that could've also played DB.

I know Tre had a nice offer list. I'm not saying they made the right call or not but just putting the info out there so people may or may not understand their thinking.

[BoynamedWooPigSooie]

Got people in Fort Smith and Norwood A ain't that good and B didn't like Arkansas. He can have fun playing for ChOkeU for all i care and i could care less.

Can't really blame the kid for choosing OU over Arkansas. I mean go to a powerhouse or a doormat? Go where the coaching staff is firmly entrenched for the entirety of your college career or go to a place where the coach is getting fired soon and never cared enough to come visit you and barely tried to recruit you.

I don't blame anyone for going out-of-state at this point, much like I didn't blame Damian Williams and Mustain for going to USC. If you get a chance at an opportunity, take it.

[Letsroll1200]

Arkansas was planning to sign a small class and wanted an answer at some point and Ladarius wasn't ready.

I'm glad that things are changing for the benefit of the football program.

[BigSexyHog]

Bielema: Akial Byers is not academically qualified, so we won’t be offering a scholarship at this time.

But Montaric Brown wasn’t academically qualified either, but we offered him a scholarship . As a matter of fact Byers qualified before Brown did.

More double speak out of Bert.

Bert is the king of double speak

[Grizzlyfan]

Tre attended a camp and Arkansas watched him in a game. Each school has a board and evidently they had others in front of Tre and were able to sign them. Three of the four CBs had 20 plus offers while Jordon Curtis had 10 or so. They also signed Korey Hernandez, who could play S or CB. He had a pretty good offer list too.

They signed six DBs and Devion Warren and Jarrod Barnes as athletes that could've also played DB.

I know Tre had a nice offer list. I'm not saying they made the right call or not but just putting the info out there so people may or may not understand their thinking.

YOU CANNOT MISS ON A KID 45 MINUTES FROM YOUR CAMPUS WHO IS STARTING AS A TRUE FRESHMAN ON A TOP 5 FOOTBALL TEAM.  NOT WITH A DEFENSE THAT SUCKS AS BAD AS OURS.  IF YOU DO MISS YOU WILL SOON BE OUT OF A JOB.   Oh, wait.....

[Richard Davenport]

YOU CANNOT MISS ON A KID 45 MINUTES FROM YOUR CAMPUS WHO IS STARTING AS A TRUE FRESHMAN ON A TOP 5 FOOTBALL TEAM.  NOT WITH A DEFENSE THAT SUCKS AS BAD AS OURS.  IF YOU DO MISS YOU WILL SOON BE OUT OF A JOB.   Oh, wait.....

It happens will happen in the future. There will be several other Tres in the future that Arkansas will pass on and the fan base will be upset. This isn't the first time and won't be the last.

[Richard Davenport]

Bert is the king of double speak

Again, more to it.

[PorkRinds]

YOU CANNOT MISS ON A KID 45 MINUTES FROM YOUR CAMPUS WHO IS STARTING AS A TRUE FRESHMAN ON A TOP 5 FOOTBALL TEAM.  NOT WITH A DEFENSE THAT SUCKS AS BAD AS OURS.  IF YOU DO MISS YOU WILL SOON BE OUT OF A JOB.   Oh, wait.....

I'd still take Curl over Norwood.

[Bubba's Bruisers]

Tre attended a camp and Arkansas watched him in a game. Each school has a board and evidently they had others in front of Tre and were able to sign them. Three of the four CBs had 20 plus offers while Jordon Curtis had 10 or so. They also signed Korey Hernandez, who could play S or CB. He had a pretty good offer list too.

They signed six DBs and Devion Warren and Jarrod Barnes as athletes that could've also played DB.

I know Tre had a nice offer list. I'm not saying they made the right call or not but just putting the info out there so people may or may not understand their thinking.

I have no problem with him staying true to his board.  I just don't trust his board.

[Bubba's Bruisers]

Again, more to it.

I'm certain there's more to it.  Like what?  That he was a bad apple?  That maybe he never wanted to come to UA in the first place?  What?

[hawginbigd1]

To be fair: Norwood is playing now at OU due to injuries and player losses.  Good for him.  We signed Curl from Muskogee, Ok, who is also starting due to injury. 

We got the better prospect/player in my opinion.  Stand them side by side and you pick.

Yeah we wouldn't want facts like Norwood is playing because of injuries or that he was an 11th hour offer by the Sooners after they missed on Curl and others to get in the way of a good agenda. Also we had already booked 4 commits at DB.
Byers burned his own bridges here, Bama eventually moved on, and he was lucky to land at Mizzou.
Crockett basically had offers from Boise and ended up with Mizzou, a lot of people passed on that 4* RB, so that should speak volumes. However my post history will show that I thought he was a mistake, when we missed on Porter I thought we should have immediately sent that offer to Crockett, with the caveat that I may not know all the reasons why not offer.

[hogginbama]

That is just a whole bunch of rambling excuse making, Bielema apologist, Petrino hating crap.

He actually makes a lot of sense when you look at the numbers signed on each side of the ball each year he has been here. Pretty even, showing an attempt at an even build.

Lets say he did offer those three kids mentioned by the OP over the ones we signed instead of them. If they had washed out everyone would be screaming that he only offered those kids because he was scared to recruit for better players against the big boys.

[SONofHAM]

Last night on his radio show, BB said they don't really mess with recruiting Mississippi.  Huh?? A neighboring state with loads of talent doesn't even get messed with?  Makes no sense

[RideTillIDieHawg]

Probably too much speed for Bret to want them on his team. It's all about one leg squats and being #uncommon aka too slow for the SEC.

[nwahogfan1]

Good thing Coach B didn't offer Tre Norwood from Fort Smith Northside a scholarship. If he did, the kid wouldn't be starting as a true freshman defensive back for the Sooners tonight.  Just one more pimple of incompetence on this staff.

Tre is even a better kid than a player.   He comes from a good family.   They signed 6 DBs they thought were better than Tre  so the reason for not offering Tre.   But I do think they miss on many Arkansas kids so I hope the new staff knows Arkansas and Recruits Arkansas much better than this staff.  I really think we could sign  10+ kids from Arkansas every year which is 3-5 more than what this current staff signed.