Opposing Coach View on Arkansas

[HogPharmer]

There were two times that I would have fired Bielema before he was fired and I said so here at the time. First time was in 2016, the Auburn game. I would have fired him that evening. 2nd time was the CC game last year. Both games were a slap to the face of the AD and BOT that Bielema was incompetent and did not have command of the team. I believe it was obvious the players had no confidence in the leadership and coaching of Bielema. Per usual, the University waited too long to fire a head coach who needed to be fired. Much of that was due to AD Long. He was fired too!

You're starting to sound like a long-winded Delta

[ricepig]

You're starting to sound like a long-winded Delta

Don't insult Delta that way.

[HogPharmer]

Don't insult Delta that way.

Glad we finally run them carpet baggers off and back up to Canada where they belong!

[Ex-Trumpet]

I love this bar!!

[HogPharmer]

I love this bar!!

All Toby Keith fans must spend a month in the prison forum after posting his lyrics before they may post again

[HognotinMemphis]

I guess Gus Malzahn was the coach they spoke with.

Haha. Well, that coach, whomever he is, got it mostly right. Where this guy is beyond ignorant is regarding Bielema losing the team. Are you kidding me? It's as obvious as the nose on your face that Bielema lost that team. And it wasn't just in this past season. They didn't respect his leadership ability. I mean, they went 1-7 in SEC and almost lost at home to Coastal Carolina. They quit on Bret in 2016 at Auburn. They did not respect him as a coach.

[EastexHawg]

Great read thanks for posting.

So much we won’t know until live bullets are flying. Can’t wait to see how CCM does.

The opposing coaches don't know, either.  They were utterly and completely wrong about Bielema.  Talk is cheap.

[hogsanity]

The opposing coaches don't know, either.  They were utterly and completely wrong about Bielema.  Talk is cheap.

The opposing coaches know the players, the talent level, because they recruit and analyze many of the same players out of high school. Opposing coaches know their own players, and the players at other schools. They know who has better talent, better matchups, etc. Fans tend to focus on their teams rb's compared to the opponents, but the real comparison is my o=line against your front 7. My wr's against your db's. Your wr's against my db's, It really does not matter if my rb is better than yours, if my oline cant black for him. It does not matter if my qb is better than yours, if my wr's cant get open.

[bennyl08]

If Bielema had solved the Oline recruiting problem + had not trained the speed out of everybody, he would have been fine. Arkansas was Bielema's first attempt at building a coaching staff from scratch. That effort was an almost total failure. The people who were supposed to be loyal anchors of his regime fled after one season. The mercenaries proved to be mercenaries. That's why Bielema failed to transplant Badger ball to Fayetteville. His program failed to build a good player-development pipeline. And clearly, with his perpetually gimped staff, Bielema was unable to recruit at Arkansas even as well as he did at Wisconsin.

Actual pro day/combine testing showed our speed to be just fine. It wasn't trained out of them. Similarly, Brey Cook and Mitch Smothers are the only regular starters that haven't gone on to either be drafted or make the 53 man roster in the NFL, both guys that Bielema didn't recruit. Swanson (Petrino guy), Tretola, Skipper, Kirkland, Ragnow, and even Cam Jefferson have all been successful with multiple evaluators placing Froholdt as one of, if not THE, best interior OL players in the country for the upcoming draft. Over the 5 seasons Bielema was here, we've never had less than 2 future NFL OL players on our starting group.

Further, he did recruit better at Arkansas than he did at Wicsonsin, at least by 247's reckoning. If you judge recruiting by NFL draft picks, he did average a bit over 3.5 picks per year at Wiscy and only 3.4 picks per year at Arky. But we are talking about a difference of one player drafted over a 10 year span, so hardly a huge difference.

No, what killed Bielema here at Arkansas was exactly what Badger fans said when he came here. Guys a great person, great recruiter, and great developer (which he demonstrated here as well) but he's a bad in game coach. Poor adjustments during games and poor decision making/time management at times. It wasn't that we were too slow or not talented enough. The NFL emphatically would disagree with that. He just couldn't outcoach the opposing sideline. Plain and simple.

[HognotinMemphis]

Actual pro day/combine testing showed our speed to be just fine. It wasn't trained out of them. Similarly, Brey Cook and Mitch Smothers are the only regular starters that haven't gone on to either be drafted or make the 53 man roster in the NFL, both guys that Bielema didn't recruit. Swanson (Petrino guy), Tretola, Skipper, Kirkland, Ragnow, and even Cam Jefferson have all been successful with multiple evaluators placing Froholdt as one of, if not THE, best interior OL players in the country for the upcoming draft. Over the 5 seasons Bielema was here, we've never had less than 2 future NFL OL players on our starting group.

Further, he did recruit better at Arkansas than he did at Wicsonsin, at least by 247's reckoning. If you judge recruiting by NFL draft picks, he did average a bit over 3.5 picks per year at Wiscy and only 3.4 picks per year at Arky. But we are talking about a difference of one player drafted over a 10 year span, so hardly a huge difference.

No, what killed Bielema here at Arkansas was exactly what Badger fans said when he came here. Guys a great person, great recruiter, and great developer (which he demonstrated here as well) but he's a bad in game coach. Poor adjustments during games and poor decision making/time management at times. It wasn't that we were too slow or not talented enough. The NFL emphatically would disagree with that. He just couldn't outcoach the opposing sideline. Plain and simple.

So he is either stupid in general, or stupid as a head coach.

[rtr]

Actual pro day/combine testing showed our speed to be just fine. It wasn't trained out of them. Similarly, Brey Cook and Mitch Smothers are the only regular starters that haven't gone on to either be drafted or make the 53 man roster in the NFL, both guys that Bielema didn't recruit. Swanson (Petrino guy), Tretola, Skipper, Kirkland, Ragnow, and even Cam Jefferson have all been successful with multiple evaluators placing Froholdt as one of, if not THE, best interior OL players in the country for the upcoming draft. Over the 5 seasons Bielema was here, we've never had less than 2 future NFL OL players on our starting group.

Further, he did recruit better at Arkansas than he did at Wicsonsin, at least by 247's reckoning. If you judge recruiting by NFL draft picks, he did average a bit over 3.5 picks per year at Wiscy and only 3.4 picks per year at Arky. But we are talking about a difference of one player drafted over a 10 year span, so hardly a huge difference.

No, what killed Bielema here at Arkansas was exactly what Badger fans said when he came here. Guys a great person, great recruiter, and great developer (which he demonstrated here as well) but he's a bad in game coach. Poor adjustments during games and poor decision making/time management at times. It wasn't that we were too slow or not talented enough. The NFL emphatically would disagree with that. He just couldn't outcoach the opposing sideline. Plain and simple.

You may give a little too much credit to sites such as 247, Rivals etc.  I know to my eye we just look plain slow, although I thought at times some of that was lack of effort.  Also, the players you mentioned are all OLinemen. 

[bennyl08]

You may give a little too much credit to sites such as 247, Rivals etc.  I know to my eye we just look plain slow, although I thought at times some of that was lack of effort.  Also, the players you mentioned are all OLinemen.

First, our team speed wasn't determined by sites like 247 or Rivals. It was determined by combine performances and pro day performances and compared to the NFL combine average performance (noting that ~10% of players make it to the combine, and making a pretty safe assumption that the 90% that don't are on average going to perform worse, such that, so long as we are pretty close to the combine average, we are doing pretty good, and OL/S are the only two positions under Bielema that were significantly below).

Secondly, as for recruiting sites, they are akin to the odds of you winning a poker hand of texas hold'em based on what you are initially dealt before the flop. If you start off with a pair, odds are good of you winning that hand. If are at something like 2/7 off-suit, then that is statistically the least likely hand to win. That is what recruiting rankings/offer lists/HS highlight videos are generally worth. Can you beat pocket aces with the worst hand out there? Yes, and it has happened many times. However, that's just because the game has been played many times. Pocket aces are going to win that hand head to head virtually every time.

We didn't just look slow on the field, the athletes objectively played slow. So, you aren't wrong there. However, there's a difference between being slow and playing slow. A 5.1 forty LB can make a play that a 4.6 LB will be a step to slow on if the slower player was coached better, studied film better, is in a scheme that doesn't make him think and then react, etc... Doesn't mean the 5.1 player is faster. We suffered from some poor coaching, particularly on game days, leaving players a bit lost when it mattered and last season just giving up.

Yes, all of the players I did mention were OL because I was responding directly to a poster. Had they claimed recruitment of a different position was the downfall, my post would have mentioned no OL and only whatever position was mentioned.

[Ex-Trumpet]

First, our team speed wasn't determined by sites like 247 or Rivals. It was determined by combine performances and pro day performances and compared to the NFL combine average performance (noting that ~10% of players make it to the combine, and making a pretty safe assumption that the 90% that don't are on average going to perform worse, such that, so long as we are pretty close to the combine average, we are doing pretty good, and OL/S are the only two positions under Bielema that were significantly below).

Secondly, as for recruiting sites, they are akin to the odds of you winning a poker hand of texas hold'em based on what you are initially dealt before the flop. If you start off with a pair, odds are good of you winning that hand. If are at something like 2/7 off-suit, then that is statistically the least likely hand to win. That is what recruiting rankings/offer lists/HS highlight videos are generally worth. Can you beat pocket aces with the worst hand out there? Yes, and it has happened many times. However, that's just because the game has been played many times. Pocket aces are going to win that hand head to head virtually every time.

We didn't just look slow on the field, the athletes objectively played slow. So, you aren't wrong there. However, there's a difference between being slow and playing slow. A 5.1 forty LB can make a play that a 4.6 LB will be a step to slow on if the slower player was coached better, studied film better, is in a scheme that doesn't make him think and then react, etc... Doesn't mean the 5.1 player is faster. We suffered from some poor coaching, particularly on game days, leaving players a bit lost when it mattered and last season just giving up.

Yes, all of the players I did mention were OL because I was responding directly to a poster. Had they claimed recruitment of a different position was the downfall, my post would have mentioned no OL and only whatever position was mentioned.

Thanks, Benny, great post as always.

[Pudgepork]

QB - I think CK can be effective.  But the offense won't have a potential to reach its max effectiveness until there is a true running threat at qb.  I see CK being a bigger and slightly slower version of Fitzgerald at MSU at best in terms of running in this type of offense.



Uhm, would he compare more to Fitzgerald with or without the broken leg?   Asking for a friend


I would like to hope it could be like 98.  But the SEC is so much better in comparison to that season.