So far, this unscientific fan poll has him getting about 75% “Approval” or “Strong Approval”.
I like the stability CBB has brought, but I really thought we would see some solid offensive and defensive lines by now.
This kind of sums it up for me:
Worse, they held double-digit halftime leads in the final two games — against Missouri and Virginia Tech — but were shut out in the second half each time and lost both games.
That sure dampened my enthusiasm. After 5 years, we should see some results on the field this season. I hope we do.
After 5 years? Did I fall asleep for a year?
In the real world, the majority of the fan base likes the progress CBB has made in repairing the damage from BP and JL. The message board world is the only place I see much negativity.
There are likely any number of head coaches, some with less experience and some with more, who could have repaired the damage of the two previous HC.
But winning? That seems to be a whole other deal all together.
But I don’t see a coaching change coming whatever the record is this or next year. Unless BB leaves on his own.
What BB is doing, the university administrators love, makes them look good. In turn it makes Jeff Long look good; therefore, BB has a home at Arkansas as long as he likes and gets 7 wins each year, GPAs and grad rates stay up and the police blotter stays clean.
Great post and you may very well be 100% correct !! WPS
Everything is there but the wins
I like Bielema alot…and think the winning is coming. Easily coulda/shoulda been a 9 win year last year. It wasn’t…but I see things improving…especially with the O-line more experienced and going to a defensive scheme that suits our typical recruiting base.
[quote=“HogTreat”]
In the real world, the majority of the fan base likes the progress CBB has made in repairing the damage from BP and JL. The message board world is the only place I see much negativity.
[/quote]Agreed.
Love coach B
Love what he is doing with the team
Love the respect we are earning for doing things the right way
I am certain we will see the wins coming.
His impact is considerable. My wife is not a native Arkansawyer. She is from East Texas and always knew more about LSU and aTm than the Hogs. Since Coach B came along, she has fallen in love with the program. She loves how he cares, how he carries himself and how he builds kids up for life.
I would say she is more the typical Arkansas fan than the handful of message board warriors.
Coach Bielema seems to be a good guy. It would surely be easier to support him if he was winning more than seven games a year and taking us to bowls in places like Dallas and New Orleans instead of Memphis and Charlotte.
If he does not improve the W-L record this season, he will be on the proverbial hot seat.
Coach Bielema is a likable guy. I like him and want him to succeed with this program. He needs to win more than he has so far if he is going to keep his job. This year is very important…8-9 wins and he is good to go. 7 wins or less and his seat is hot.
Don’t give me the crap about Jeff Long loves Bielema and his buyout is too big. Long will support Coach Bielema right up to the day he decides to fire him, if that day comes. No AD is going to say, "Coach John Doe’s job is on the line this year, and he better win or else’. The AD must support the coach until the AD decides it is time for the coach to go.
I remember Jeff Long walking arm-in-arm with Bobby Petrino after the game when we beat Georgia in Athens. They were best buddies during that season. Things change.
Oh.
http://www.cbssports.com/college-footba … ring-2017/
[quote]DESTIN, Fla. – We have our first official hot seat coach in the SEC for 2017.
That would be Texas A&M’s Kevin Sumlin. Don’t ask me, ask Aggies athletic director Scott Woodward.
The second-year AD said as much Tuesday on “The Paul Finebaum Show.”
“Coach Sumlin knows he has to win. He has to win this year. He has to do better than he has done in the past.”
[/quote]
Believe what you like. Fact is, what BB is doing with the football program makes Jeff Long look very good in the eyes of the chancellor and president. The “uncommon” things BB frequently boasts about his program is more important to university administrators than winning football games. Particularly when the money keeps rolling in whatever the very average on-filed production is.
So, yes Jeff Long loves him some BB.
Couple of things could change that love: multiple of 4-8 seasons back to back and plummeting ticket sales. Or, an outright fan revolt, which I absolutely do not see happening.
Fans are conditioned to what they are getting and the vast majority really like BB and what he is doing with the program. As someone posted earlier, Fayetteville games will continue to draw a minimum of 65,000 per game.
I see the love-fest continuing for many more seasons, because at a minimum, most years, BB will win 6 or 7 games per year.
Seeker, believe what you want, but if Coach Bielema is not winning enough…he will have to be replaced. The fans will demand it. I hope he does well…we don’t need another coach, but if has a bad year this year the heat will be on him whether you like it or not.
The real question: What is the definition of “bad”? As much as people want to put a W-L number on that, there’s only one person who knows the definition, and he’s not [and should not be]talking. Don’t want Jeff Long pulling an A&M A.D.
The fanbase is mostly happy with CBB and they know that many of our competitors cheat at a high level. Our fanbase knows how much Bama, OM, AU, LSU. Misstake, UF, UT all cheat today but our older fanbase remembers the SWC days of competing with cheaters. I hear more people over 50 talk about the SWC days in addition to the cheating of the SEC. Our over 40 fan base is quite happy but the younger ones are where the unreal expectations are. It is funny to watch at tailgates or the Hog Banquets as you can see the dividing line with the microwave mentality of the under 30 crowd. The reality is that the majority of Donors and their money come from the over 40 crowd, so that crowd is the one with the real power. The problem and reality is that the younger crowd dominates message boards. There are older people on message boards but few of them are active posters like the young posters. The negative opinions and trash talk attitudes come from the very active and vocal young posters. The young posters think the world revolves around social media and message boards. Most fans are not on a message board so you have to know them and talk to them instead of hiding behind tough guy online personas.
Our older fan base remembers the negative impact of a coaching carousel after Hatfield to Crowe, Kines, Ford then HDN. With HDN our fanbase cast a very negative light upon us with Flying Banners because Murray St. Mafia was losing games while creating division and anger. Now we have another coaching carousel impact with BP, JL, and then Bielema. Most level headed fans recognize that we need stability to counter the impact of the past and present coaching instability. No other school has had to endure what we did with the firing of a winning coach at the HEIGHT of his winning ways. 99% of the time a coach is fired when the fanbase is fed up and tired of their crap, so it is easy for the fanbase to rally around the new guy. Bielema walked into a hornet’s nest with Petrino and Malzahn lovers throwing grenades.
Malzahn’s influence and BP’s firing for corrupt personal and workplace behavior created division that is evident today. I loved BP the coach but did not like the Man and was revolted by the Man and Coach when the truth came out. Let’s not get into a Petrino debate except for the fact that we can all agree that his last year, JL’s year and the National spectacle we became was a major damage on our program and University. The coaching carousels and the drama have hurt us and CBB is the first sense of stability we have had since Hatfield.
I really like CBB and the kids he recruits, but I would love to add a few more higher rated recruits each year. I know he is trying.
I am always amazed at the fickle College Football crowds and their knee jerk willingness to fire coaches if they don’t get “enough” wins. “Enough” wins is different for every school. All you have to do is read this message board after every loss and see people saying “Fire him immediately”. I am amazed because fans never seem to completely think through their decision and the process that comes.
First, if you fire a coach for lack of “enough” wins when he is apparently doing everything else right, what does that tell new potential coaches? Who is going to apply for the job and what kind of program are they going to run? Will they think they have to recruit illegally? Take a lot of grade risk players? Take players with character issues? If all that matters is wins, I think this is the type of players the new coach will build with.
CBB appears to be a very well respected coach around the national coaching circles, despite him making controversial comments at times. He is on the rules committee and comes from a strong coaching tree. If CBB were to only get 6 or 7 wins this year, a lot people will probably ask for his firing. What if Austin, God forbid, where to get injured and were lost for the season early on and we only win 5 games, does CBB get a pass? I think there would be a large percentage of those fickle fans that would still ask for his firing.
In the end, average fans do not think through the process like an AD does. Who out there would be available to replace CBB if he were fired? That is the key question. If there is a high caliber “can’t miss” coach available, like Jim Harbaugh and Michigan, it would be hard for me to justify the firing of CBB for lack of “Enough wins”. Unless CBB does something bad from a conduct standpoint, I think his firing would leave our program in a bad position to recruit a new coach. We would have to take a chance on someone who is young and unproven or experienced but has flaws. Either way we are most likely starting over again and “rebuilding”.
I think there is a second key question: Are there enough boosters wanting this to happen to pay for his buyout, his staff’s buyout and a potential buyout of a new head coach from somewhere else? That’s a key consideration. Ultimately someone has to foot the bill for these changes. A change in head coaches can cost into the tens of millions of dollars over a few years.
+1 to both Hog Treat and BeachedHawg. Something else to consider. A few in Michigan are already beginning to sour a little bit on Dream Coach Harbaugh because he has yet to beat Ohio State. Also, according to some national sportswriters, Harbaugh wears on people after a while, so the suggestion is he better win quickly. Now, how many Hog fans would have wanted to hire him? Most because of the name. There’s much more to consider in hiring and firing a coach than most think about. And never forget–when you fire a coach, you are putting a lot of people (not just that coach) out of a job and uprooting families, not all of whom were making seven-figure or even six-figure incomes.