I overlooked the original coach friendly buyout of almost $12 million for coach Bret Bielema (BB). However, after several years of not winning, Jeff Long not only gave BB a raise he increased the buyout from $3.2 million to $11.7 million at the end of this football seaon. The drunk off the street would not be that foolish.
I don’t know what outstanding coach Arkansas could hire. However, if you the winning percentage of BB with Broyles, Lew Holtz, Ken Hatfield, Houston Nutt, and Bobby Petrino, clearly BB is substandard.
Our last 4 games against real teams. @Mizzou, VT, TCU, and A&M.
Someone please defend ALL these consecutive loses and tell me where we’re improving. Also we just lost another recruit as well.
I’d leave too if I was them.
Please defend… 10-23 SEC record now. Under .500 coach against everyone. And this is Year 5
Highly likely that Long didn’t make the decision alone. Chancellor and the board of trustees had to approve something like that.
Still, even with the approval process being what it is, Long should be fired for incredibly poor judgement, for even suggesting/recommending such a contract, exposing the program to that type financial risk.
I think you could make an argument General. Bret got his raise in Feb 15. At that time in two seasons, Bret had won 2 SEC games. JLS won 2 SEC games in 1 year. The raise and buyout is a pretty B1G mistake.
Then you show an incredible lack of appreciation for how critical judgement, or lack of it, is for a business leader. Jeff, IMO, put himself in a position of weakness, extending BB contract with the large buyouts. If BB has to be terminated and collects a large buyout, Jeff might pay with his job.
Ultimately, I don’t think the decision to retain or terminate our HC will be left up to Long. And, therein lies the danger for Jeff.
Considering he’s substantially raised our budget and gathering funds, I’d say your first statement is debatable. While I agree the buyout puzzles me, I’d be more inclined to hold your view, if just about every coach in the SEC didn’t have big buyouts themselves. It seems to be the norm.
I stated that I overlooked the original buyout. However, greatly increasing the buyout and salary after several years of losing football is foolish. Nor can I say he did a good job in other sports such as hiring a head coach that had never coached before.
Long’s done a great job with our athletic department! Bret Bielema is the one under performing…we’re 1 of about 8 athletic programs in the country who operate in the black. Long will get us a new football coach…too bad he missed on Bielema. Watching Bielema take down that great Arkansas team featuring McFadden had me feeling good about the hire. After year 3 losing to Toledo and Texas Tech at home i knew it wasn’t going to work but most fans were behind him. He ended with an 8-5 record. Bret’s a good salesman…but he’s selling snake oil. Fans and Long all bought some. As fans continue to jump ship Long will do what he has to do…Fire the coach
Razorback revenue has increased during Mr. Long’s tenure for three primary reasons:
SEC Revenue sharing. Mr. Long was NOT part of the negotiation that secured the broadcast agreement that led to the boon in revenue that exists today but will NOT last forever.
Petrino bounce. The return to relevance led by the former head coach was a boon to contributions.
Integrity bounce. Mr. Long’s publicity boost enhanced revenue for a period of 18 months immediately following his firing of Petrino. This also led to him being named chairman of the Playoff Committee and being perceived as “America’s A.D.”.
There’s NO longer a Petrino bounce. The bloom is off the rose on the “Integrity” bounce as well. It’s time ARKANSAS had an athletic director all it’s own. Time for Mr. Long to go and take Coach Bielema with him.
We are a Top 25 Program held hostage by our own poor leadership. Clean house…it’s past due and it’s the only thing left for us to do.
Reallly? Name calling? Already? That’s usually reserved (like apparently now) for those without a reasonable opposing view.
While it is true that many schools have high dollar buyouts, THOSE buyouts are designed to protect their programs from losing their coach to another employer (college or NFL). Those buyouts don’t shackle their programs to their head coach while allowing their head coach to leave for a tiny fraction of what it would have to pay to fire him.
We have an A.D. who placed protecting his hire OVER protecting our Program. If you’d read the buyout and knew it’s provisions, it’s likely that you would come to the same conclusion. Welll…maybe not.
At this point, idiot seems to be the only logical answer to some of the stupidity I’ve seen on social media. I’ve given my reasonable view numerous times here, so I don’t feel the need to repeat every detail, every time a new poster comes along. And the buyouts is only one aspect I’ve spoken about.
And your last paragraph is pure speculation based on your opinion of intent in Bielema’s contract, so I don’t see your view as any more reasonable as others who have posted other silly ideas here.
If Bielema had an opportunity to leave Arkansas this calendar year(a laughable prospect, I know), his buyout is only $3.5 million and goes down from there each calendar year. There’s NOT any school in the top half of all the Power 5 conferences that couldn’t pay that easily (not to mention the NFL).
Contrast that if we choose to fire him in the current year, we would owe him $15.4 million (the largest buyout in SEC history).
You may come to a different conclusion (although it’s very hard to logically do so) but most will call Bielema’s buyout protecting the coach NOT protecting the program. Who’s responsible? Jeff Long.
Look at Louisville, where Tom Jurich, the man who hired your hero twice (the second time after he disgraced himself here), is about to be out on his butt.
Why? Because Jurich only demanded that his coaches win, not that they do little things like stay off probation, not pay for their girlfriend’s abortions and keep hookers out of the dorm.
So Rick Pitino is out after his third scandal in recent years. The NCAA will have no choice but to drop the hammer on UL basketball for buying players with Adidas money. And Jurich will no longer be around to protect Bobby Petrino the next time Bobby goes back to being Bobby. Maybe Bobby is buying players with Adidas money too. This FBI investigation is far from finished, and it may go beyond basketball before it’s over.
Jeff Long, by contrast, demands that we play by the rules, even if some of our competitors don’t. If he turned into win-at-all-costs Tom Jurich, I wouldn’t want him. You probably would love a Jurich, but that’s your problem.