Hog Coaching Staff Appears Settled For Future

Bielema was questioned in his post game presser about evaluations within his coaching staff now that the season was over. Bielema volunteered, “I’m not making any changes, No.” Bielema then said he would now sit down with his coaches and make evaluations. The questioner then asked Bielema if there would be changes after the bowl game? Bielema responded, “I’m not making any changes.”

I don’t think this leaves much for having to read between the lines. Bielema is not firing any assistant prior to the 2017 season. That does logically of course still keep Jeff Long in the mix. Long can & should demand changes on that staff.

We fans have a chance here to plainly see just how sick this program really is. If Bielema sticks with this exact coaching staff through a fifth season of this crummy mediocre horrible defensive football. Bielema and that whole bunch needs to be fired after next season along with Long. The fan base from the wealthy boosters to the penniless paupers should demand no less. These people clearly appear to not have the best interest of this proud program at heart. They only have big bank account self-interests.

As far as I am concerned the razorback football program has taken
a big step backwards, if Bielema is not willing to make changes he
should be sent back to Wisconsin and let him play his big 10 style of
football. I personally have had enough of it.

I liked many things Jim Chaney did, but QB development was rough. He should’ve been fired, but wasn’t. Somehow, in the right time, he found a job somewhere else.

I think Chaney was told he needed to look elsewhere, or he would be fired…he took the same position st Pitt…why?

It will work itself out, just because CBB says he isn’t making any changes doesn’t mean their wont be changes ie voluntarily on their part. Whether it be forced by behind closed doors or not. Assistants & Coordinators have left here under CBB on their own accord. Some we didn’t want to lose and some we did.
Get my drift?

You could very well be correct, only time will tell. However Bielema handled it all wrong. My blurting out “No Changes” twice, the first time not even being totally necessary. All he had to say was something like, ‘I will consider nothing along those lines until after the bowl game. My whole coaching staff will then be evaluated as I do yearly.’

He has been a head coach over 10 years, he knows very well how to be diplomatic. He chose not to be twice over. I think he wanted to send a message to disgruntled fans. He did that and probably meant every word. However other things will play into this like big pocketed boosters and maybe even Jeff Long if he has that much good sense. They will bring the results you note. This still however appears to put a notch in the gun of those that see Bielema as a big coaching dud.

Although I don’t want to fire Bielema, I think he does need to make changes on the defensive staff. Then I started to think about his buyout. Why would an AD give a coach such a huge buyout? I thought back to before he was hired and what was going on with the football program.

HC had lost control of the program. APR was taking a nosedive. Players were getting arrested and also leaving the program. The program needed someone to right the ship. Enter Long. He hires Bielema and his marching orders was to reverse all those negative things. Long wanted to recruit good students from good families who would not get in trouble. Bielema would complain that coaches get judged with wins and losses. So Long says, I will give you a $15.9M buyout so no matter how mad the fans get, it will be too expensive to fire you.

So let’s look at recruiting and see if all this makes sense. We ARE recruiting very good students and there really hasn’t been any player who has had a bad run in with the law. While I don’t expect recruiting a lot of 4 star players we are getting basically 3 star players and almost half of them are rated 85 or less. In the last 4 years those players have for the most part not panned out. Yes we have had a couple of exceptions but for the most part players on the lower end of a 3 star rating have been a bust. We can’t win in this league when we are ranked 10th or 11th in the SEC in recruiting!

If we can recruit 10 or 12 players in the upper half of the 3 star ratings then why can’t we have the majority of our class ranked that way. I think Bielema and the coaches are focusing on choir boys first and might ignore a kid who qualifies but they don’t want to risk recruiting those kids because it would displease Long.

Okay, that is my conspiracy theory and it will be out in paperback soon!

Nothing but good analysis of human behavior in this post. The more the stars (let’s include 3+ rated players), the more social privileges and entitlements the players have enjoyed throughtout their youth. I can say that CCB with those 10th-11th rated classes is doing OK to go bowling with a winning record for the last three seasons. Maybe “sprinkle #83” in couple of lower ended 3 star JCs in place of their similar rated counterparts out of high school I would applaud. As our nature, people relish 2nd chances or opportunities due to whatever barriers or circumstances that causes players to go the JUCO route. At least would be more ready to see the feild lot sooner than lower rated players out of high school. We were blessed with Tretola and Speights out of JUCO. Almost just them two at very key positions on the field really helped put the Hogs back on the CFB map! We need to take more chances on getting more of these types of players with something to prove and are anxious and ready to play SEC football. Our scripture is about 2nd chances to people also. Hope this does not get lost in how the Hogs view talented HS recruits as well as jucos…Go Hogs!!!

Our record since 1992, the year we entered the SEC:

Arkansas: 166-137-2. 6 seasons at 9 or better
Ole Miss: 160-140-0. 6 seasons at 9 or better
Miss State: 147-151-2. 4 seasons at 9 or better
Auburn: 207-100-2. 11 seasons at 9 or better

Data from http://www.sports-reference.com/

I never meant in my post to insinuate that 4 or 5 star players didn’t have character but that it’s simply been difficult for us to recruit these kind of players in great numbers. High rated 3 star players after a redshirt year can win but if half your class is filled with lower rated 3 star players your chance diminish drastically.

I can agree on the difficulty of recruiting, well mainly actually signing 4 and 5 star players. I hope it is not the case that the AD wants a focus on players less likely to get in trouble, then CBB would in turn with Long’s full support be focused on the lower rated players out of HS whose families are gracious to receive scholarship from the Hogs. We traditionally start out each recruiting cycle signing majority of these players within 1st 15 slots or so and pretty early without rhyme or reason. We usually still have other 3+, 4 and 5 star players who are interested and also still being recruited by us. But they are also paying attention to who the coaches sign before them. Many wait until after.the regular season is over in December to begin deciding what they want to do. Maybe this is the time frame Hog coaches should take a chance on focusing to improve their recruiting results moving forward, waiting patiently to get what is best fit for the team or those whom definitely should be envisioned to contribute in the SEC.

I don’t think money is the issue akaJerryJonesRazorbackFoundation behind the scenes money. I think some of it is recruiting,some of it is coaching,and some of it is in fact the AD. Out of the three,CBB has power over two of those, but those two are pretty substantial and I sleuth that they are more important together than AD. In the coaching category, the DC has to go at least. CBB just is not going to give a “change the ship order” until after the bowl game IMHO. Let us wait and see. HOGS YA’LL.

Hard to figure that he would be that emphatic about coaching changes. The following defenses in the SEC were either bad or even worse this past season: Arkansas, Tennessee, Ole Miss (the worst), Miss. State, South Carolina, Missouri (and we couldn’t score a point in the 2nd half…go figure). Wommack announced his retirement(?) before the Egg Bowl. There should be major moves on the defensive side of the football at all those other schools. As mentioned even the assistant coaches make some hefty bucks now and when you’re giving up 350+ rushing yards a game you ain’t earning your pay. Now on the recruiting side…let’s be honest with ourselves. Florida, Texas A&M, Georgia, Alabama and LSU do not even have to leave their state to recruit. Tennessee has had a pretty good history of recruiting nationwide. That leaves the rest of us having to get 3 or 4 really good players in-state and then trying to convince players from those other states to come to Arkansas, Miss. State, Ole Miss, Vandy, Mizzou, etc. When Ole Miss got up there with those big boys you see what happened…NCAA investigation. You could have Bill Belicheck(sp.) here and , IMO, he would have a rough time in the SEC West.

I think changes will be made to the coaching staff, but not until after this recruiting class has been secured.

Stars! Once we do recruit a kid the rating normally never goes up even when they commit early! There’s a lot of kids out there that have the heart and desire to play. Winning solves a lot of the recruiting issues and yes we have to win with less than Bama. So what. We can’t complain about it and get anywhere we need to be supportive and be thankful the John L smith year is solidly in the rear view mirror and support our Hogs! I believe Coach BB will make changes as they need to be made. I wish we had Charlie Strong as the D.C. Now we have RS. As long as he is here I think he is predictable and other teams can call plays based on down and distance based on whet Smith has done in the past. We have no pass rush, we can’t stop the run and on pass coverage we never look for the ball. It does not take talent to look for the ball. It takes heart and Desire to swarm the ball on a run. It takes guts to play press coverage on the outside. I want to see the defense from the Florida game! Of course Florida has a challenged ineffective offense. Last year we choked non conference early in the year and played well enough late to win in November. Maybe next year we can have a good start and finish. But we have to start with defense period! I look forward to our bowl game and next year. Look how long it took for Cub fans. Our last big one in 64. We are due and getting there. The recruiting is making progress. WPS!!!

Stars! Once we do recruit a kid the rating normally never goes up even when they commit early! There’s a lot of kids out there that have the heart and desire to play. Winning solves a lot of the recruiting issues and yes we have to win with less than Bama. So what. We can’t complain about it and get anywhere we need to be supportive and be thankful the John L smith year is solidly in the rear view mirror and support our Hogs! I believe Coach BB will make changes as they need to be made. I wish we had Charlie Strong as the D.C. Now we have RS. As long as he is here I think he is predictable and other teams can call plays based on down and distance based on whet Smith has done in the past. We have no pass rush, we can’t stop the run and on pass coverage we never look for the ball. It does not take talent to look for the ball. It takes heart and Desire to swarm the ball on a run. It takes guts to play press coverage on the outside. I want to see the defense from the Florida game! Of course Florida has a challenged ineffective offense. Last year we choked non conference early in the year and played well enough late to win in November. Maybe next year we can have a good start and finish. But we have to start with defense period! I look forward to our bowl game and next year. Look how long it took for Cub fans. Our last big one in 64. We are due and getting there. The recruiting is making progress. WPS!!!

Until we can get recruits who are also being recruited by other P5 schools instead of La. Monroe and Florida Atlantic, then we will struggle to win 7-8 games!

It appears the DC is staying which is a disappointment to me. Looks like we are going to get a scheme change from 4-3 to 3-4. The reasoning appears to be to put more pressure on the offensive line with blitz packages for run and pass. Maybe we will see this in the bowl game as a wrinkle switch to keep VaTech on their heels. Hope so. HOGS YA’LL.