Coaching matters. Why it took Bret Bielema and staff seven games into TJ Hammonds second year to get him on the field with regularity is mind blowing stupid.
A respected member of Hawg Lounge posted last week that he was “fighting apathy” and losing hope in Razorback football. I completely agree, yet, both apathy and hope for me over the years have always been directly connected to the Head Hog and his assistants.
With that in mind, I’m curious about how the lounge contributors would rank the head coaches at Arkansas, after JFB turned in his hog hat and left the game. There are no right or wrong answers and use your own [subjective] factors to make your ranking. On that note, I am going with: i) offense - defense - special teams, ii) player development and talent evaluations, iii) game planning and adjustments, iv) winning percentage, v) conference affiliation, and vi) hopefulness for the program in the future.
Lou Holtz [tie]
Bobby Petrino [tie]
Ken Hatfield
Houston Nutt
Danny Ford
Bret Bielema [tie]
Jack Crowe [tie]
John L. Smith
Bret seemed like a major coup and good hire at the time, but for whatever reason, has proven to be one of the worst head coaches to ever wear the red and white, in my opinion. In addition to being marginal [at best] involving most of my factors listed above, I can’t recall a past coaching staff as woefully incompetent, when it comes to evaluating player talent, than Bielema and company. Too many guys come to mind, in both the present and past, starting with TJ Hammonds.
What say thee, hog brothers and sisters - and, please include your reasons?
I think your ranking is perfect. The only problem with Lou Holtz was he became political (not a good for football coaches to do) in his support of Jessie Helms which clearly hurt in recruiting blacks and likely cost us Keith Jackson and an all America offensive linemen to Oklahoma.
You have one coach totally out of order
Leadership and setting an example for your team to follow is very important. Petrino dead last! He could care less about anyone other than himself. Your thoughts about a self serving idiot surprised me. He caused the most negative press to our hogs than any coach in any sport in our history!
I will say this CBB left a good job to come here. I did not like the hire when it happened. After the second year I felt better. Year 3 I was sold. The last 2 games of last season was a killer. This year we are going to finish right where we were suppose too! If he fails to get these young hogs to compete he may be gone!
CBB may fail here because of his inability to hire a staff and keep good assistants.
He deserves a fair shot from our fan base but he needs to earn in!
Being stubborn will get you beat by sticking to your tendencies of play calling on offense and defense.
Not having the guts to change an ineffective O line. Johnny Gibson had to ask for a chance to start! That speaks volumes to me!
We can’t judge Kurt Anderson’s recruiting until next year. That’s if we still have him.
I think one of the linebacker coaches need to take special teams as an additional duty.
The best coach we have ever had in football was Coach Brooke’s.
I know for sure if he was the AD we would not be talking about this CBB would have been fired after the Toledo game!
Petrino was clearly the best x’s and O’s, play caller, game manager, big b…led, fearless coach Arkansas has ever had. Holtz,especially in the begining of his term was almost as good.Both coaches were not player friendly. Petrino wins the biggest a…hole award.
Hatfield and Bielema were the best men,but in much different ways. Hatfield is a genuinely religious man who cared for his players and was nice to staff, visitors and fans. Bielema is just a good ole boy, one that would be great to have few cold ones with, laughing, and just having a good time. He really cares about his players and is a likeable man.
It is a shame that you cannot get the the coaching results of Petrino and Holtz with the goodness of Hatfield and Bielema. Unfortunately, most of the best coaches are closer to Petrino than Hatfield.
If we want to win and compete with the Saban’s, Spurrier, Lombardi, Belichick coaching tree, you need.a coach more like Petrino than Bielema.
There are some very good coaches that are good men that have been fired because they could not beat the Saban’s. Mark Richt at Georgia was fired then hired by one of the bad boy schools Miami.
The big thing that needs to be done is start winning again, re unite the state,and enjoy Saturday’s again.
If I follow the question, rank the Razorback Football Coaches post Frank Broyles… If the question is about who are the best men, that is for girliemen to discuss and not sports in opinion.
The best football coaches in my view are as follows: Note: The fact FB fired Crowe for poor performance early on should not penalize him, Bielema was actually worse early on, but not fired as many chose to give him an unmerited pass out of belief the program was at a low due to poor recruiting. It was not, embarrassed out of public firing over affair maybe, but not low talent wise. Today we are at a low and recruiting rankings are worse ever. I believe Petrino, Nutt or Holtz could take this team right now and win out.
Petrino
Nutt
Holtz
Hatfield
Ford
Crowe
Smith
Bielema
Before someone wish to try to make a point out of importance of APR and character, then I would submit; for we have seen knowledge wise of CBB as a coach; then why didn’t Long hire an academic professor within the UA System that also was a former football player, and ordained minister to lead the program? We could have saved at least $4 million per year and truly have been uncommon. Right now, the only thing we are is “Last”.
You have one coach totally out of order
Leadership and setting an example for your team to follow is very important. Petrino dead last! He could care less about anyone other than himself. Your thoughts about a self serving idiot surprised me. He caused the most negative press to our hogs than any coach in any sport in our history!
I will say this CBB left a good job to come here. I did not like the hire when it happened. After the second year I felt better. Year 3 I was sold. The last 2 games of last season was a killer. This year we are going to finish right where we were suppose too! If he fails to get these young hogs to compete he may be gone!
CBB may fail here because of his inability to hire a staff and keep good assistants.
He deserves a fair shot from our fan base but he needs to earn in!
Being stubborn will get you beat by sticking to your tendencies of play calling on offense and defense.
Not having the guts to change an ineffective O line. Johnny Gibson had to ask for a chance to start! That speaks volumes to me!
We can’t judge Kurt Anderson’s recruiting until next year. That’s if we still have him.
I think one of the linebacker coaches need to take special teams as an additional duty.
The best coach we have ever had in football was Coach Brooke’s.
I know for sure if he was the AD we would not be talking about this CBB would have been fired after the Toledo game!
Army Hog, I respect your opinion, but must disagree. Bobby Petrino certainly had some personal issues, as do many of us, but I wasn’t using a moral compass to factor in on the competence level of any of the past Razorback coaches. Love him or hate him, Petrino got it done on the sidelines. He also must have run a clean program, otherwise we would be paying for his past sins with the NCAA.
In my opinion, at $4M+ a year, Bielema has been given more than a “fair shot” with the fan base. I do agree that we would not be having this kind of discussion, however, with JFB as athletic director. As with Jack Crowe, Bret would have been well on his way.
If you were to use a moral compass, you might say Petrino is the most improved coach in the NCAA. The man took his mistake like a man is suppose to. He didn’t cry, prayed with wife, and kept his family together. Then he moved on with even more coaching success making more money. But we don’t care about that because that is NOT why he was hired at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville West of Dickson Street. Let me make myself clear, while Petrino is a clearly superior coach, I have supported Bret Bielema until this year. He has been at UA Longer than Petrino was. The program is lowere now than I can ever recall, even the loss to The Citadel because Broyles fix that immediately, no lingering suffering. It is time for CHANGE and to get a real football coach. Please don’t tell me that Help is NOT on the way…
Ken Hatfield, won multiple conference championships and sustained success during his tenure.
Lou Holtz, 1977 team probably the best Razorback team since the Broyles era and perhaps ever. Conference Championship in 1979.
Bobby Petrino, brought us a very exciting offensive brand of football and our 1st appearance in a BCS bowl game. However, no conference championships.
Houston Nutt, came in with a ton of energy and a passion for his dream job and a couple of west division 1st place finishes. In the end he was a better recruiter than a coach and largely underachieved.
Danny Ford, Took over during a turbulent time and during his short tenure did a decent job of recruiting and developing some future NFL players while winning 1 west division title and taking us to our first SEC championship game.
Brett Bielema, took over during another turbulent time as a guy with tons of hype and personality. Hasn’t been able to produce any sustained momentum, hasn’t been able to put a solid coaching staff together and recruiting has been near the bottom of the conference during his tenure.
Joe Kines, never was really anything other than a stop gap while Broyles was trying to figure it out.
Jack Crowe, last on the list for obvious reasons. Most certainly Broyles worst hire as AD and removed immediately after that humiliating defeat to The Citadel.
Brett could have easily tied Jack if they would have gotten beaten Saturday. I don’t know how much more our AD and Board of Trustees need to see, but I’m sure it has to be weighing on them.
Since you apply your logic, I can follow your rankings and can only cite one thing that I question based on your own logic. You state Bret could have tied Jack Crowe if they got beat Saturday. In many ways they did, but you apparently seem to discount the loss to “Holy” Toledo!!! It was Crowe’s first game. He didn’t nor did he deserve a chance for redemption. Broyles fixed. CBB has been giving pass after pass after pass. He is clearly worse that Jack (not tied in my book) for the logic you state. The Chanticleers are 1-8, closest they ever came to any power 5 school was to lose by 31, blown out by Ark State, it was our homecoming, we had apprehension about playing our suppose top be starter. Throw in 0-8 in SEC even with the excuses that year, then this seasons 5 years later, the program is an [color=#FF0000]ABSOLUTE DISASTER of a MESS[/color]. Worse ever by a mile.
I hear where you’re coming from, HA. Frank Broyles knew Arkansas football and the fan base. Like everyone, he made a few mistakes, but his expectations for the program were high - which seems like exactly the right place for expectations to be. Crowe was a mistake, but Frank made sure that it was timely and quickly corrected.
From a few things written and referenced previously on this board, Bobby Petrino may have fallen into Jeff Long’s lap. His hiriing possibly had much more to do with Petrino pursuing the job than Long offering the opportunity. Regardless, BP was/is a helluva coach and Long has been hard pressed to find his equal on the field. Bret doesn’t seem to be in the same ballpark or anywhere near it, for that matter. I will give Long credit for bringing back Mike Anderson, which in my opinion, was an incredibly bold and beneficial move for the BB program
I had Crowe and Bielema tied toward the bottom of my list for their respective coaching achievements at the University of Arkansas. I can vividly remember my lack of confidence and hope for the program during Crowe’s brief tenure as head coach. After 5 years, for me, those feelings have returned. The difference perhaps, sadly, is that Frank Broyles isn’t still around to correct the problem.