Well he had to hire assistant to assistant NFL caches it seemed…
I will say this, not keeping Steve Caldwell on his initial was a mistake….
But I’ll also say, Paul Rhodes I thought would be a really strong hire…
And Rory Segrest is coaching in the NFL now…
You mention Caldwell and I absolutely agree, which brings me to another question, that maybe Clay can answer. When we have had good DLINE play over the last 20 years, who has been our DLINE coach? What’s been the link there, that we don’t have right now?
Yes. Kingsbury did. He did not need a fullback with Mahommes. That was a tight game.
I am not involved any more. I am not in news gathering position and don’t keep up. Sorry. I worry about whether or not the fly way for ducks in Arkansas has changed and will the dissolved oxygen improve in the White and Norfork any time soon.
Not Clay, but in my opinion we’ve had good DL play when we’ve had good SEC level players…. Jim Washburn and Danny Ford sure could find that diamonds in the rough…. And Steve Caldwell sure could recruit them…. Ryan Hale and Melvin Bradley from in state not that highly recruited, many a season we could have used those guys….
To my memory the fragility began earlier in the season with the 56-3 beat down at Auburn. I never did understand how we could get beat that badly–my mom probably should have told me and my dad to close our mouths if we didn’t want to catch any flies. We got some nice wins after that, like against #11 FL the next week, but then MO and the Bowl happened so it was all downhill after that.
I can’t answer the OP question. I never could understand how Coach B could allow the Oline to deteriorate as much as it did his last year. But I think the main reason is that we only had one year under his reign where the defense was pretty good.
I get it, but in fairness, my question was about when you were involved. Obviously, our DLINE has not worked since you’ve retired, but you seem to know the DLINE coaches and who helped and who didn’t and why. I was just asking at the coffee table.
edit: I now realize I asked you two questions. Thinking about DLINE. Maybe RD can speak to the coaching pool (although I was asking about opinion really).
Brett appeared to have developed a drinking problem while working for us. His first staff had ace recruiters like Charlie partridge Chris ash Sam Pittman and michael smith. When those guys left, either for head coaching jobs or simply better spots, due to bielema’s issues, good and bigger name coaches didn’t want to work for him. The entry level pro guys were all he could get to take the jobs.
Without ace recruiters the talent level fell off such that when good players got hurt, the depth was like our secondary this year.
Do I think he could’ve fixed it? I am not so sure. What I do know is he didn’t have anyone with ties to Texas Georgia or Florida to get elite recruits.
The dearth of talent Chad Morris inherited compounded the problems that came with Morris.
He was a raging drunk at the end of his tenure.
Pittman left, in part, because Bret f’d up the recruiting of a couple of OL because he was too worried about partying instead of recruiting. Know this for a fact. No love lost between Pittman and Bielema.
Should have been fired at end of 2016.
I wonder if he has matured in the intervening period until the present. He had qualities beyond his compensation by alcohol but that seemed to be his downfall. Lazy as in self-discipline is a good adjective though I would preface that with psychological. I will always recall the mess he made in the recruitment of the 5-star tight end.
I keep hearing this but do you why they didn’t want to work for him?
Any idea why? He’s seemed have some decent jobs since leaving so seems like he’s got it together.
For now, and I hope he stays sober and focused on being a good husband and father. Whether his teams win or lose is not my concern. He’s not coming back here. Ever. He had an opportunity to do great things here, and he blew it.
O you can’t say stuff like this about Bret!
You’re correct, unintentionally so. BB would absolutely have grounds for legal action for slander. And these two wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on.
He also had his first child at the end of his tenure. That sure made me lose focus. He’s 38 now, no longer a newborn, but I don’t know whether I’ve gotten my focus back yet 
.
Slander only if false statement proven to be untrue.
All I know is that the defense was good with Flowers and Philon. Was not without them. The technique with what Segrest talk was awful. I documented that in interview with Jim Washburn.
Please forward to him and see if he wants to file a lawsuit. Gotta a feeling he wouldn’t like the discovery process.
We should be cautious of the tough-guy internet talk.
I witnessed a coaching “issue” year ago (not CBB and his alleged drinking) where message board fans were all up in arms. The issue was dismissed by most, but having witnessed it (more than once) I knew differently. I gave up discussing it publicly because it pointed a finger at a beloved Hog player for having stirred up stuff in the locker room. I KNOW it stirred it up, and witnessed the stirring as it happened. But, because it was an unpopular bit of evidence, many internet fans dismissed it. If I had experienced it once, I should not over-react. When I experienced it a couple of times, and then got corroboration from a trusted source close to the team…I didn’t feel bad about my conclusion.
A lot of coaches have a drink every now and then. There is a big difference between mistakes being made while, by chance, also having had a drink…and being an alcoholic and having it cause the mistakes.
Before brashly standing behind a lawsuit, remember that we just had one with CBB that was eventually settled out of court. If UA had a leg to stand on with CBB’s drinking that could have been used to dismiss any payment to him a settlement (violation of contract). Discovery is a dangerous thing.