November 24th, 2017 at 6:55 PM ^
Nick Saban has killed the SEC.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
Nope. Still is, and always will be, the premier conference in the country.
/s
November 24th, 2017 at 7:56 PM ^
Yeah, no!
November 24th, 2017 at 10:33 PM ^
this isn't due to Saban- BB has just sucked since leaving Wisky and taking that job- its also been bad for him personally, gained a ton of weight and now looks like the team mascot on two legs (4 legs better!).
Bret needs to take some years off CFB- stay home, count his money and get healthy.
November 24th, 2017 at 10:41 PM ^
That's needlessly personal.
November 24th, 2017 at 10:54 PM ^
no... its needfully caring- I have been alarmed at his decline- nobody deserves that
November 24th, 2017 at 11:06 PM ^
He’s responsible for his decline. On and off the field. Push back from the table.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:00 PM ^
at best....
November 25th, 2017 at 7:58 AM ^
More importantly the main take-home from this is:
Who do they have that we want? ;) You think there is still interest in Bumper Pool?
November 24th, 2017 at 11:07 PM ^
They will always be premier at cheating. They have hardly been the premier conference in football the past 2-3 years.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^
I would posit arrogance leading to complacency; the fully exhumed biases of espn toward the SEC is certainly a culprit.
November 24th, 2017 at 9:43 PM ^
He's also responsible for the collateral damage to the Fayetteville restaurant/food industry.
November 24th, 2017 at 6:57 PM ^
So in the SEC that’s McElwain, Butch, Bert, and Sumlin when he’s fired tomorrow. Coaching carousel is going to be nuts this year. OC/DC movement is going to be even crazier.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
Not sure A&M will want to fire Sumlin at this point with so many openings right now. Arkansas, Tennessee, UCLA, and Florida all have head starts. They might be settling for what’s left if they let go of Sumlin now.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:28 PM ^
That genie is already out of the bottle. They've already let him know he's fired after the game.
November 25th, 2017 at 9:28 AM ^
Told that the Chronicle had learned he wouldn't be back next season, Sumlin responded, "I haven't heard that."
. No chill
November 24th, 2017 at 8:03 PM ^
Sometimes you get to a point where you can't keep a guy no matter what the situation is. Sumlin is a dead man walking down there.
This is a pretty crazy market for open positions, though. A couple of teams are going to be making big reaches. Of course, that means it's a good time for some coordinators to get career bumps.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:12 PM ^
Moorhead to Florida. Or TA&M. Or Tenn. Or UCLA.
You heard it here first.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:24 PM ^
I'm seriously hopeful he gets hired. Arkansas wouldn't be a bad landing spot for him.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:51 PM ^
Moorhead is great, I think I speak for the masses.. but we all love Moorhead
November 24th, 2017 at 9:07 PM ^
Moorhead is nice but as a married guy, I’d settle for Occassionalhead
November 24th, 2017 at 9:59 PM ^
you win the interwebz today
November 24th, 2017 at 9:30 PM ^
Drevno? Maybe Pep as his OC?
#BringBackFisch
November 24th, 2017 at 10:05 PM ^
Sumlin as OC ha
November 24th, 2017 at 8:23 PM ^
Maybe, but Texas A&M has more money to throw around than just about anyone else in CFB. They’d be able to land a good head coach if they moved on from sumlin.
If Sumlin didn’t get picked up as a HC coach somewhere else, i would love to Michigan try and snag him on staff as an OC of sorts.
November 24th, 2017 at 9:13 PM ^
The rumor that’s floated around for weeks is they are going to make “a Saban offer” to Jimbo. That’s the move that’ll really make this coaching carousel nuts.
This one has legs because things have obviously been rough at FSU the last two years, Jimbo is annoyed with FSU admin for not keeping up in the facilities arms race, A&M’s AD and Fisher go way back, and his buyout apparently isn’t as beastly as previously reported. Supposedly it’s only equal to the amount owed to his assistant coaches (roughly $7M).
If Jimbo really wants to leave, Texas A&M is a good spot.
November 24th, 2017 at 10:35 PM ^
you can't have any better recruiting school than FL St- Jimbo will do worse anywhere else
November 24th, 2017 at 9:38 PM ^
I doubt Matt Luke gets the job.
November 24th, 2017 at 11:31 PM ^
Good point. Completely forgot the Ole Miss job is open too. So they’ll be hiring at least five new coaches in the SEC. Crazy.
November 24th, 2017 at 6:57 PM ^
He's the 3rd coach in 4 weeks to be fired after losing to Missouri.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:06 PM ^
and has cruised to six straight wins playing no defense and scoring about 50+ pts per game.
LOL.
November 24th, 2017 at 10:39 PM ^
SEC just beats each other up all year. As proof, mizzou magically got way better after SEC play started.
November 24th, 2017 at 6:58 PM ^
Definitely don’t want to rejoin that particular carousel any time soon.
We want the program to be further along but there are extenuating circumstances this year. Plus we don’t have all the data yet. Still have to play the games even if result seems like a foregone conclusion.
There is something to be said for some continuity unless Harbaugh can point to a better solution on offense.
Good luck Bert.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:01 PM ^
Can BERT coach Olinemen?
November 24th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
That would be a sight lol. IIRC though, Bielema rose through the ranks on the defensive side of the ball (LB/DC).
November 24th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
Don't know if that's /s but just b/c BERT coached at Wisconsin and is himself shaped like an offensive linemen doesn't mean he coaches them. His background is as a LB guy--played it and coached them.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
Not gonna lie. Did not peg him to be a linebacker hahaha.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:26 PM ^
He can teach them how to eat
November 24th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
A little churn with offensive staff or hiring some great recruiting assistants would be ok, but I'll take ten years without churn in the HC or program in general.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
But yeah, Bielema did not deliver. Bes year was 2015 with 8-5 finish and Liberty Bowl win.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:17 PM ^
Wow, forgot how mediocre that record was.
The "Saban killed the SEC" line of thinking is real, of course. He has totally upended the conference. But Bielema isn't getting fired for losing to Bama, or even whichever of Auburn or LSU is better in a given year. He's getting fired because he lost three or four other games every year that Arkansas fans reasonably felt they should be winning at least some of the time.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:06 PM ^
I wonder how much he regrets leaving the Big Ten for the $EC now.
November 24th, 2017 at 7:07 PM ^
He is set for life and made way more monet than WI paid
November 24th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
not to mention the barbecue!
November 24th, 2017 at 7:33 PM ^
Set for life doesn’t mean much when your life has been shortened by a decade or so because you’re so fat.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:09 PM ^
technically, his shortened life span reinforces the fact that he's set for life
November 24th, 2017 at 10:38 PM ^
so we can all be set for life- just need a S&W
November 24th, 2017 at 7:41 PM ^
It has been a while, but I remember hearing the reasons Bret Bielema left Wisconsin for pretty much a lateral move to Arkansas was:
- Wisconsin didn't give him a big enough budget to hire/retain asst. coaches
- AD Barry Alvarez micro-managing in the background
- Academic requirements at Wisconsin making it difficult to recruit
I think that the last 2 were also recycled when Gary Andersen left for Oregon State. Wisconsin beatwriters were saying that Andersen wanted to transition to a spread offense, but Alvarez kept overruling him to keep the same formula that has made Wisconsin successful.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:08 PM ^
I don't know how much of the specifics (spread offense micro-managing) are actually correct, but the Andersen departure for a lower level job (from which he was eventually fired!) seems to prove that Bielema left due to circumstances that a lot of coaches would've found frustrating. I thought it was kind of jerk-ish when he left but I think he probably made the right choice if Alvarez was indeed pulling strings.
We know this from unfortunate experience, but ADs should not be involved in any of the on-field decisionmaking in college football. I don't care if Alvarez does know more about football than DB, that's a line that shouldn't be crossed.
November 24th, 2017 at 8:42 PM ^
is he kind of knew what he was signing up for since he was an assistant under Alvarez. Maybe he didn't realize Barry was going to micro manage the program from the AD chair but he should have already known about the academic requirements and been extremely familiar with how Wisconsin paid their assistants.