[OT] Bret Bielema fired as Arkansas HC

Submitted by Scarlatina on

Source.

"University of Arkansas, Fayetteville interim Athletic Director Julie Cromer Peoples announced the firing of Bielema on Friday, minutes after a 48-45 loss to Missouri at Reynolds Razorback Stadium."

MonkeyMan

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.

I Like Burgers

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.

stephenrjking

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.

I Like Burgers

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.

aiglick

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.

stephenrjking

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.

 

Scarlatina

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.

stephenrjking

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. 

 

funkywolve

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.