Monday, December 2, 2013

Bret Bielema discovers that coaching in a "better" conference only works if you have a better team



I’m sure that Washington Husky football fans are “thrilled” by the news that Steve Sarkisian has jumped ship to USC, although it probably shouldn’t have come as that great a surprise. Sure, one of the players he recruited tweeted that he was as “fake as a three dollar bill,” but then again people around here have a bloated opinion of themselves, when outside the state some people still think this is place more like some boondock on the fringes of civilization. But if I were a Husky fan (I’m not), I would say that if Sark doesn’t want to be here, then good riddance to bad rubbish; after all the time he was here, he couldn’t raise the team above treading water. 

Now, as a Wisconsin Badger fan, I can say that there is always a silver lining to coaches leaving for “better” jobs: They might do worse in their new home (ha-ha). Take for instance Bret Bielema, who left Wisconsin after being groomed by Barry Alvarez as the face of the program. Bielema was admittedly good at promoting the school while he was coach. His rah-rah and “urban” lingo went down well with certain kinds of recruits who might have looked askance at the Wisconsin cold. He kept a tight ship like his predecessor, and there were no disciplinary slip-ups like the infamous shoe scandal in 2000 that resulted in 26 players being suspended for a few games. 

But Bielima had an unfortunate habit of acquiring the ire of opponents by running up scores late in games, putting his foot in his mouth in press conferences, and putting his foot in his brain during important games—none more exasperating for fans than in the 2012 Rose Bowl, when Bielema inexplicably called three time outs in the third quarter, any one of which was sorely missed when the Russell Wilson-led Badgers were driving for the tying score in the waning moments against Oregon. And last May, Ohio State President Gordon Gee stirred a bit of controversy when he suggested that Alvarez thought Bielema was a “thug,” and one possible reason for leaving was to get out of town “just ahead of the sheriff.” 

And so the “aftershock” of the news that Bielema had accepted the Arkansas job before the 2013 Rose Bowl did not last long. Bielema probably didn’t realize he was stepping into a program that was in free fall following the scandal involving departed coach Bobby Petrino—who had more than one motor running prior to wrecking his motorcycle, one of which happened to be in the area of his groin. Though the team had back-to-back ten-win seasons, those close to the Arkansas program suggested  that this success was smoke and mirrors, and poor recruiting left Bielima a team that wasn’t ready to go anywhere but down with the insertion of a new regime.

I’m sure most people think that coaching in the conference (SEC) which the national media considers the best in the country is a “step up.” That doesn’t mean, of course, that all teams in the conference are created equal, and the SEC overall actually does not have that impressive a record against the power conferences as one would expect. While many in the national media crowed that Arkansas was a “perfect fit” for Bielema, he gave his “reason” for leaving Wisconsin for lack of money. He was reportedly unhappy about the budget dedicated to pay his assistant coaches, and he was promised that money would not be in short supply if he moved to Arkansas.

So how have things worked out? The Badgers more or less have continued their usual winning ways under Gary Andersen, although he is still operating with Bielema’s players. For Bielema, things couldn’t be much worse. After starting 3-0 against cupcakes, Arkansas lost nine straight, including all of its conference games. To be honest, the players Bielema inherited likely were not suited for the kind of offense  he ran in Wisconsin, but even if he does recruit his “kind” of players, it doesn’t follow that it is suited to be competitive in the SEC. Arkansas is further down in the recruiting totem pole in the SEC than Wisconsin is in the Big Ten, and I suspect that Bielema might find his next coaching job a decided step down. And he won’t find many unhappy people in Wisconsin if that happens.

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