Bielema Leaves Whisky for Arkansas.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--sou ... 32340.html

I'm gonna miss that fat asshole.

Bret Bielema had a problem with Urban Meyer's agressive recruiting. Wait until he's surrounded by 13 other piranhas in the SEC.

-11W twitter.

WTF is Arkansas doing?

[peeker643]

Bwahhhhhh!!!!

What a douchebag.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--sou ... 32340.html

[FUDU]

He's running scared.

I liked this thread better FTR.

[noles1]

Loved this for so many reasons...

1) The comment above related to Big Ten vs. SEC

2) BB I truly relizes at Wisky there is zero answer for OSU in the years ahead

3) so he leaves but he leaves to go somewhere which will almost assure him that he'll be coaching back at his alma mater, Iowa, in 4-5 years. No way he is successful at Arkansas in an environment that he has long since spoke against... good luck completely changing yourself Brett...

4) The SEC West division... again, enjoy Brett

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't see how in the hell this is going to end well for BB or Arkansas. This is a round peg in a square hole in my opinion. Although the whining on SEC media days from BB once he learns of the ways of over-signing and rival recruiting will be epic.

Hoping he gets so riled up he pulls the cover off the extreme shady practices in the SEC.

[bac5665]

Great news for the B1G. Arkansas will be trash for a decade.

[furls]

I guess he realized that Wisco is a sinking ship and that they will never again be better than 2nd place in their division. Sounds like tOSU arrogance, and I am sure it is, but the Tressel days are over. Meyer is not going to sign every decent OH kid and hope for 1-2 national elites to fall in his lap. Meyer is going to take the best 5 in OH, grab a couple of camp offers from OH, and put his efforts on national elites across the country.

Meyer and OSU can do that, Brett and Wisco... they cannot.

[Govbarney]

Hazell should hold off on taking the Purdue job, until he gets a chance to interview at Whisky.

[idoctribefan]

With 3 straight Rose Bowls his stock will never be higher, seeing as how Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl won't be happening near as often (if ever) with Urban sitting atop the Leaders Division year-in and year-out. He's taking the big payday, going to take his lumps for a few years, and then like Noles said he'll be back to a place where he's more comfortable by 2017.

[swerb]

Arkansas = idiots.

[e0y2e3]

If Cryst goes to UW that would cause a interim coach for the bowl game and then a full time replacement, leaving Pitt at eight coaches since 2010.

Also, as much as I hate Brett you can't really blame the guy for leaving a year after he lost SIX assistants.

[BruceK]

My first reaction was to add this to the Urban Meyer KIA list - except for the fact he is going to the SEC, where he will face about six Urban Meyers.

Got to be a pretty big check to put up with living in Fayetteville.

[danwismar]

Big Ten loses Bielema....lands Hazell.

Sounds like a net gain to me.

[mattvan1]

Petrino - Smith - Bielema.

Baby Jesus in a manger that's the trifecta of dysfunction.

[furls]

My first reaction was to add this to the Urban Meyer KIA list - except for the fact he is going to the SEC, where he will face about six Urban Meyers.

Got to be a pretty big check to put up with living in Fayetteville.

Well played regarding Urban Meyer KIA list.

[dmiles]

I am sure he knows going against Sumlin, Saban and Miles will be no walk in the park.

I think he saw this as the time to cash in. Three years, and set for life if he can keep off the co-eds and away from strippers.

[skatingtripods]

Blows my mind the number of CFB writers that were tweeting about how it was a great hire for Wisconsin. Bielema's a good recruiter and has had nice results in a watered-down Big Ten conference, but the guy is lost during the game.

[kman_holla8]

Bielema habit of running up the score,, being selfish, and having a general lack of respect for other coaches will fit right in.

[kman_holla8]

Petrino - Smith - Bielema.

Baby Jesus in a manger that's the trifecta of dysfunction.

LOL! Awesome. How can it get worst after BB, maybe Lane Kiffin gets fired and he wants to go back to being the big (lame duck coach) fish in a small pond.

Arkansas you have a problem.

[gotribe31]

A national writer was paid to pen this sentence:

Bielema's exit has to feel like a giant middle finger to the Big Ten.

And then this gem:

Bielema can succeed at Arkansas.

Yikes.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... xid=cnnbin

[fairvis]

It's become quite en vogue to rip on the B1G for everything that happens (while praising the SEC on one side and just forgetting the PAC exists). Bielema had Arkansas back up the Brinks truck, and knows that Urban's going to run train on the B1G for a while, and he probably wouldn't win the division title for the next few years.

He might also (long-term) want to go back to his alma mater at Iowa, which would be hard to go from one B1G school to another. This way, when Ferentz finally leaves after his contract is up, he can leave Arkansas without too much of an issue.

The problem is that Wisconsin may hire someone competent to fill his shoes. Recruiting up there is tough (outside of those good old-fashioned Midwestern corn-fed farm boys at 6' 6" and 330 lb) and they certainly have the resources to deal with, but they're going to be a middle-of-the-pack team on most years. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

[neoleo]

It's become quite en vogue to rip on the B1G for everything that happens (while praising the SEC on one side and just forgetting the PAC exists). Bielema had Arkansas back up the Brinks truck, and knows that Urban's going to run train on the B1G for a while, and he probably wouldn't win the division title for the next few years.

He might also (long-term) want to go back to his alma mater at Iowa, which would be hard to go from one B1G school to another. This way, when Ferentz finally leaves after his contract is up, he can leave Arkansas without too much of an issue.

The problem is that Wisconsin may hire someone competent to fill his shoes. Recruiting up there is tough (outside of those good old-fashioned Midwestern corn-fed farm boys at 6' 6" and 330 lb) and they certainly have the resources to deal with, but they're going to be a middle-of-the-pack team on most years. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

I don't think Meyer and OSU's potential dominance has anything to do with it, because if it did he woulnd't have joined the hardest division in college football. He went from being guaranteed number 2 in his division to playing Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M every year (and eventually a rebuilt Auburn).

He went for money, and that's the reason the SEC is the SEC, and why I agree that it's a big middle finger to the Big 10. Even the crappy SEC teams in the middle of nowhere can go out and pay for the guy they want and poach him from a top team in a BCS conference. This would be like Iowa hiring Les Miles.

(And by no means am I saying Brett is a good coach or that Arkansas did well in this hire)

[danwismar]

I think it was LP who said it earlier, but I agree that BB has really maxed out what he can do at Wisconsin, and there really was no place for him to go but down. Part of it is the specter of facing Urban Meyer from now on, but I don't think that's a huge piece of it. He's won three straight conference titles, and no matter who the divisional competition is, he has no climbable mountains left at Wisky.

Yes, there's the money, but the guy also has to be sensitive to being the object of mockery and disdain from most of Big Ten country. He's not well-liked by most everyone, and he has to know it....not that he'll all of a sudden be worshiped in Fayettville or anything...

Also...every week he has to come to the stadium and walk past the statue of his boss Barry Alvarez outside Camp Randall...and know he'll always be second banana in Madison as long as that guy is around. I really do think that's part of it too.

[danwismar]

BTW, good info on all these coaching changes available at footballscoop.com and at coachingsearch.com

Pete Roussel of CoachingSearch is also a good Twitter follow : @coachingsearch

[googleeph2]

Blows my mind the number of CFB writers that were tweeting about how it was a great hire for Wisconsin.

Comes from their respect for the B1G Conference.

[leadpipe]

Not sure if running off tackle 75 times a game is gonna move the ball too well against some of those fronts.

[furls]

I don't think Meyer and OSU's potential dominance has anything to do with it, because if it did he woulnd't have joined the hardest division in college football. He went from being guaranteed number 2 in his division to playing Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M every year (and eventually a rebuilt Auburn).

He went for money, and that's the reason the SEC is the SEC, and why I agree that it's a big middle finger to the Big 10. Even the crappy SEC teams in the middle of nowhere can go out and pay for the guy they want and poach him from a top team in a BCS conference. This would be like Iowa hiring Les Miles.

(And by no means am I saying Brett is a good coach or that Arkansas did well in this hire)

I am sure money is part of it. He did get a nice 700K bump ($2.5MM to 3.2MM), but to say there is not more to this than money is dumb. I will give you that the SEC West is the hardest division in the NCAA, that is a fact, but the Arkansas expectations are a lot more manageable than Wisco's right now. Wisco fans are expecting Rose Bowls and conference championships, that is something that he will not be able to provide. Arkansas fans are content with losing decent games to 'Bama and LSU and rising up and beating one of them every couple of years.

The difficulty of a job is not a function of the conference/division alone. It is a function of the division and the fan/AD expectations. The cupboards in Madison are starting to run bare. Next year's impending 7-5 or 8-4 season is going to start making his seat hot in Madison and coaches on hot seats do not get lucrative job offers. Meyer is not the reason Bielema is out, but he is part of it. Bielema will not be able to meet expectations and with Meyer coming in Bielema's stock will never be higher.

[kman_holla8]

There is some talk here in KC that if Chiefs turnover Crennel and somehow allow Pioli to hire 3rd head coach since '09, he will turn to his buddy Kirk F from Iowa, thus allowing BB to drop into Hawkeyeland.
(Pioli's track record of putting people around him who are former patriots coaches reminds me of another under-employed gm who was hired around the same time as pioli)

[Fire Marshall Bill 2.0]

What's the difference between coming in 3rd in a Big '20' conference and coming in 3rd in the SEC?

I know it will surprise Furls and a few others to no end but, its not always about OSU

Guy went for the money and a warmer climate since Whisky is no more of a national powerhouse than R-Kansas

...and tons of coaches have changed schools between the reg season and bowl season...some, too, have stayed...

None of this is new

[neoleo]

I am sure money is part of it. He did get a nice 700K bump ($2.5MM to 3.2MM), but to say there is not more to this than money is dumb. I will give you that the SEC West is the hardest division in the NCAA, that is a fact, but the Arkansas expectations are a lot more manageable than Wisco's right now. Wisco fans are expecting Rose Bowls and conference championships, that is something that he will not be able to provide. Arkansas fans are content with losing decent games to 'Bama and LSU and rising up and beating one of them every couple of years.

The difficulty of a job is not a function of the conference/division alone. It is a function of the division and the fan/AD expectations. The cupboards in Madison are starting to run bare. Next year's impending 7-5 or 8-4 season is going to start making his seat hot in Madison and coaches on hot seats do not get lucrative job offers. Meyer is not the reason Bielema is out, but he is part of it. Bielema will not be able to meet expectations and with Meyer coming in Bielema's stock will never be higher.

I agree to a point about expectations, however Arkansas forced out Houston Nutt who was the king of the 8 win season. In fact, Nutt resigned right after beating LSU. If 8 wins and upsetting Bama/LSU every once in a while is what Bielema is hoping to accomplish, he's going to be in trouble.

And when I talk about money, it's just not the healthy bump he got in salary. It's assistant's salary, recruiting budgets, etc. He's going to a place that will give him whatever resources needed to get the job done. Period. And outside of OSU and mighigan, that doesn't happen in the Big 10.

[Govbarney]

There is some talk here in KC that if Chiefs turnover Crennel and somehow allow Pioli to hire 3rd head coach since '09, he will turn to his buddy Kirk F from Iowa, thus allowing BB to drop into Hawkeyeland.
(Pioli's track record of putting people around him who are former patriots coaches reminds me of another under-employed gm who was hired around the same time as pioli)

This will never happen because Kirk never leaves Iowa, because its Kirk who knows where all the bodies are buried in the cornfields around campus. That is the only rational explanation for why the Iowa AD not only keeps him around, but continues to give him raises.

[furls]

What's the difference between coming in 3rd in a Big '20' conference and coming in 3rd in the SEC?

I know it will surprise Furls and a few others to no end but, its not always about OSU

Guy went for the money and a warmer climate since Whisky is no more of a national powerhouse than R-Kansas

...and tons of coaches have changed schools between the reg season and bowl season...some, too, have stayed...

None of this is new

You're right. It is not all about tOSU. This is about Bielema's stock, which will never be higher than it is right now. Meyer in the B1G will hurt Bielema's stock and Wisco is going to take another step back next year. I would say that his stock is actually a bit lower today than it was this time last year, and if Brett is going to keep moving up the chain to one of those "desitnation" jobs, it is really a now or never as people are not going to be dying for a coach that finished 7-6, 8-4 (2013) and lost 3 straight Rose Bowls. R-Kansas is a lateral move for Bielema with a bit more money as previously discussed, but I don't think it is a destination job (neither is Iowa is or Wisco). There are only a couple in each major conference + ND.

SEC:
-UF?
-'Bama
-LSU
-Auburn?

B1G:
-tOSU
-scUM
-PSU (used to be and will once again be in a few years).

ACC:
-FSU
-VaTech?

B12:
-UT
-Oklahoma

PAC:
-USC
-Oregon?

and of course ND.

[TribeinLA]

Bad move for these reasons:

This is a coach who played for a team with no recruiting base in college and then he's now a coach at a university with no recruiting base. Arkansas, like Iowa and Tennessee and Kansas and Arizona and yada yada, has to depend heavily on other states. They need north Louisiana (which Bama and LSU have the monopoly on now); heavily on mid and east Texas (which Texas, Oklahoma, A&M, and LSU do better in); attempting to rely on the St. Louis market -- which spawns nothing spectacular. Then, Hogs rely on what little in-state base they do have in Springdale, Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Forth Smith, Fayeteville, and Magnolia -- all of which are mainly northern Arkansas cities/towns. Southern Arkansas looks like an atomic bomb was dropped and what was left hung around and didn't do much rebuilding. Places like Crossett, Huttig, Emerson, and Junction City produce more basketball than football. Imagine, Buckeyes, if all you had was Cleveland to recruit from and Michigan was off limits for most part? That's Arkansas in a nut shell.

BB thinks it's a good move because Arkansas and Broyles/Jerry and co. will open up checkbooks if you recruit and win; by the same token they'll cut your head off and tell the world you should be dumped in an ant bed. They are a university that is not part of the "haves" of the SEC -- Bama, LSU, A&M, Auburn (yes, despite their 3-9 season), Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee makes the list b/c of its penis size. SC, Mizzou, Arky, Miss State, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Vandy will never win a national title in football. The former 6 -- 5 have and will again. In any case, better pay and better facilities...yeah, a better conference, too. BB better take Hogs bowling immediately and then demand to resign another contract that he can Derek Dooley the hell out of when he goes 4-8 over the next two seasons.

I have a feeling this won't end in a happy marriage. Had Petrino learned to ride a motorcycle, who knows what Arkanas might have become? Gundy was no fool for turning down offer. He coaches for a university that if it wins 9 games, he gets incentives and praise for being a Holiday and Alamo Bowl maniac -- T Boone Pickens and co. basically throws his wallet out the window when he drives by Gundy's house. Bielema will enjoy the pay as a young coach; he'll get slaughtered playing in a division that is a gauntlet. Enjoy, BB. You'll be a defensive coordinator at Iowa in no time.

[TribeinLA]

I don't think Meyer and OSU's potential dominance has anything to do with it, because if it did he woulnd't have joined the hardest division in college football. He went from being guaranteed number 2 in his division to playing Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M every year (and eventually a rebuilt Auburn).

He went for money, and that's the reason the SEC is the SEC, and why I agree that it's a big middle finger to the Big 10. Even the crappy SEC teams in the middle of nowhere can go out and pay for the guy they want and poach him from a top team in a BCS conference. This would be like Iowa hiring Les Miles.

(And by no means am I saying Brett is a good coach or that Arkansas did well in this hire)

Arkansas fans are content with losing decent games to 'Bama and LSU and rising up and beating one of them every couple of years.

When Arkansas goes to the Cotton or Sugar Bowls, their fanbase thinks they're going to the moon. If BB can get them to one of the two in two seasons, he'll have himself a new extension with a big pay bump. Broyles will ensure.

[furls]

Great posts Tribe!

Very well thought out and detailed. Thanks.

BB's expectations at Wisco were becoming Rose Bowl, and frankly those expectations are not realistic anymore. Meyer changes the game, but so does Wisco. They were on a hell of a run for that program, and it is not a sustainable run based on the way the school recruits. They have hit paydirt a couple of times, but it isn't realistic to expect to win the B1G consistently with the mediocre talent they bring in.

If he can get R-Kansas to sniff the Rose Bowl,then he wins, just like you said.

[TribeinLA]

Thanks furls. I know the area well. Coached HS ball in NW LA for a few years. Now in south LA. Arkansas will pay him. They will love him. Then, ala Nolan Richardson, Houston Nutt, Petrino (his own doing), etc. he will get his head chopped off in front of millions of stone throwing hypocritical croneys. A marriage that will last 3 years tops.