Look to Georgia and LSU for proof that Bret Bielema works at Arkansas under less stressful conditions than the average Southeastern Conference football coach.
Georgia, in a mushy farewell statement on Thanksgiving Sunday, bade adieu to Mark Richt after 15 seasons, although extending "the opportunity to remain on our staff." A coach with two SEC titles and only one season with fewer than eight wins becomes a classic victim of "what have you done for us lately."
Something tells me Richt can, and will, do better than become "heavily involved with outreach programs for former (Georgia) football lettermen ... as well as other University and Athletic Association initiatives," as outlined in Georgia athletic director Greg McCarty's statement.
Richt could stay in the SEC East if Missouri, seeking Gary Pinkel's successor as head coach, comes calling. Like Richt at Georgia, Pinkel stayed at Missouri 15 seasons, stepping down for health-related issues in a 5-7 slide after leading the Tigers to back-to-back appearances in the SEC championship game.
On the whole, Missouri people appreciated having a coach whose bedrock integrity was vital to holding his team together during a racial crisis on the Columbia campus this fall. Richt isn't much in the charisma department (neither is Pinkel), but come to think of it, Nick Saban doesn't win many press conferences at Alabama.
Richt's last Georgia team defeated two ancient rivals having off years (Auburn and Georgia Tech) but lost to Alabama, Florida and Tennessee -- a deadly parlay that makes a coach with a 9-3 record expendable in the eyes of school officials. Hey, no one ever said this business was fair or for the squeamish.
LSU's 11th-hour decision to keep Les Miles as head coach came after many turned off their TV sets on a full day of football watching. The school athletic director came to the podium and said simply, "Les Miles is our football coach and will continue to be our football coach." Next question.
That announcement capped a Baton Rouge lovefest for LSU's 11th-year head coach on the final playing date of the regular season. Miles was cheered loudly and carried off the field after a 17-9 triumph over Texas A&M that snapped the three-game losing streak (Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss) that reportedly endangered the coach's job status.
So, LSU is spared the ordeal of strong-arming boosters for the $15 million necessary to buy out Miles' contract. And some up-and-coming head coaches ready to take that next step upward (Tom Herman at Houston comes to mind) might look at Georgia now that LSU has resolved its leadership question.
"Lot of pressure mounting in Baton Rouge to keep Les. Governor getting in on it," a friend in the media who keeps close tabs on the SEC reported via Facebook Saturday night while the LSU-A&M game was in progress. "They are crazy if they dump him. Les' problem is hiring buddies as assistants."
Miles hasn't been helped by losing five straight to Alabama, just when it appeared that LSU was the only team in college football that could hang with the Crimson Tide during Nick Saban's early years in Tuscaloosa. Some LSU fans have not gotten over losing Saban after the 2004 season, but even Charlie McClendon, one of Bear Bryant's most successful proteges, wore out his welcome in Baton Rouge. LSU football has been a statewide concern since Huey Long was in power and that is not about to change.
Miles acts a little goofy at times, munching grass in stadiums that still have the real stuff and making some in-game decisions that defy logic. But his LSU record includes a national championship, and he has thrown a recruiting net around a state with tremendous high-school athletes. His players would jump off bridges or run through walls if he so ordered, although his quarterbacks tend to be a faceless bunch.
On other fronts, Auburn finished last in the SEC West after an Iron Bowl that the Tigers may have gift-wrapped the Heisman Trophy for Alabama running back Derrick Henry. Auburn fans have short memories -- ask Gene Chizik, fired two years after winning the school's first national championship since 1957 -- and Gus Malzahn can't afford another 6-6 season. Auburn's defense improved slightly under Will Muschamp but the decline of quarterback Jeremy Johnson, on Malzahn's side of the ball, was shocking.
The job search at South Carolina, where Steve Spurrier must be replaced, will be interesting, with the name of Alabama's top defensive aide likely to surface.
"Big question," says my friend with an SEC pipeline. "Does Kirby Smart get the South Carolina job and prove to the world what many in coaching circles believe -- that he ain't a head coach."
Smart might appeal more as the Broyles Award winner, signifying the most outstanding assistant coach in college football. In crucial late-season games, Alabama's defense put the clamps on Leonard Fournette and LSU and Dak Prescott and Mississippi State. This may not be a vintage Alabama team (2009) but still could bring Saban his fourth national championship with the Tide and fifth overall.
Arkansas, meanwhile, improved to 7-5 while Arkansas State clinched a share of its fourth Sun Belt Conference title in this decade. There's a bowl matchup if anyone wants it, with any Henry Kissinger working out the details worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sports on 11/30/2015