FAYETTEVILLE -- For the first time Bret Bielema begins a Razorbacks offseason with no momentum.
Bielema had the Arkansas new coach novelty going for him beginning his first winter offseason and spring practices in 2013 and started the 2015 and 2016 offseason off big Texas Bowl and Liberty Bowl victories over the Texas Longhorns and Kansas State Wildcats.
Even after that 3-9 overall and 0-8 SEC debut in 2013, Bielema began 2014 with the Hogs ending 2013 playing their by far best SEC game taking No. 15 LSU to the wire, losing 31-27 at LSU's Death Valley.
A rough year, yes, but closing with hope for a new beginning to the program crashing with Bobby Petrino's motorcycle on April Fool's Day, 2012 and the 4-8 crash of the 2012 John L. Smith coached Razorbacks that kicked off the season ranked in the national Top Ten.
The 2016 Razorbacks finished a winning 7-6, yet explainably closed in despair because of inexplicable second halves.
As Arkansas fans know too well, the Razorbacks closed their SEC season leading a 4-8 Missouri Tigers team 24-7 at halftime in Columbia, Mo., and lost 28-24.
Then in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., they led Virginia Tech 24-0 at half and lost 35-24.
So with no closing positives to accentuate, Bielema motivated rebounding from the negative as he greeted the team on their Jan. 16 return for the spring semester
"When you finish the season with those two losses, you have to take a step back," Bielema said when he met with media last Saturday for the first time since the Belk Bowl. "It's not a good thing obviously in any shape or form. But I have a very hungry football team. I have a team that knows what was in their hands and what they can be. I think they are very coachable and motivated to have success. So I will try to turn negatives into positives. I think that part has been really good so far."
Bielema said physical and mental conditioining obviously get questioned after a "collapse" like the Hogs suffered in Columbia, Mo., and Charlotte.
So reviewing and changing the conditioning routines with strength coach Ben Herbert became a priority starting with the first collapse in Columbia.
"We've made some adjustments," Bielema said. "Ben Herbert and I sat down a lot during December and again in early January about what we want to do with the program. Obviously one of the things we had struggles with this year was towards the end of a game. So just a simple thing we've done this year is instead of early morning workouts, we're doing late afternoon workouts to put an emphasis on it's not how you start, it's how you finish."
Bielema said the Hogs have "a full eight weeks" of conditioining before they start spreading their 15 allowed spring practice dates from the last week of March through the April 29 Red-White game.
The conditioning will be intense but within reason, Bielema said.
Bielema mentioned no names but obviously referred to the University of Oregon suspending its strength coach after three players were hospitalized.
"Obviously there's been a team that made headlines for putting guys through some things that got them hospitalized and whatnot," Bielema said. "I'm not talking about setting a tone that's not able to be obtained. I'm talking about mental, physical discipline, the things that we need them to do as far as being on time, be accountable."
Although lauding the team's academics, Bielema said he was displeased throughout the season with "inconsistencies."
"In every phase that I went through from winter conditioning to spring ball to summer conditioning, to fall camp to the fall season, we were inconsistent," Bielema said. "We were here one week, and we were here the next. Then the last two games, we were here in the first half and here in the second half. It was like this rollercoaster of detail that we just can't allow. The only thing you can do is just expect 100 percent consistency and whatever we've gotta do to enforce that."
Bielema said physically all but sophomore-to-be tight end Grayson Gunter, who is coming off shoulder surgery, and junior-to-be Dre Greenlaw, whose mid-season broken foot was reinjured again and another surgery is likely, will participate in the offseason program.
Senior-to-be receiver/punt returner Jared Cornelius, withheld from the Belk Bowl because of a knee injury, "is 100 percent ready to rock and roll," Bielema said.
Sports on 01/23/2017