To the very end, Bret Bielema came across as someone you'd like to spend time with and perhaps even have your son play for.
Call him the anti-Bobby Petrino in that he did not embarrass the state with shameful off-the-field conduct that hastened his departure. In fact, the summer arrival of Bret and Jen's first child overshadowed talk about his football team at what would be his last Southeastern Conference Media Days appearance.
He willingly attended every Razorback Club meeting for which he was booked, accentuating every positive aspect about the Arkansas program. From J.C. Futrall (in 1894) onward, he is the only Razorback football coach to win his first two bowl games. He will be remembered also for a 2014 sweep of LSU, Ole Miss and Texas (the first two by shutout, the latter after leaving a touchdown at the doorstep with the score 31-7).
Trouble is, while going a collective 1-9 against Alabama and Auburn, two teams that it plays every year, Arkansas fell behind other SEC schools in the Bielema era. Bielema's 11-29 SEC record in five seasons includes 4-1 against Ole Miss (against which Frank Broyles went 0-6) but also 0-5 against Texas A&M, 1-4 against Mississippi State and 1-3 against Missouri.
Bielema's last team, 4-8 after Friday's 48-45 Fayetteville loss to Missouri, escaped 2-10 only with one-point wins over lowlight Coastal Carolina and scandal-plagued Ole Miss. The program, in Bielema's words, "ran into a speed bump" late in 2016 (blowing second-half leads against Missouri and Virginia Tech), "and never really was able to get back out of it."
The 2017 Razorbacks, 1-7 in the SEC, never had a chance. "Six of our ... nine or top 10 players either were out for the year or lost time," Bielema said. Most teams stripped of a senior quarterback, a senior running back, a senior wide receiver and a senior preseason All-America center would expect to struggle, and this one did. Arkansas' defense wasn't any better under new coordinator Paul Rhoads than for the departed Robb Smith.
So, regardless of what one thinks about Bielema or the school's handling of his final hours as the football team's head coach, Friday's decision was inevitable.
Interim athletic director Julie Cromer Peoples did not mince words, saying that "we have not been able to sustain the success on the field that is expected and required at the University of Arkansas."
Bottom line: "We must win games."
Judging from some texts I received, Peoples did not come across as a "people person" in a press conference Friday night. For what it's worth, I thought she handled herself well in a no-win situation. And while I think the UA needlessly dallied regarding Bielema for more than a week after the firing of AD Jeff Long, who hired him from Wisconsin in December 2012 with much fanfare, the school needed an authority figure to step forward.
"It was important for us to move on this decision today for a lot of reasons," said Peoples, explaining that she "made the decision" and cleared it with UA Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz. As to whether the announcement should have been made before the game, "I don't know if that's appropriate, either."
Word circulated throughout the press box Friday of a noon press conference Saturday at Barnhill Arena. Instead, a four-paragraph UA release in which Peoples is quoted was released after the game.
Peoples told the writers, "I didn't want players spread out all over the region and have them learn by phone calls that their coach was leaving."
To hear Bielema, he prepared for Missouri with the expectation of returning for a sixth season: "They told me to keep working, grinding, recruiting even when Jeff was in his situation."
Nothing Bielema did at Arkansas distinguished him more than some final remarks.
"I'm a bigger fan of Arkansas now than ever. I'll work with whoever they end up naming if they want my help.
"I tell my players all the time if you don't care it doesn't matter. Their hearts are there and they'll be there for the next guy. One reason it probably took them as long (to fire Bielema) is because we did some good things."
Sports on 11/26/2017