OT: Bret Bielema on ESPNU Radio this morning....

[anon_xdc8rmuek44eq]

Pretty good interview about his time at Arkansas and his thoughts about how things went. A few comments stood out:

• Said Arkansas played the toughest schedule in the SEC during his time there every year (not sure if true, but still....); said that was very difficult playing ranked teams week after week.
• Said he made recruiting errors and having players leave early was something he wasn't used to at Wisconsin. Said in his time at Wiscy, only one player ever left early (Watt).
• Suggested support from the administration, especially with regard to concern for student athletes and their academic well being, was lacking. Admin never went to practices or cared about how players were progressing academically. All about wins.
• Hosts of the show suggested Nebraska give Bielema a call - would be a pretty good fit IMO.

 

[MarkinMadison]

Pretty good interview about his time at Arkansas and his thoughts about how things went. A few comments stood out:

• Said Arkansas played the toughest schedule in the SEC during his time there every year (not sure if true, but still....); said that was very difficult playing ranked teams week after week.
• Said he made recruiting errors and having players leave early was something he wasn't used to at Wisconsin. Said in his time at Wiscy, only one player ever left early (Watt).
• Suggested support from the administration, especially with regard to concern for student athletes and their academic well being, was lacking. Admin never went to practices or cared about how players were progressing academically. All about wins.
• Hosts of the show suggested Nebraska give Bielema a call - would be a pretty good fit IMO.

I always like Bielema at Wisconsin.......had a chance to interact with him quite a bit....he had a player who was an Accounting major......which had its academic club meetings pretty regularly at around 7:00 pm.......and the kid never missed a meeting....Bielema always made sure that the kid could get out of practice a bit early to be there. I used to joke with Bielema that he was welcome to attend these Accounting meetings......but he would laugh it off and say that he was happier just sending his player. He is a traditionalist...and always had a great respect for Joe and the Penn State program....I know there was that incident with the kick-off fiasco...but that was more a shot at the stupid rule than it was at Penn State........no surprise that he was the first coach to go public and state that he would not raid Penn State during the tough times. I think he would be the right guy for Nebraska.....his experience at Kansas State, Iowa and Wisconsin would serve him well for the Nebraska program.

 

[john4psu]

His style of offense is what Nebraskans are accustomed to. Wisconsin supplanted Nebraska as power running the football when the Cornhuskers hired Bill Callahan.

 

[michnittlion]

I always like Bielema at Wisconsin.......had a chance to interact with him quite a bit....he had a player who was an Accounting major......which had its academic club meetings pretty regularly at around 7:00 pm.......and the kid never missed a meeting....Bielema always made sure that the kid could get out of practice a bit early to be there. I used to joke with Bielema that he was welcome to attend these Accounting meetings......but he would laugh it off and say that he was happier just sending his player. He is a traditionalist...and always had a great respect for Joe and the Penn State program....I know there was that incident with the kick-off fiasco...but that was more a shot at the stupid rule than it was at Penn State........no surprise that he was the first coach to go public and state that he would not raid Penn State during the tough times. I think he would be the right guy for Nebraska.....his experience at Kansas State, Iowa and Wisconsin would serve him well for the Nebraska program.

Good post. I have always liked Bielema too. Arkansas was simply not a good fit. What he did in that 2006 game with the kickoffs - it was perfectly legal.

 

[RTLH]

Alvarez Protege.
Alvarez always looked up to Joe.

 

[91Joe95]

Good post. I have always liked Bielema too. Arkansas was simply not a good fit. What he did in that 2006 game with the kickoffs - it was perfectly legal.

No, it wasn't. League said unsportsmanlike penalty was supposed to be called for repeatedly breaking a rule. Hey, big 10 refs don't know the rules though, so there's that.

 

[psuro]

I always liked Bielema also, because I know that no matter how lazy I get, I will always look skinny compared to him.

 

[Cletus11]

The kick-off issue was a bad rule that Brett took advantage of, I didn't have an issue with it. Besides that, he seemed to always be a good interview and generally do the right thing. And going to Arkansas was the right thing to do for the amount of money they paid him. The fact it turned into a train wreck was the worst case scenario. And where did that put Beilema..he now has a huge pot of gold, experience as a head coach in a different conference, and even though he lost at Arkansas would still get hired by many P5 programs.

 

[Madsol]

No, it wasn't. League said unsportsmanlike penalty was supposed to be called for repeatedly breaking a rule. Hey, big 10 refs don't know the rules though, so there's that.

And it was dangerous and exposed Penn State players to guys having a 20 yard head start running full speed at them totally unaware what was going on. Bielema could have protested the rule in some other way that didn't have our guys being sitting ducks.

 

[Tweedbear]

Dumb thing about the kickoff fiasco was the clock. Dead ball penalty clock should never have started.

 

[mrtailgate]

We are talking about the old Wisc coach right? He's had issues that's for sure.

 

[searay26]

Whenever I see him, I see Curley from the Three Stooges.

 

[WarrentonLion]

I don't know, he always seemed smug to me. I will always remember what he said when the news first broke about the sanctions levied against Penn State. His response was "It's good to be a Badger"

 

[LionDeNittany]

No, it wasn't. League said unsportsmanlike penalty was supposed to be called for repeatedly breaking a rule. Hey, big 10 refs don't know the rules though, so there's that.

Yes, and that's up to the idiot refs who for whatever reason did not call the penalty.

LdN

 

[tboyer]

Nebraska really makes sense. Huskers have been trying to hire offensive geniuses and it just doesn't work out.

Their glory days were built on running the ball behind big physical lines built of walk-ons (literally) on steroids. But they really could do it today without chemical enhancements.

I would love to see Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin all running that kind of offense and they could all be successful.

Nebraska just needs to hire someone for the long haul and stick with them. It takes years to recruit for a system and then train and coach people into that system. Bielema knows how it's done. Nebraska should give the guy 5 years.

 

[Obliviax]

Pretty good interview about his time at Arkansas and his thoughts about how things went. A few comments stood out:

• Said Arkansas played the toughest schedule in the SEC during his time there every year (not sure if true, but still....); said that was very difficult playing ranked teams week after week.
• Said he made recruiting errors and having players leave early was something he wasn't used to at Wisconsin. Said in his time at Wiscy, only one player ever left early (Watt).
• Suggested support from the administration, especially with regard to concern for student athletes and their academic well being, was lacking. Admin never went to practices or cared about how players were progressing academically. All about wins.
• Hosts of the show suggested Nebraska give Bielema a call - would be a pretty good fit IMO.

probably not a good idea to throw your previous employer under a bus when you are looking for a new job.

A name I'd throw out for ARK, Bo Pelini.

 

[ping724]

I don't know, he always seemed smug to me. I will always remember what he said when the news first broke about the sanctions levied against Penn State. His response was "It's good to be a Badger"

He also stated after the sanctions hit he would root for Penn State to win every game except for when they played Wisconsin.

 

[ILLINOISLION]

Nebraska really makes sense. Huskers have been trying to hire offensive geniuses and it just doesn't work out.

Their glory days were built on running the ball behind big physical lines built of walk-ons (literally) on steroids. But they really could do it today without chemical enhancements.

I would love to see Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin all running that kind of offense and they could all be successful.

Nebraska just needs to hire someone for the long haul and stick with them. It takes years to recruit for a system and then train and coach people into that system. Bielema knows how it's done. Nebraska should give the guy 5 years.

Bielema might get a “Frosty” reception in Lincoln.....

 

[Gnat91]

Went to see a old Navy buddy in Madison. He took me to the stadium, somehow you can walk right into this thing in the middle of the day. So we proceeded to toss around a Wisconsin football I had picked up on the field. Running around like nuts. Brett and a camera crew came out to do a interview and went ballistic on us. We ran off...glad we didn't get arrested.

 

[ILLINOISLION]

Went to see a old Navy buddy in Madison. He took me to the stadium, somehow you can walk right into this thing in the middle of the day. So we proceeded to toss around a Wisconsin football I had picked up on the field. Running around like nuts. Brett and a camera crew came out to do a interview and went ballistic on us. We ran off...glad we didn't get arrested.

So Brett’s back in Madison today....interesting!

 

[anon_xdc8rmuek44eq]

probably not a good idea to throw your previous employer under a bus when you are looking for a new job.

A name I'd throw out for ARK, Bo Pelini.

He was pretty effusive for his bosses and spoke in ‘general’ terms when asked about certain things he’s looking for in a new job.

 

[Tri-Power65]

He looks like he is constantly enshrouded by his own fart cloud.