Bret Bielema’s Big Ten style of football seems to be working in the big, bad SEC, doesn’t it?

The 2014 version of the Arkansas Razorbacks are worlds ahead of last season’s 3-9 squad that finished 0-8 in conference play.

Bielema’s Razorbacks are currently 5-5 with two games left to play. The Hogs host No. 8 Ole Miss on Saturday, then travel to Columbia, Mo., to face Missouri in the inaugural Battle Line Rivalry.

At worst, Arkansas will have a win improvement of plus-two. At best? Plus-four.

(For the record, I think it splits the next two games, finishing 6-5, plus-three in the win column.)

Related: Arkansas a few plays away from being 8-2 team

Bielema has tempered expectations all season about where his team is in year two. However, Saturday night’s win over LSU finally gave us glimpses into what the Hogs can be under the former Wisconsin coach.

“Excited for where we are, but more importantly, excited for where we’re going,” Bielema said following Arkansas’ win.

As you should be, coach.

Bielema has built a power run game behind a NFL-sized offensive line that stacks up with any in the country, and a defense whose front seven has wrecked opponents all season.

Related: After 14 tries, Bret Bielema and Arkansas get well-deserved SEC win 

Jeff Long brought Bielema to Fayetteville to reconstruct a program left in shambles from its previous two head coaches, and he’s doing exactly that.

“I can’t do things overnight,” Bielema said. “It’s a methodical process. Academically, we’ve pushed our GPA to an unprecedented level they’ve never had, and just our kids doing things right.”

The growth in Bielema’s team from year one to year two, the effort Arkansas players have put forth and the buy-in Bielema’s received was evidenced after the win over LSU.

The reaction was genuine. College football saw a team who has bought what its coach is selling, and worked through an unprecedented losing streak.

“I saw a team that persevered, that never gave in,” Bielema said during his introductory press conference in December 2012.

Bielema has taken over a team largely comprised of players he did not recruit, and has changed the culture of the Arkansas program.

The Hogs will fight to become bowl eligible during the next two weeks, but rest assured, Bielema’s Arkansas program will have a lot of momentum entering 2015.

If the Razorbacks’ goals are realized under Bielema, we will point to the improvement in 2014 as a moment in which Bielema turned a corner in Fayetteville.