A 20-year coaching veteran, Bret Bielema has made a relatively quick rise through the coaching ranks from defensive assistant to head coach at two big programs on the national stage.

His career hasn’t necessarily been the quietest one, however. His wife, Jen, took to Twitter to express her feelings early in her husband’s first year at Arkansas last season and Bielema himself was shirtless enjoying a drink shortly after his move to Fayetteville.

Bielema hails from Prophetstown, Ill., a small town in northeast Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 2,080. It is believed Prophetstown residents once petitioned to move the U.S. Government from Washington, D.C. to Prophetstown in the 1800s due to its central location amongst the lower 48 states. The town remains held in high esteem for having one of the largest Fourth of July fireworks shows in the region.

On the field, Bielema – a graduate of Iowa – is regarded as one of the best defensive minds in the game. He put his name on the map as the head coach at Wisconsin from 2006-2012, a tenure in which he led the Badgers to three Big Ten championships and Rose Bowls in his seven seasons in Madison. He also put together one of the best offenses in the country in 2011 featuring Russell Wilson and Montee Ball as the Badgers ranked sixth in the nation in scoring offense.

Bielema ended up at Arkansas prior to the 2013 season following a tumultuous eight months for the Razorbacks that involved a scandal surrounding then-coach Bobby Petrino, followed by the hiring of John L. Smith, who had just agreed to coach at Weber State, as the interim head coach and his subsequent firing then Bielema being tapped by Arkansas director of athletics Jeff Long.

His first year guiding the Hogs didn’t go according to plan, going just 3-9 and 0-8 in conference play. Bielema inherited a mess of a situation and looks to recruit his style of player and return the Razorback program to a player on the national level.

In his tenure at Arkansas, Bielema is just 4-9 against the spread, not a good stat for Arkansas fans. Relative to expectations, he’s underperformed thus far in his time in Fayetteville. In his eight seasons as a head coach at Wisconsin and Arkansas, his teams have gone over the posted Vegas total 63 percent of the time.