Patience, perseverance pays off for emotional Bret Bielema
You’ve got to hand it to Bret Bielema.
The guy’s been through the ringer since arriving at Arkansas prior to the 2013 season.
Thirteen consecutive SEC losses heading into Saturday’s game against LSU made some question his regime and whether Big Ten flair would ever work in the nation’s toughest league.
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Living dangerously close to putting one in the win column the last several weeks, patience paid off in a dominant effort against the Tigers as the Razorbacks posted the program’s first shutout victory over an SEC team since 2002.
“It is so exciting,” Bielema said following a 17-0 victory. “I can’t say as a 5-5 coach that I enjoyed the championship years somewhere else any more than to see the growth out of some of these guys, and to see the genuine expression at the end of the game there and to see these guys grab me.”
Often emotional after losses, it was gratifying to see Bielema savor a potential program-reversing victory after Saturday’s game with his players lifting ‘The Boot’ rivalry trophy behind him. He was so amped during game week Bielema implied that he would suit up for the Razorbacks in frigid temperatures if meant helping his team grab that elusive first SEC win.
Snake-bit throughout this season, Arkansas has certainly earned it.
The Razorbacks appeared to have snapped a 13-game conference losing skid in Dallas against Texas A&M in September, but the Aggies overcame a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win in overtime. Two of their next three SEC defeats — Alabama and Mississippi State — were gut-wrenching and came as a result of failed execution down the stretch.
Bielema’s team was bound to clip a ranked team sooner or later and it finally happened. The former coach has always had the ‘go to war’ mentality and his players — notably the front seven — thrived with that mindset Saturday night.
The LSU offense, which struggled throughout, wasn’t piecing together a comeback bid with a non-existent running game after intermission.
“I think if you build things on a solid enough foundation you don’t waver and you don’t flinch,” Bielema said. “The great thing about our guys is we’ve been through so much that nothing’s going to faze them. There’s nothing that they haven’t been through that they can learn from.
“I do say all the time to our players and our coaches, it’s not what happens, it’s how you react to what happens. We’ve had some bad things happen to us and they just kept reacting in the right way and eventually good things were going to happen to those who work and survive and battle.”
Arkansas won the battle in the trenches against a program known for its physicality and discovered how to finish with an impressive defensive grip in the second half.
After LSU moved inside the Razorbacks’ 30-yard line early in the fourth quarter with five consecutive completions from Anthony Jennings, Martrell Spaight preserved the shutout when he ripped the ball away from Jennings on a quarterback scramble.
Darius Philon fell on the football, sending the Arkansas sideline into a frenzy. The Tigers managed nine yards on its final two possessions after the giveaway.
For one night, it came together against a bitter rival and Bielema reaped the benefits.
Congrats to him.