Bret Bielema can shed SEC outsider stigma against Texas A&M
By Drew Laing
Published:
“I can tell you this, we at the Big 10 don’t want to be like the SEC – in any way, shape or form.”
Those were the words of current Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema to Sporting News a few years back when he was the head coach at Wisconsin.
Now, in the midst of his second season at Arkansas, Bielema is faced with an opportunity.
An opportunity to make a statement that he’s no longer an SEC outsider.
Unfortunately, Bielema’s track record didn’t help him early on. The Big 10 is about as “anti-SEC” as you can get in college football. His playing style – slow and physical – differs greatly from the rise of the up-tempo, spread offenses that we see out of Texas A&M, Auburn and others.
He ruffled some feathers early on, trading barbs with Auburn coach Gus Malzahn about pace of play and player safety and after a 3-9 season and a winless SEC season, it made it that much easier to criticize Arkansas’ head coach.
RELATED: Bielema sends Malzahn a text following Auburn win over Kansas State
But things are different this year. His team has officially matched their 2013 win total already, going 3-1 in the first four games. They played the defending SEC champs on the road tough for three quarters in their season-opener and a strong three-game winning streak showcased the strength and traditional football-style of this year’s Arkansas team.
It’s clear that The Hogs now emulate the personality of its head coach. They’re big, physical and straight-forward, most noticeably as they run straight down the opposing team’s throat. And that’s just the way Bielema likes it.
“It’s fun to see, to fly back on that plane and to watch my coaches and players and have an understanding of what you really just saw and witnessed was the results of what we have done,” Bielema said after running for 438 yards in their victory over Texas Tech. “You really felt you could see it in our players’ eyes…they earned that by what they had done and what they had accomplished.”
Dubbed “big boy football” by Bielema, Arkansas’ style of football is simply “running” over opponents. The Hogs average 324.5 rushing yards per game, good for first in the SEC. Their offensive line averages out at 6-foot-6, 321 pounds, imposing their will on most opponents. Defensively, with guys like Trey Flowers, Darius Philon, Taiwan Johnson, Brooks Ellis and Martrell Spaight, both sides of the football for Arkansas are fiercer and more physical this season, pushing through opposing offensive lines and disrupting backfields.
And this weekend’s matchup for Arkansas could put both Bielema and his team on the map. The Aggies are ranked No. 6 in the country and feature a hot-shot quarterback – head coach duo in Kenny Hill and Kevin Sumlin. If there was an “it” team in the SEC right now, that distinction would probably fall to Texas A&M, thanks to the swagger of Johnny Manziel during the last two seasons and now “Kenny Trill.”
A win, and perhaps just a close game, would undoubtedly legitimize Bielema and his team in this conference. It would be Bielema’s first SEC win and the first conference victory for Arkansas since October 2012.
Despite his words about the SEC a few years ago, Bielema is more like the SEC at this point than he probably ever thought he would be. He talks like an SEC coach and his overall demeanor is that of an SEC coach, too. Because no matter what’s said about this conference, what’s at the heart of SEC football is toughness and physicality, the two traits Bielema expects out of his football team. And so far this season, not many can deny that the Hogs are well on their way to accomplishing those two aspects.
“Prognosticators are going to think what they think,” Bielema said. “The ones that really matter are the people that are in our room and our kids have worked very, very hard to achieve a certain level of success and they expect to get it. They don’t expect anyone to give them anything they didn’t earn. They just want to go out there and earn what they can and see where that can take them.”
That was said by Bielema over a year ago, but those words, not the words he said two years ago, still hold true for the Arkansas head coach.
The opportunity is there this weekend for Bielema, a man who once made headlines criticizing the SEC, to earn his place within SEC football – to no longer be on the outside, looking in.
He’s just got to take it.
Drew Laing will be providing analysis and insight on Florida, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina.
