Deciphering Bret Bielema’s SEC Media Days Comments
By Cory Thone
Bret Bielema is the saving grace of SEC Media Days. He speaks with candor and from the heart, and doesn’t stick of an AD approved script while he’s there. It’s refreshing and always entertaining.
A quick Google search of “Bret Bielema” will pull up countless articles about his SEC Media Days performance. He’s the “New Steve Spurrier” according to some. To Michigan based writers, he “took shots at Harbaugh”. If you’re in Texas, then Bret is “Still Salty about the Tripping Flag”.
Basically, as is the case with Bielema, there’s nothing he can say that won’t be a headline somewhere. And that’s the reason that people gravitate to him. His headline creating comments don’t even have to be incendiary. They just have to come from his mouth, and one of 5 fanbases will turn it into a story. (Ohio State, Wisconsin, Ole Miss, Texas Tech, or Auburn).
Regardless of the Furious Five and their never ending interest in what Bret has to say, most people agreed that Bielema’s press conference was fun, and maybe even a little more subdued that previous years. A lot of folks expected Bielema to come in swinging after finishing 5-3 in the SEC, but he was instead self-deprecating.
There’s a reason for that, folks. First off, take this comment that (shockingly) drew ire from teams like Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Alabama…you know…programs that have been in the news for scandals. Bret was asked about the fact that Arkansas hasn’t been in the news for arrests. The quote you seen plastered all over the web is as follows.
“You don’t have to worry whether or not I’m going to suspend anybody for the first game. It doesn’t come up in our program.”
People from Alabama and Mississippi newspapers and blogs have jumped all over this statement. Bielema knocking on Mullen or Saban or Freeze…or all three! Not that they don’t deserve it, mind you. But the audacity of a coach who’s had 3 arrests in 3 years at Arkansas of players, none of which were violent offenses, to criticize others!
I would recommend reading the whole quote as well, just to make sure you get a good idea of where Bielema is coming from.
“You don’t have to worry whether or not I’m going to suspend anybody for the first game. It doesn’t come up in our program. Not to say it won’t. At some time it may rear its ugly head. … You guys are getting me to talk about this too much. I believe in karma and there’s things that come back.”
Not quite as incendiary as some would have you believe. Not to say that Bielema didn’t have some pointed words for a few people, particularly new Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman, who left Arkansas for the same job in Athens.
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“As far as what Georgia is getting, you got to try to figure that out on your own.”
I, and most Hog fans, can tell you what Georgia is getting. The Bulldogs will have a guy that, when he wants to be, can recruit with the best in the nation, and can assemble a best of an offensive line. He can also, apparently, take that same offensive line and have them get blown off the line of scrimmage by Toledo, while not being able to land a single recruit in a class on his own.
Was he phoning it in his last year in Fayetteville? I doubt that he was intentionally doing bad, and I don’t think that Bielema was implying that. But he was certainly asking the media to look at the production and the recruiting over the past 2 years and to see what we could find.
Finally, the quote of the day from Bielema came when asked about Arkansas’ “sexiness”. He said “At Arkansas we’re not built very sexy. We’re just kind of a work in progress. We need a lot of time in the bathroom to get ready and come out and look great. But when we do, we’ll stop time.”
This is an important quote for multiple reasons. 1) It addresses the issue that Arkansas has had with starting slow the last 2 years. It has been frustrating to watch the Hogs lose early to teams they shouldn’t lose to, and then turn it around and beat teams that weren’t supposed to late in the season. 2) This quote could also be a bit of foreshadowing about the 2016 season. Is Arkansas ready to take on the SEC West after losing so many guys on offense? I don’t know.
Perhaps Bielema was implying that the Hogs need another year to get pretty in the bathroom before they come out and contend for the SEC. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the case, honestly. I’ve already said several times this offseason that Arkansas will probably struggle, at least early on, in 2016.
SEC Media Days is nothing more than a circus for the media, and Bielema knows that. He played his role of carnival barker as well as anyone other than Spurrier. Bret wasn’t anywhere near the most controversial topic this year, which is always a relief. And he didn’t get caught on camera berating a journalist for asking tough questions like another coach did.
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Scandal free (so far), no behind the scenes drama, and a fun press conference? Ohio State fans must be super mad right now.