Should Arkansas football coach Bret Bielema be on the hot seat despite being praised by the school’s AD?
Four years into his tenure with Arkansas football, Bret Bielema has compiled an overall record of 25-26 and an SEC mark of 10-22. Is that enough to put him on the hot seat after being hired to put the Razorbacks back on the map?
According to Jason Kersey of SEC Country, Arkansas AD Jeff Long is denying any talk of Bielema on the hot seat.
"“Bret is the leader of our program,” Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long told SEC Country during an interview this week at SEC spring meetings.“I understand why people would think that,” Bielema said, “but I think our program is in a place where we’re extremely healthy.”"
It does make sense, though. Arkansas hadn’t won a conference title since joining the Southeastern Conference in 1992 after being a member of the Southwest Conference. The last conference title was 1989 and the most recent success was 2006 when the Razorbacks won the SEC West.
Let’s face it, Arkansas was in a bad place when Bielema took over for John L. Smith in 2013. They had just gone 4-8, falling short of all expectations and Bielema led them to a 3-9 mark the next year.
After that 3-9 opening campaign with the Razorbacks, the head coach put together three straight bowl-clinching seasons, winning two of them. Although he’s never led Arkansas to more than eight wins in a single season, he still has some time to put together a nice campaign and he’s turned things around already.
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No program should be content with constant 7-8 win seasons, but that’s sometimes the price to be paid for eventual title-winning years. Give Bret two more years before he is officially on the hot seat.