3 replacements for Bret Bielema at Arkansas
By John Buhler
The Arkansas Razorbacks have fired former head coach Bret Bielema after five years in Fayetteville. Here are three replacement coaches for Arkansas in 2018.
After a massively disappointing 2017 college football campaign, the University of Arkansas has decided to fire head coach Bret Bielema. Bielema had been the Arkansas Razorbacks head coach from 2013 to 2017. He had previously won three straight Big Ten Championships while leading the Wisconsin Badgers (2010-12).
However, it was Bielema’s painful inability to win SEC games that inevitably cost him his job. In five years at Arkansas, the Hogs went 29-34 overall and a laughable 11-29 in SEC play. Though he took Arkansas to three straight bowl games (2014-16), going 4-8 (1-7) in 2017 was the end of the line for Bielema in Fayetteville.
Once his former athletic director Jeff Long had been fired earlier in the month, the writing was on the wall for Bielema as Arkansas’ head coach. He could continue coaching, possibly leading a Big Ten or Big 12 program next year. Bielema could also effectively transition to television. He has options, just not at Arkansas anymore.
Though the Hogs just haven’t won enough in SEC play since Bobby Petrino was their head coach, this is a halfway decent head coaching gig. Arkansas is an SEC school and the lone Power 5 team in a state that does not have professional sports. It’ll take the right head coach, but Arkansas is capable of winning eight to nine games a year and certainly being in the mix in the SEC West. Here are three capable replacements for Bielema at Arkansas in 2018.
Mike Norvell
Head Coach, Memphis Tigers
One Group of 5 coach that will definitely be getting a few interviews in the Southeastern United States has to be Memphis Tigers head coach Mike Norvell. In two years at Memphis after replacing the highly successful Justin Fuente, now leading the Virginia Tech Hokies, Norvell has gone 17-6 (11-4) as the Tigers head coach.
His team’s only loss this season was to the undefeated UCF Knights. Memphis went to a bowl game last year in the Boca Raton Bowl. The Tigers will meet the Knights once again in the 2017 American Athletic Conference Championship Game in Orlando.
What makes Norvell such a good fit to be the next head coach in Arkansas is three-fold:
1.) Norvell has proven that he can run a competent FBS offense. He did it at Arizona State as the Sun Devils’ offensive coordinator and as Memphis’ head coach.
2.) Norvell can recruit both regionally and nationally. He has recruiting roots in the Southeast, the West Coast and the Mid-Atlantic from his time with the Pittsburgh Panthers.
3.) Did we mention he played his college ball in Arkansas?
Norvell is a former wide receiver for the Central Arkansas Bears. He may not be an alumnus of the University of Arkansas, but anybody with a football connection to the state would love nothing more than to coach the Hogs on fall Saturdays. Though Norvell may not be Arkansas’ first or second choice as head coach, he would definitely take the job if offered. He’d be a good coach right out of the gate.