Arkansas coach is who he is, like it or not

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema speaks Thursday, July 25, 2013, at Paradise Valley Athletic Club in Fayetteville.
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema speaks Thursday, July 25, 2013, at Paradise Valley Athletic Club in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE - Bret Bielema can be funny sometimes without intending to be.

He showed that Thursday at a media golf outing at Paradise Valley Country Club when asked if his outspoken approach this summer was part of a plan to make a splash in his transition from the Big Ten to the SEC.

Bielema shrugged.

“No,” he replied. “I don’t think I’m outspoken.”

The assembled press and others in the room laughed.

“I really don’t,” Bielema continued, “but I guess I get it.”

Bielema has made headlines across SEC territory and in national publications during the off season with a series of remarks, from declaring at a Razorback Club function that he had a better Big Ten record than Alabama’s Nick Saban, to calling out selected detractors on Twitter, to setting himself in opposition to operators of the no-huddle, hurry-up offense by questioning if defenses deserved time to substitute against it after first downs and wondering whether the injury risk is greater for both teams when the hurry-up is at work.

One of those hurry-up proponents is first-year Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn, an Arkansas native, who said when he first heard opposition to the up-tempo style because of the potential injury factor he thought it was a joke.

Bielema and Malzahn were both at ESPN’s annual media day for SEC coaches Tuesday in Bristol, Conn.

“I did run into a number of coaches, did see Coach Malzahn,” Bielema said. “We didn’t converse, not by anything more than we just didn’t have time.”

South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, who also was in the same group at ESPN headquarters, walked up to Bielema and chanted “no no-huddle, no no-huddle,” according to Travis Haney of ESPN.com.

The debate over the hurry-up style is sure to continue, and Bielema’s propensity for voicing his opinion will as well.

“He’s just honest,” offensive line coach Sam Pittman said. “He’s not always worried about what’s politically correct. He’s just him, which is what I like most about him.

“He’s not so brash that I would consider it too vocal. I just think he’s got an opinion. You ask him a question, he’s going to answer the question and he’s going to answer it honestly. All of us can live with that.”

Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said he appreciates Bielema’s candor.

“I think he’s comfortable in who he is and what he stands for, and how he coaches the game of football and what he represents to recruits and to recruits’ parents,” Long said. “He is a genuine person. He is who he is, and he’s not going to change.

“He hasn’t changed from when I met him about coming and taking this job and since he’s been here.”

Razorback Foundation executive director Sean Rochelle has gotten to know Bielema better since attending basically every Razorback Club function this spring and summer.

“Coach Bielema, for people like us at the foundation, people that are out there trying to build relationships and raise private support, makes our job incredibly easy,” Rochelle said, citing an instance Thursday where a couple of donors chatted with Bielema and then approached Rochelle about discussing ways to help in fundraising based on their conversations with the new coach. “He’s so engaging, so comfortable in his own skin.”

Bielema said Rochelle approached him early in his tenure about perhaps trying to attend and speak at about half of the 20-plus Razorback Club functions this year.

“I just said, ‘Let’s do ‘em all,’ ” Bielema said. “Let’s captivate this state as best we can this first time, this first go-around. That’s a decision that, although that 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th one, sometimes three or four in a week, at the time got a little bit long, but I’m so glad I did now because you touched so many people.”

Rochelle said Bielema can be in settings with any group of people and come across at ease and genuine.

“He loves it,” he said. “He gets it. … I’ve never seen him with a type of person that he wasn’t comfortable with and honestly couldn’t relate to. That’s probably why he’s a great recruiter.”

Bielema said his adamant response in Hoover to the hurry-up offense was genuine.

“I do speak the truth,” he said. “I don’t care how it’s perceived. Great advice, I learned, is if you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.

“I really enjoy media day because you can just go in, you can be real and you can talk. I think some people are a little bit uncomfortable maybe because they’re trying to remember what they said in the past or they’re maybe trying to cover up things that they don’t want to talk about.”

Sports, Pages 19 on 07/26/2013

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