FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema made it sound like Arkansas’ coaching staff is as frustrated with the Razorbacks’ five game losing streak as Arkansas fans.
“I just had probably the most abrasive staff meeting this morning with my coaches because I can’t get people to understand that if you don’t run the football and if you don’t stop the run, we’re not going to win games,” Bielema said, with a moderate fist-to-table bang to emphasize his point, during his most animated news conference to date.
Bielema told reporters about his growing impatience as the losses mount, stressed his willingness to move on to other players if current starters aren’t producing, and emphasized his overriding belief that his coaching philosophy will ultimately lead to victories at Arkansas.
“It may be silly to talk about when you’re an 0-4 SEC team, but … I know where we’re going to be,” Bielema said. “I know what’s going to happen.”
Bielema said he has experienced difficult seasons, reflecting on a 1-10 season as a young assistant under Hayden Fry at Iowa and also as a coordinator, even though he has not had a losing record as a head coach.
Bielema said he has tried to correct the fundamental issues that are hounding the Razorbacks without hammering the team over the head with all negative feedback.
“I think it’s in your voice, it’s in your demeanor,” said Bielema, who has a way of expressing dissatisfaction without being totally negative. “I encouraged my guys when we went out to Tuesday’s practice to be as happy as they could be. Whatever you’ve got to do, put yourself in a positive mood.”
The Razorbacks (3-5 overall, 0-4 SEC) have practiced three times during their open week, getting an early jump on preparation for Auburn, and the coaches took a significant number of recruiting trips in the ongoing effort to bring more talent into the program.
Arkansas’ short-term plan to improve an offense that has scored 17 points in its past three games and a defense that has given up 50 points in consecutive games for the first time in school history melds with the long-term plan, the coaches say. They’re going to stick with what they believe will make Arkansas a winner.
“The problem happens when … you want to quickly try to do this, try to do that, and at the end of the day you end up trying something completely new and you’re just as poor at that as you were at the other stuff,” offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said on Tuesday. “So I believe fundamentally you stay the course of what you do. And you try to correct the mistakes that you’ve been making and continue down the path of development and growth, and … that’s what we’re trying to get done.
“And hopefully we’ll see some of that improvement pretty quickly because quite honestly I feel the disgruntlement. I feel the same way everybody else does. And our kids feel the same thing.”
Defensive coordinator Chris Ash said keeping himself upbeat will not be an issue, but he also won’t back away from making frank assessments.
“There’s no other way to put it, it’s been a disappointment here the last couple of weeks,” Ash said Wednesday. “Some things that we did were better, but the No. 1 thing that stood out was tackling. We missed some tackles that led to some big plays. We just have to get that stuff better.”
Chaney said he could pull about 25 plays from the 52-0 loss at Alabama that made the Razorbacks look like a pretty good team.
“But the other several plays, we didn’t look very good,” he said. “We’re just not executing the way we need to at that standard to be able to compete against a team like Alabama.”
Bielema said his message to the players and coaches since the throttling in Tuscaloosa has been: “There comes a day when Groundhog Day isn’t entertaining. You have to begin to move forward. You have to make decisions as coaches that you know you are going to be in position to get yourself better.”
But Bielema said he hasn’t given up on this season.
“I tell our guys … if you win four games, it means you have a chance for a winning record,” he said. “If you win four games you have a chance to be bowl eligible. Those are two very, very positive things. Those are things that would mean a lot for our program. It’s not do or die but it’s a big, big deal.”
Bielema said he believes team’s pride has come under scrutiny.
“The No. 1 reason to beat Auburn is for pride,” he said. “I think that is something that has been questioned or taken a swing at, or however you want to say it.
“So the easiest and greatest motivator amongst men that carries testosterone to the fullest that really believe the fundamentals that football is all about, pride should be the No. 1 reason.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 10/25/2013