Like it is

WALLY HALL: Lack of football leadership began with Long

It was fair, and the writer of the email went so far as to say he didn't want to pile on, but he felt the problem with the University of Arkansas football program was a lack of leadership in the past, and could we look into that.

Instead of going all the way back to former chancellor John White's issue with Frank Broyles' power, let's start when White hired Jeff Long.

It had been forever since anyone actually supervised a UA athletic director, so Long worked undetected.

Long didn't want to fill Broyles' shoes; he wanted them forgotten.

He wanted the history of Razorback athletics to have begun when it joined the SEC, and its growth as an athletic program to have started when he was hired.

During Long's first month on the job he told the Razorback Foundation folks to keep doing what they were doing. He would raise the money for physical improvements.

A month later that changed, and the Razorback Foundation was charged with not only raising money to run the athletic department but also to make physical improvements.

Long's greatest moment may have been the beginning of the end for him.

The night he choked up on statewide TV while firing Bobby Petrino, he was beloved.

Before setting out on a one-man secret search for a new coach, he made his first mistake -- he hired John L. Smith as the interim coach.

Smith was a really likeable train wreck.

Months later, just days before the 2012 season, Long got a note from Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema complimenting him on his handling of the Petrino firing. The cast was set. Long loved compliments.

Long did not do his due diligence and talk to Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin's athletic director. He looked at Bielema's record and the complimentary note.

It is not known whether Long even gave a thought to the fact Big Ten football doesn't work in the South, where speed is king.

Bielema turned out to be a likeable train wreck, too.

In his second season, Bielema led the Razorbacks to a 7-6 record, including a win over Texas in the lower-tiered Texas Bowl. The Razorbacks were 8-5 the next year, and Bielema had his first and only winning season in SEC play. He was given a contract extension worth a guaranteed $18 million.

Long did not ask why the best assistants were leaving or who were the guys Bielema was hiring. Once again, the unsupervised Long didn't do his due diligence.

After a loss to Texas Tech in 2015, Long didn't pay attention when Kliff Kingsbury quoted Bielema when he spoke to the Texas High School Coaches Association and said that if you didn't play a fullback and tight end against him, he'd kick your butt.

About 80% of the high school coaches were playing an uptempo, Spread offense. Bielema's speech handcuffed him in trying to recruit Texas.

Bielema ended his fourth season by blowing a 24-7 lead in a loss to Missouri and a 24-0 halftime lead in a 35-24 loss to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl.

Long was warned that another season like that wouldn't be tolerated, but he dug his heels in and said Bielema was the right guy.

By then, Long had alienated many of the former Razorbacks as well as longtime boosters.

He walked in to the office of one generous donor and said his plane was leaving in 20 minutes, so what did the donor need.

The company that for decades bought the back page of the football program was replaced without being notified.

Long was fired because he wouldn't fire Bielema. A search began for someone who was more interested in being a hands-on AD than he was in flying his family and friends to the beach in the Foundation jet.

Order is being restored, but time is needed.

Sports on 07/14/2019

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