Bielema glad to discuss new baby
Arkansas coach seeks opposite of 2016 collapse
HOOVER, ALA. Hours after the birth of his daughter Saturday afternoon, Arkansas football coach Bret Bielema’s phone was chirping. It was Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey, and he wanted to FaceTime.
“This is pretty cool,” Bielema thought, he said. “The commissioner is FaceTiming me. That’s pretty neat.”
Or not. When they connected, Sankey wondered: “Why are you calling me?”
“I butt-dialed him,” Bielema said, laughing.
Briella Nichole Bielema arrived at 4:44 a.m. Saturday and weighed 7.8 pounds. She’s Bielema’s first child, and he says he’s still getting used to the whole idea. Someone asked the coach Monday if his perspective on being a father figure to his players might change with actual fatherhood.
“You know, I’m 48 hours into this baby,” he said — meaning fatherhood, the baby, whatever. “I can’t say I’m well-versed.”
But it was great timing. The baby arrived about 48 hours before Bielema was scheduled to lead off the coaches speaking at the SEC’s annual media days in suburban Birmingham, leaving him free to make the trip — and also, to answer at least as many questions about birth and fatherhood as about, well, football.
Given the vibe after Arkansas’ disastrous finish last season, that might have been a good thing for him. The Razorbacks lost three of their last four games. Against Missouri to end the regular season and Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl, they built and then blew respective 17- and 24-point leads.
It was the inverse of Bielema’s previous two Arkansas teams, which seemed to get better as seasons went along. “It’s been my pride and joy that we’ve always played stronger at the end than we played at the front,” he said.
And it led to different offseason questions than he had previously faced at Arkansas.
Start with this: Bielema isn’t on anything approaching a hot seat. Not with those who matter. But the faltering finish was the kind of sequence that can begin to change a narrative toward negative.
The Arkansas fan base isn’t exactly known for reasonable expectations. (In that regard, Hogs fans stand alongside many of their SEC peers.) But when Bielema arrived from Wisconsin and started cleaning up the wreckage, on and off the field, left by Bobby Petrino’s crash and burn and the disastrous interim coaching stint of John L. Smith, Arkansas fans waited through a 3-9 season (0-8 in SEC play) in 2013, then were encouraged and excited when the 2014 and 2015 teams improved dramatically as the seasons developed.
Going 7-6 with a finish like 2016, though — and by this, we mean both the season and those last two games — and attention gets turned to things like Arkan- sas’ 10-22 record in SEC play under Bielema. Never mind what he inherited or that the SEC West isn’t the easiest place to build a winner. It made for different, more difficult offseason questions.
“The end of last season was a new situation for me,” Bielema said. “Even when we went 3-9 (in 2013, his first season at Arkansas) … I felt at the end of the year we were getting better and moving in the right direction. … I knew we had to take a new look at things.”
Afterward, Bielema made changes, on the defensive staff — Robb Smith resigned to go to Minnesota, and Paul Rhoads was promoted to coordinator — and in the scheme. Arkansas will shift from a 4-3 base to a 3-4 in hopes of improving a unit that ranked 126th nationally in rushing average per carry and allowed 39 rushing touchdowns, most in the Football Bowl Subdivision. But those late-season collapses were the biggest concerns for Bielema.
“I had to look at why, what and what to do next,” he said.
Now, everyone is waiting to see what Arkansas will do next and whether November and December 2016 were a dip in an otherwise upward trend or a change of direction. Bielema didn’t shy from the topic Monday, but he clearly didn’t mind when people wanted to talk about his newborn.
There was that FaceTime moment with Sankey, which led to laughter from both as they described the moment.
When Bielema accidentally dialed Sankey — apparently in response to a congratulatory text message sent by the commissioner — he was on his way to Chipot- le, sent by wife Jen to fetch a double veggie bowl. He wasn’t the only one disappointed.
“I thought it was going to be a family moment,” Sankey said. “It was Chipotle.” Has Bielema changed a diaper? “One,” he said, adding that he was assisted by a nurse — and that he was surprised by the newborn’s meconium. “It was one of those first ones — it’s not good. Black, kind of like a tar.”
When a reporter referred to Bielema’s comment from a few years back that beating Texas was “borderline erotic,” the coach known for holding very little back … held back.
“I know you guys are all looking for a quote,” he said. “I don’t think I can go much further than that one. … That was before I had a child, so I think I’ll leave it at that.”
Bielema, 47, said he was not sure that it had hit him yet. But he told of driving Jen and Briella home from the hospital Sunday, looking in the rearview mirror and realizing:
“There’s two beautiful women, and I’m in charge of their wellbeing,” he said. “That was really wild.”
He said he’s not sure how it might change his perspective.
But later he added, “I feel like I want to do everything right with her. I don’t want to make a mistake. Not that I want to make a mistake coaching, but I always know they’ve got tomorrow.”
And when it comes to Arkansas, he’s got 2017. When asked about whether he felt added pressure to rebound, Bielema turned back the clock to 2009, when he was coming off a 7-6 season at Wisconsin and was asked something similar. That team won 10 games, and the next three years after that, the Badgers played in the Rose Bowl.
“I get why people ask about it,” he said, adding that he was confident the Arkansas program was headed in the right direction. And then, because it was the topic of the day, he answered another question about baby Briella.
It mostly went on like that Monday, from interview to interview, alternating chuckles and poignancy, without too many pointed questions.
And at one point, someone asked Bielema how he enjoyed kicking off SEC media days. He had asked to go first because of his uncertain schedule with the baby’s due date.
“It’s very calm,” he said. “I’ll have to check with Jen. But I might have a baby every year if it’s this easy.”