FAYETTEVILLE - Often when a head football coach moves from one major conference school to another, he brings his entire staff with him to the new job.
Bret Bielema took a different approach when he left Wisconsin after seven seasons to become Arkansas’ coach.
“I could have brought everybody with me,” Bielema said. “I wanted some influences from other areas.”
Arkansas’ assistants have a combined 162 years of college coaching experience, including 100 years at 18 Bowl Championship Series conference schools in 14 states.
Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and linebackers coach Randy Shannon also have a combined six seasons as NFL assistants, Chaney with the St. Louis Rams and Shannon with the Miami Dolphins.
Last season, the Arkansas assistants were coaching inthe SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pacific-12 conferences, as well as Bentonville High School.
Defensive coordinator Chris Ash and defensive line coach Charlie Partridge are the only assistants Bielema brought with him from Wisconsin. Bielema hired Chaney and offensive line coach Sam Pittman from Tennessee; running backs coach Joel Thomas from Washington; receivers coach Michael Smith from Kansas State; and Shannon from TCU. He retained cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson, who coached Arkansas’ linebackers last season, and hired tight ends coach Barry Lunney Jr. from Bentonville High School.
“Bret was very meticulous about bringing in guys with different experiences,” Partridge said.
“... Bret does a great job of allowing the discussion to happen and then making his final decision, but there’s a lot being brought to the table by everyone on staff, which is great.”
Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said he talked with Bielema during the hiring process about how his staff would be put together to compete in the SEC, which has won the past seven BCS national championships.
“When I asked that question, to be honest with you, I was going to be concerned if Bret said that he picks up his staff and brings that formula exactly as he did it at Wisconsin to Arkansas,” Long said. “He didn’t say that.
“He said, ‘I’m going to bring the core people that I believe in, and then I know I’ve got to do something different. It’s a different kind of competition in the SEC, and I need to have the resources to go out and get the kind of coaches who can be successful in the SEC.’
“That was one of the critical answers he gave to me … that he knew and understood he had to bring something different than what he had at Wisconsin.”
Arkansas’ assistants are being paid a combined $3.3 million compared to about $2 million Bielema’s assistants were paid at Wisconsin.
“We worked together to have the resources to do that,” Long said.
Lunney, a former UA quarterback and graduate assistant, was Bentonville’s offensive coordinator for eight seasons and has coached collegiately at Tulsa and San Jose State.
“I think if you sat in the room during a staff meeting and observed the way we work that you would ever guess that it was a bunch of guys from different places and backgrounds and personalities,” Lunney said. “I’d think you’d say, ‘This is a staff that’s probably been together for a while.’
“We haven’t been under any live rounds yet, either, but I think the chemistry’s been really good. It’s been great for me personally, to get to learn and pull information from these guys and their experiences.”
Shannon coached at Miami, his alma mater, for 17 seasons, including being head coach from 2007-2010. He won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant in 2001 when he was Miami’s defensive coordinator.
“I mean, the guy’s a walking encyclopedia on football,” Johnson said.
Shannon said he appreciates the positive environment Bielema has created.
“We’re a staff that works our butts off, but we have fun,” Shannon said. “We’re not a staff that’s going to hold our heads down and be miserable.
“We like to be around each other and we like to be around our head coach, and he likes to be around us. When everybody has a common bond like that, it tends to work out very well.”
Bielema said he’s “amazed” by how well the group has blended together.
Aside from the coaching ability, Bielema stressed the personalities of his assistants and the compassion they have for the players.
“Our kids have bought in, without a doubt, that our position coaches will do anything within NCAA rules to help them succeed in life,” Bielema said. “That’s gone a long, long way.”
Sports, Pages 22 on 08/25/2013