FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema’s hope of making 2013 a special season for the program’s seniors has long been a lost cause.
As Bielema and Razorbacks’ fans enjoy Thanksgiving today, on the eve of Arkansas’ season finale at BCS No. 17 LSU, they might ponder when Arkansas football will again factor into the SEC West and national races.
If history is any indication,it might within a year or two.
Arkansas, a perennial power for decades in the old Southwest Conference, has competed near the top of the SEC only in brief spurts during its 22-year existence in what is now clearly the nation’s toughest conference.
The Razorbacks appeared in the SEC Championship Game in 1995, 2002 and 2006, and lost each time. Two of those appearances came after four-victory seasons, while the one in 2002 followed a seven-victory season.
The 1998 team tied Mississippi State for the SEC Western Division title on the heels of a 4-7 season, but the Hogs lost the tie-breaker for the right to play in the SEC Championship Game.
The common denominator in all those seasons was that division powers Alabama and LSU were having off years or were on NCAA probation. The Razorbacks had to cycle up through some down years to reach those peaks.
For every Arkansas season with nine or more victories (six) in the past 22 years, there have been nearly twice as many seasons (11) with six or fewer victories.
“That’s kind of the way it’s been,” said tight ends coach Barry Lunney Jr., who was the quarterback when the Razorbacks won their first SEC West title.
“It’s certainly not what we want. We don’t want it to be a cycle. We want it to be a good cycle … an established cycle of we’re going to be there,we’re going to win games, we’re going to be in good bowls, we’re going to compete for the championship.”
Bielema said he came to Arkansas to deliver something the program has never had: An SEC championship.
After nearly one full circuit in the conference, Bielema was asked this week if what he’s up against in the SEC West looks more daunting than he originally thought.
“No,” he said. “No. There’s one game this year that I felt we were manhandled in a way that it’s going to take a while to get the type of personnel to match up one-on-one there for four quarters. But other than that, I’m really excited to have my guys for another six, nine months of development to go into a season again and see where we’re at.”
Bielema was referring to two-time defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Alabama, which drubbed the Razorbacks 52-0 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for its seventh consecutive victory in the series.
Bielema and his staff, who came in with reputations for being devoted and highly successful recruiters, know that a talent flow into Fayetteville is critical to their aims.
The Razorbacks peaked in 2010 and 2011 with 21 victories and were still outdone by Auburn and LSU for the SEC West crowns, but Arkansas’ wave of seminal skill position talent moved on and Bielema inherited a messy situation and thin talent from the interim John L. Smith regime.
LSU Coach Les Miles was asked this week if Bielema’s style, which is similar to that of Alabama and LSU, can be successful going up against similar programs that typically have higher-ranked recruiting classes.
“I think that being true to yourself more than anything is what you’re looking to do,” Miles said. “And I’m certain that he’s doing that.”
The Razorbacks have to win Friday to avoid the school’s first nine-loss season.
Bielema compared this year’s circumstances at Arkansas to his third year at Wisconsin, when the Badgers were 7-6 and he had to kick a couple of players off the team.
“There was a part there where I kind of had to stop doing what Coach [Barry] Alvarez had done and start doing what I believed in,” he said. “That involved a lot in recruiting. That involved a lot in the type of kid, a lot of player discipline, a lot of things about how you handled situations immediately, with drug testing and things away from the game of football that I had to put my stamp on.
“I remember distinctly, our first year after that 7-6 season, we didn’t win a championship, but I told that group of seniors, ‘You laid the foundation of something special,’ and the next three years were championships.”
He hopes to repeat that scenario at Arkansas.
Sports, Pages 27 on 11/28/2013