FAYETTEVILLE -- Obviously Bret Bielema couldn't coach those who walked on at Arkansas before he came to Arkansas but that didn't stop him from seething at their plight.
"I was a walk-on myself as you guys all know," Bielema told media following last Saturday's scrimmage.
Bielema walked on without a scholarship at the University of Iowa. He developed into a 4-year letterman in the Hawkeyes' defensive line. From there he climbed the coaching ladder from Iowa grad assistant to head coaching Wisconsin and Arkansas.
Bielema has personal respect for what walk-ons can do for college football and what college football can do for them.
So he sought immediately to remedy the disrespect he perceived walk-ons experienced before his arrival at Arkansas.
"I was amazed when I first got here," Bielema said. "The walk-ons were in a different locker room. They didn't get the same number of tickets that the other guys got. For whatever reason, they were kind of treated like a second-class citizen."
Well beyond himself, Bielema knows how first-class a walk-on can be.
J.J. Watt, a walk-on for Bielema at Wisconsin, is regarded as today's premier NFL defensive end with the Houston Texans.
Bielema expounded about walk-ons Saturday after asked about two this spring, 6-4, 338 offensive lineman Johnny Gibson and Josh Harris, the little linebacker that could.
An electrical engineering major from Dumas, Gibson walked on last August and redshirted with the scout team.
He has scrimmaged the last two Saturdays as the backup left tackle to Denver Kirkland.
Harris, a finance major from Watson Chapel High School in Pine Bluff, also walked on last August and redshirted with the scout team. He is long on pedigree as the son of Jackie Harris, an NFL tight end from 1990 through 2001, but short on height listed at 5-foot-10. So far he's long on tackle charts leading the second-team defense with 11 tackles in the April 4 scrimmage and leading again with 11 tackles Saturday.
"I wish I had five of him," Bielema said. "He's not as tall as you want him to be but he's explosive and he's got tremendous vision. I think there's a role for him on our defense and special teams. Johnny Gibson and Josh -- those two guys on both sides of the ball are what I am trying to build here."
A burgeoning walk-on program not only would help Arkansas and Arkansas' own, Bielema said, but others from nearby states.
"We've got [tuition] reciprocity with so many other states, that's a program that can continue to grow and develop," Bielema said.
Despite what Bielema initially experienced, Arkansas has a rich walk-on tradition dating back to Coach Frank Broyles and long before. Post Broyles, the late Brandon Burlsworth and Kendall Trainor were Razorbacks walk-ons blossomed to All-Americans.
George Wilson, a Razorbacks walk-on receiver, has played safety in the NFL since 2004.
All first-class proof that it's not just common decency but common sense to treat everyone first-class.
Sports on 04/13/2015