FAYETTEVILLE -- Chances are it works out better for Arkansas' Liberty Bowl game that Bret Bielema promoted a graduate assistant his Razorbacks offensive linemen know well as opposed to bringing bringing back a big name to coach, like Lou Holtz did before the 1980 Sugar Bowl.
Bielema, like Holtz in 1979, has been down a coach in December with a bowl game on the horizon.
The difference is Bielema is preparing for this Jan. 2 Liberty Bowl game against Kansas State. Holtz's 1979 Southwest Conference co-champion Razorbacks were heading into the Sugar Bowl against Alabama.
Monte Kiffin, the defensive coordinator for Holtz's 11-1, 9-2-1 Razorbacks of 1977 and '78 and in 1979 all but the 24-9 Sugar Bowl loss to national champion Alabama, was hired to head coach North Carolina State, the team that Holtz head coached from 1972-75.
Promoting defensive backfield coach Bob Cope to defensive coordinator, Holtz went offensive. He brought back Larry Beightol his great 1977 and '78 Arkansas offensive line coach just fired after head coaching Louisiana Tech.
Arkansas' linemen loved and respected Beightol but they also loved and respected Ken Turner, the since Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inducted Razorbacks' tight ends/kickers coach superbly coaching the entire line in '79.
Turner's demotion did not sit well with the linemen. Their chemistry under Turner vastly exceeded expectations for a then 10-1 team preseason picked middle of the SWC pack graduating so many stars from '78.
That undefeated 1979 Alabama team was better than Arkansas or anybody else that season, but Holtz conflicting his line didn't help Arkansas' chances.
Earlier this month Sam Pittman, Bielema's line coach beloved and respected among these Razorbacks linemen like Beightol and Turner were to their lines back then, left to coach Georgia's offensive line.
Bielema did not make a hasty hire or temporarily bring in an out-of-work big-name coach.
He promoted Eric Mateos, the graduate assistant line coach who has reached his 3-year limit and must move on after the Liberty Bowl.
Other than fifth-year senior starting center Mitch Smothers, no starting lineman knows an Arkansas day without Mateos.
"A great personality," said Bielema, who noted that Mateos helped recruit many of the players.
And helped coach them.
Pittman treated his graduate assistant as a coach not a lackey.
"That's one thing he did that really prepared me for this," Mateos said. "He gave me a really big responsibility throughout the three seasons."
The linemen want to win Mateos a job somewhere as much as they want to win the bowl game, junior right tackle Dan Skipper has said.
"Skipper came in my office yesterday and was talking about how he was giving me some pub and all that." Mateos said, smiling. "You know they are good kids. More than anything, they want to be good. They have an expectation that they are going to be good on Saturdays. And they want to be good every day in practice."
And they want to be good for Eric Mateos.
Sports on 12/21/2015