Bret Bielema grew up on a working pig farm in Prophetstown, Ill., then walked on and earned a scholarship at Iowa.
Worked his way up to head coach at Wisconsin, and now, he's a hog-calling home boy.
Granted, he talks about games at Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium like they are road games, and they are, even though the grand old lady has a long history with the Arkansas Razorbacks.
If, or maybe when, the final game is moved from central Arkansas, most likely to a neutral site against a bigger name opponent on national television, that decision will have been made way above Bielema's level on the chain of command.
He's happy coaching football.
It is what he was born to do, and going into his fourth season at Arkansas, he's comfortable. On Monday, he was totally at ease in addressing a standing room-only crowd at the kickoff luncheon for the Little Rock Touchdown Club, the 500-member football club founded by David Bazzel.
Bielema talked about his wife, their dogs and about going to Russell Wilson's wedding in Europe. Earth, Wind and Fire played at the reception for the 140 guests.
Monday was a hogalujah day.
Razorbacks fans started lining up for the lunch long before the UA plane started taxiing for takeoff.
The first hog call was heard at 10:56 a.m., the last one ended the luncheon with everyone on their feet.
Bielema was funny, saying he had an issue with some of the camera angles during the four half-hour shows -- "Being Bret Bielema" -- that aired on ESPNU about him as a person.
"They made me look heavy," the former defensive lineman said.
He said he did the shows for two reasons: So people could get a truer sense of who he is and recruiting exposure. He said that worked when he got a call from a prospect who was committed to "the enemy," and said he and his parents had seen the shows, loved them and were reconsidering the recruiting process.
"He's No. 1 on our board now," Bielema said.
Bielema dropped a bit of a bombshell when he named the true freshmen he is counting on this season, and one of them is quarterback Cole Kelly.
"Some people have thought we were going to move him to tight end. No, he's staying right where he is," Bielema said. "He may have the livest arm of them all."
He talked about leadership, how the Razorbacks have a senior at every position. But the talk always came back around to Dan Skipper, the 6-10, 330-pound offensive lineman who everyone listens to, including himself, Bielema joked.
Skipper and the other seniors had a team meeting as soon as all the incoming freshmen were on campus and informed the new guys how things were done, and they were going to continue to be done that way, the right way.
Mostly Bielema was optimistic, energetic and enthusiastic, which is very consistent in the way he approaches coaching and life, admitting he didn't like to dwell on the negative.
The crowd was old and young, rich and not-so-rich, male and female, and for an hour they were all family and they were there to learn about the young men who they will cheer for this fall.
Bielema got a lot of cheers during his talk, especially when he said he had kids he was excited about coaching and that the new Associated Press poll has several (three) teams the Hogs beat last year, a strong indication the program is headed in the right direction.
When he was introduced, he received a standing ovation and said, "I understand. You've been sitting for a while."
And then he wowed the crowd, just as he always does at the Little Rock Touchdown Club kickoff luncheon, and this time it ended with a resounding hog call led by Boss Hog himself.
Sports on 08/23/2016