Arkansas coach sympathizes with 'Greater' message

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema watches warmups prior to practice Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016, in Fayetteville.

— As a former walk-on himself at Iowa, Arkansas head football coach Bret Bielema certainly identifies with former Razorback walk-on-turned-All-American offensive lineman Brandon Burlsworth.

Bielema, who estimates that he has rewarded 18 walk-on players with scholarships in his four years at Arkansas, took his team last Friday to see a special showing of Greater, the movie about Burlworth’s life, his rise to be a third-round NFL draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts and his tragic early death at age 22.

The movie – which had a special red carpet premier locally Tuesday night - opens in some 400 theaters nationwide Friday.

“(Former Arkansas quarterback and current assistant coach) Barry Lunney, Jr., got up and gave our team an introduction to the story because he played with Brandon his first two years and then he was a GA (graduate assistant) when he saw the transformation happen,” Bielema said Wednesday afternoon at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club.

“Even Barry told the team, ‘I’ve got to tell you the first time that we went out to practice and I saw him going through drills he was kind of like that guy that I was saying I hope this guy doesn’t die.’ He said that he kind of was the guy at the end of the practice running gassers when everybody said, ‘Come on, you can do it, you can do it.’

“He was that guy, but at the end obviously he was one of the best players in college football so he set it up and (he) even saw him in the parking lot when he was leaving to go see his mother and go to church in Harrison, Arkansas, on the day he died.

“…There is some good humor in it and it really truly is for the ages.”

Bielema noted that this year’s Razorback squad will feature three former walk-ons-turned-scholarship players: punter Toby Baker, defensive Karl Roesler and defensive back Kevin Richardson.

“Those are three guys that I gave (scholarships) in January and all three of those guys are starters/major role players in our program,” Bielema said.

Bielema has been a proponent of bringing in walk-ons and rewarding them since his arrival at Arkansas.

He could be on the verge of awarding as many as four more scholarships to walk-ons next week because quarterback Rafe Peavey and cornerback Cornelius Floyd have announced they are transferring, and junior college defensive end Michael Taylor’s status is in flux.

“They are essential,” Bielema said of walk-ons. “Just because we have had a fluid roster here at the end with Rafe leaving opens up another scholarship for me. I have a couple, but I am waiting to see how many I am going to truly end up with.

“If Mike doesn’t come or doesn’t end up eligible, that opens another one along with C-Floyd…I started with none to one, to four.

“Where(ever) we land, I am going to be able to award some guys and I look forward to that. It is one of the best days of my season.”