Bielema: Rhoads enlivens all Hogs

Arkansas assistant coach Paul Rhoads speaks with his players Thursday, March 31, 2016, during practice at the university's practice field on campus in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Paul Rhoads said his overarching task in taking over the Arkansas defense for 2017 transcends the move to a 3-4 scheme or the new verbiage that is in store this spring.

"Football is a fun game and we want to have fun playing it, and these kids want to have fun being coached and being taught to play it," Rhoads said Saturday.

Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said the entire team had a burst of positivity late Monday night when he announced Rhoads' promotion from defensive backs coach to coordinator to replace Robb Smith.

"To me that [idea of having fun] was a reflection of that response," Rhoads said. "And being as favorable as it was did my heart good the first day."

Bielema said he thought since hiring Rhoads -- a seven-year head coach at Iowa State from 2009-15 -- last winter that he would be first in line to replace Smith if the moment arose.

"I approached him pretty much at the end of the regular season about how he would fill in that role moving forward," Bielema said. "I really just feel that he has a demeanor that our room needs right now.

"There's a calmness to him. When I mentioned it in front of the team, there was an instantaneous ... as a head coach, you know reactions, right? I knew they'd be excited, and I thought the DBs in general would be, but the offensive and defensive reaction, and then when he spoke a few words, the way that the offensive players in that room reacted to his voice I think was compelling of what he's about to do."

With a week and a half left until signing day, Bielema and Rhoads met with the media Saturday to discuss Rhoads' appointment as well as personnel and schemes for spring drills.

Bielema said linebacker Khalia Hackett and defensive end Tevin Beanum were no longer with the program. Hackett is looking for a spot to transfer, Bielema said, and Beanum -- who has been dealing with personal issues -- has a chance to earn a medical exemption and stay in school on scholarship.

Dre Greenlaw and Grayson Gunter should be the only players held out or limited during winter and spring workouts, Bielema said. With Greenlaw's most recent foot injury, the Razorbacks are researching all the options about where to have the surgery.

Bielema said the Razorbacks will start their eight-week winter conditioning program today. After the March 20-24 spring break, the Razorbacks will start spring drills -- which will be held on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for five weeks -- concluding with the annual spring game April 29.

Bielema also touched on the conditions in the program this season that led to a 7-6 finish, specifically the Razorbacks' collapses against Missouri and Virginia Tech after holding big halftime leads in both games.

"As far as with our players ... the one thing that I kept coming back to -- and it's disheartening, in every phase that I went through, from winter conditioning to spring ball to summer conditioning to fall camp to the fall season -- we were inconsistent," Bielema said. "

It was just like this roller coaster of detail that we just can't allow. The only thing you can do is just expect 100 percent consistency and whatever we've got to do to enforce that."

Bielema said he stayed in his house for 48 hours after returning from Arkansas' 35-24 loss to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl. He hashed out all the issues confronting the program before swinging back into action.

"I had a pretty comprehensive meeting with our staff about personnel and where we're going to go, moving some people around, dual-training some guys," he said. "And a chance to just really be hungry and excited, and that's where we've run with it."

Rhoads, 49, said he moved Iowa State to a 3-4 front for the 2015 season, his only year to work in a three-man front, but his background will give the Razorbacks the flexibility to do a lot of things with the front seven on defense.

"Don't let that scare you," Rhoads said. "As coach says, we talked 3-man front, we talked 3-4, we talked odd [fronts]. There are a lot of things that can be done in that, and there are a lot of things that I've done."

Sports on 01/22/2017