UA fires Bielema after dreary year

Quick exit clears way for coach search

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema walks off the field following a 48-45 loss to Missouri on Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, in Fayetteville. Bielema was fired following the game, ending his five-year tenure at Arkansas, where he was 29-34 overall and 11-29 in SEC games.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville fired football Coach Bret Bielema on Friday, minutes after losing 48-45 to Missouri in the Razorbacks' final game of a 4-8 season.

Administrators made the decision "in its finality during the game" Friday, based on a season-long evaluation that included discussions with the previously terminated athletic director, Chancellor Joe Steinmetz said.

"It would have been difficult to continue with Coach Bielema," Steinmetz said when asked if the outcome of the Missouri game would have affected the decision. "It could have. We truly wanted to wait 'til the end and make a decision based on the whole season. There's always a chance, and I'm one who wants completeness and to look at everything and every angle."

Bielema, 47, completed his fifth season with a 29-34 record at UA, including 11-29 in Southeastern Conference play and 8-22 against the conference's West Division. His firing came nine days after UA fired Athletic Director Jeff Long for "convenience," which many linked in part to the poor performance of the football team under Bielema.

[DOCUMENT: Read full termination letter]

"I've never been let go of in my entire life, so this is a first for me," Bielema said in a news conference after Friday's game. "I've had quite a few coaches that have moved on, and they always kind of say, whether it's right, wrong or different, you want to leave the place better than when you got here. And I know that's happened. There's no doubt."

Bielema gave long hugs to many of his players and assistant coaches as the Razorbacks left the field. He said interim Athletic Director Julie Cromer Peoples pulled him into a side room under Reynolds Razorback Stadium shortly after the game to fire him.



The firing makes Arkansas the fourth football program in the Southeastern Conference searching for a head coach. The University of Florida, the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee are all looking for head coaches. Other football programs in the conference also are expected to announce searches, according to media reports.

It also comes less than a month before the Dec. 20-22 early signing period for college football teams. The regular signing period for recruits will run from Feb. 7 to April 1.

The timing of Bielema's dismissal was "delicate" in part because Cromer Peoples wanted the coach to inform players before they left for the weekend, she said. Bielema's exit also allows the university to enter an "active" coaching market, she said.

"I knew that speculation and rumors have been going on for weeks," Cromer Peoples said in a 20-minute news conference. "I knew that would only dial up as soon as the game ended. The worst-case scenario to me was to have our student-athletes spread all over the region and have to learn in a phone call that their coach was leaving."

Cromer Peoples named defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads as interim head coach.

Rhoads spent seven years at the helm of Iowa State's football team before joining Bielema's staff, initially as a defensive backs coach, in February 2016. Cromer Peoples said she would meet with the rest of the coaching staff at 10 a.m. today to discuss their future with the program.

Rather than appointing a committee, Cromer Peoples said she will rely on informal advisers and a network of sources she has built over her career while "running point" to find Bielema's successor. She said she feels authorized to extend an offer and make a hire, in consultation with Steinmetz, even while the university looks for a permanent athletic director.

Bret Bielema through the years

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In a hand-delivered letter to Bielema on Friday, Cromer Peoples wrote that the "decision is in the best interest of the football program and the University." The letter, worded similarly to the one Long received, says Bielema was terminated via his contract's "convenience" clause, meaning he's eligible to receive at least $5.9 million in severance payments provided he looks for another job.

Those payments, which a university spokesman said would be paid by the Razorback Foundation, would be offset by any income he earns through other employment.

Obtained through Arkansas' open-records laws, the letter instructs Bielema to return his university cellphones and computers no later than Monday.

"You have been a valued and respected member of our department, and there is no doubt that you have made a positive impact on the lives of our student-athletes," the letter said.

3 YEARS LEFT ON DEAL

Bielema, who earned $4.275 million last fiscal year in total compensation, is owed a substantial buyout for the remaining three years on his contract, which was extended to Dec. 31, 2020, in early 2015.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported the buyout as $5.9 million between today and Dec. 1, based on language in his original contract and an amendment added in early 2015 after the Razorbacks routed Texas 31-7 in the Texas Bowl.

However, Bielema also signed an agreement with the Razorback Foundation, Cromer Peoples said, which could change the amount owed to him.

Cromer Peoples and Steinmetz directed questions about the agreement to the Razorback Foundation. The foundation's executive director, Scott Varady, did not respond to a voice mail. A source close to the program said Friday that the agreement stipulates a buyout between $11 million to $12 million.

When asked previously about any "documents or drafts of documents that supplement Bret Bielema's contract," UA provided Bielema's offer letter, an offer letter for an amendment, a contract and a first amendment to the contract. It did not provide any copies of the personal services agreement, though the university kept a copy of one for Long.

Long can earn a maximum of $4.625 million from the termination, also paid for by the foundation, the university has said. That amount can decrease should Long find other employment.

Bielema's buyout was the subject of conversations among University of Arkansas System board of trustees members as early as Sept. 27, four days after the Razorbacks lost an overtime game to Texas A&M, emails obtained through the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act show.

On Sept. 27, Trustee Cliff Gibson of Monticello received an email from UA System President Donald Bobbitt with a listing of football coaches' contracts in the conference. The listing included the annual compensation of each coach, the "school buyout" and the "coach buyout."

On Oct. 9 -- two days after the Razorbacks lost 48-22 to South Carolina -- the UA System's general counsel, JoAnn Maxey, sent a copy of Bielema's contract to trustees "since several of you have made a request for the attached," documents show.

The next day, Trustee and former Razorback Tommy Boyer of Fayetteville pointed to Bielema's Dec. 4, 2012, contract in an email to his peers, Bobbitt and Steinmetz.

"If the contract were terminated effective November 1, 2017, the buy out will be approximately $8,242,238, not $15,400,000," he wrote. "On the other hand, if the contract were terminated effective January 1, 2018, the buy out will be approximately $6,261,982, not $11,700,000. This is quite a difference from what we have been discussing!"

Later that day, Boyer corrected the Jan. 1 buyout amount to $5,932,404.

On Oct. 13, Boyer wrote to Gibson about Bielema's buyout being $12.8 million in 2013, the coach's first year, when he had a conference record of 0-8 and in 2014, when his record was 2-6. The buyout remained the same in 2015, he said in the email.

"However, he signed a new contract and his buy out increased to $15.4M," Boyer wrote. "His two year record was 2-14 and his buy out was increased by $2.6M. In addition, his annual salary was increased from $2.95M to $3.25M, which represents an increase of $300,000.

"I don't understand the rationale for entering into a new contract and increasing his buy out and annual salary."

FIRSTBORN AN ARKANSAN

On a private level, 2017 will have to go down as one of Bielema's best years. But seen through a tighter, professional scope, this football season will be one of his worst.

Less than five months after Jen Bielema gave birth to the couple's first child, Bielema lost his job after losing to Missouri in the season's finale.

Dwindling attendance at Reynolds Razorback Stadium -- where construction on $160 million in new premium seating, stadium upgrades and a new athletics center is ongoing near the north end zone -- and the firing of Long on Nov. 15 were bad omens for Bielema in recent weeks

"I will do anything and everything I can to help Arkansas," said Bielema, who two years ago became the first Arkansas head coach to win back-to-back bowl games. "I'm the biggest fan of Arkansas now more than ever.

"One of the things that will come out of this is I have a beautiful wife and a beautiful daughter, who will forever be born in Fayetteville, Arkansas," Bielema said. "My only wish is that people that ultimately pulled this trigger, I wish I would have known who they are, been around them a little bit, and wish they could see how we work and how we do things, the emphasis in the entire product that we put out there, both on the field and off it."

Bielema accepted the Arkansas job offer from Long on Dec. 3, 2012, two days after leading Wisconsin to a 70-31 victory over Nebraska in the Big Ten championship game.

A rising star and defensive whiz at a young age after working with successful Coaches Hayden Fry, Kirk Ferentz, Bill Snyder and Barry Alvarez, Bielema had been named coach-in-waiting for Alvarez at Wisconsin. He took the top job at Wisconsin in 2006 at age 36 and led the Badgers to a 68-25 record in seven seasons, culminating with three consecutive Big Ten championships.

The team's graduation rate and academic performance improved dramatically under his watch, while off-the-field incidents plummeted.

Bielema signed with UA, saying he wanted to help the Razorbacks win their first SEC championship. The closest Arkansas came under Bielema was a third-place finish with a 5-3 SEC record in 2015.

But the Razorbacks, who struggled to contend in the the league's West Division throughout his watch, could not sustain their momentum into 2016. The program failed this year to qualify for a bowl for the second time in his five seasons.

Since losing 52-20 to Auburn on Oct. 21, attendance at Reynolds Razorback Stadium has dropped precipitously.

Attendance was announced as 61,476 tickets sold for the Razorbacks' victory over Coastal Carolina; 64,153 for last week's loss to Mississippi State and 64,529 for Friday's finale against Missouri. However, actual attendance at the 72,000-seat stadium was drastically lower for each of those games, within the range of 35,000-45,000.

Bielema's Arkansas teams were 0-5 against both Alabama and Texas A&M, 1-4 against Auburn and Mississippi State and 2-3 against LSU. His 4-1 mark against Ole Miss represented his only winning record against a division opponent.

Long's firing seemed to serve as a harbinger for change in the football program.

Looking at where the season was and where it was headed, Steinmetz said, one could have expected the firing. But it wasn't "related completely" to Long's firing, the chancellor said.

"There was a variety of factors that I don't want to get into about Jeff Long's firing, and of course the performance of football team was one of those," he said. "One did not necessarily lead to the other."

Now, the UA administration faces a crossroads.

Steinmetz and a seven-member advisory committee named Wednesday are hunting for a permanent athletic director at the same time the football program is without a head coach.

As of Friday evening, the search committee had not met nor set a date for its first meeting, said UA associate professor Gerald Jordan, a committee member and the faculty athletics representative.

Information for this article was contributed by Bob Holt of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Razorbacks football coach Bret Bielema was fi red by Arkansas after a 4-8 season.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Bret Bielema and his wife, Jen, call the Hogs with Jeff Long, then the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville athletic director, at the Dec. 5, 2012, announcement of Bielema’s hiring as head coach. Bielema said he wanted to help the Razorbacks win their first SEC championship. The closest he got was a third-place finish with a 5-3 SEC record in 2015.

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Bielema’s record at UA

Metro on 11/25/2017