Bret Bielema is on thin ice as the head coach at Arkansas, and he will likely be fired at the end of the season if his team underperforms once again. They just lost an overtime thriller to Texas A&M, and the same game that could get Bielema fired might help Kevin Sumlin keep his job at Texas A&M. Who needed this game more? How do we grade coaches who have not had any major success at their respective schools? A lack of consistency makes this a very tough decision to make.
Bielema cannot lose again
Bielema would lose control of the season if he were to lose again next week, and that might be the straw that broke the camel's back.
That little straw could send shockwaves through Arkansas football as they try to find someone else who can fill Bielema's shoes. He is a very good coach, but he might have been better suited to Wisconsin than Arkansas.
Assuming there is a talent gap
There is no talent gap in the SEC because these teams all recruit so well. It is not a matter of all the best players coming from the south. This is a matter of coaches finding the right player and convincing them to play in the SEC. The SEC schools that are located in small towns have a hard time convincing guys to come play for them, but they can do the job. Bielema assumed that players would flock to an SEC school, but he was dead wrong.
Sumlin saved himself
Kevin Sumlin might have saved himself with this win because it came in a pressure situation with everyone watching him. The Texas A&M team responded in the second half, and Sumlin showed that he knows how to coach his team in a big game. He can look to this game as his crowning achievement, and it is very important that the Aggies use this game for momentum.
Sumlin could get fired later in the season if the team starts to play poorly again, but we will not know until we see how his team responds to this win.
Who can Arkansas get?
Arkansas can get a lot of coaches to come work for them, but there is no guarantee that they would be able to find someone as good as Bielema. The dilemma for this program is balancing their relative success with a desire to be much more competitive.
They could try to hire Bobby Petrino again, or they could find someone who is succeeding at a smaller school. They likely will not hire Charlie Strong because Strong seems happy at USF, and they probably cannot actually hire Petrino again. They would have to look in the group of five schools, but that only means they hired a guy who was cheap. It may be easier to keep Bielema because of the coaching landscape.
