That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take a shot at South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier who commented that teams like Arkansas and Tennessee were doing cartwheels over a 7-6 record.
“And from day one, Coach Spurrier has been awesome to my wife and I at every event we went to,” Bielema said. “I think you guys tend to play things up that you want to make headlines. I will say this. I’ll respect my elders at all points. I don’t think that body is built, no matter how big the shoes, with rockets or not, I could do any cartwheels.”
His shoes, a pair of Nikes, weren’t equipped with rockets.
“To get here as a head coach, I wore a little bling on the shoes just to have a little fun,” Bielema said. “I saw a coach walk in here yesterday with his Adidas on. We’re a Nike school. First thing I said was, hell, let’s start a little Nike-Adidas war. That was why I did it. I love [Mississippi State head coach] Dan Mullen and everything he is, but we’re a Nike school.”
That Nike school finished 7-6 after going 3-9 in 2013 in Bielema’s first year in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks were one of two SEC West teams to win its bowl game this past year.
Bielema said the team’s biggest asset is its turnaround in the two years he’s been there.
“7-6 is by no means is a landing point,” Bielema said. “It’s more of a launching point. It shares the same record with the worst record I had at my previous institution. After we went 7-6 on my last stop, we went on to win 10 games every year, three straight [conference] championships, and had a lot of success. I see a lot of the same things coming for us here, but the bottom line is you’ve got to make them happen.”
