How Will Bret Bielema Fair as Arkansas Head Coach?

Bret Bielema has been in the college football world far longer than (what I assume) most people realize. He played for the Iowa Hawkeyes, but also served as an assistant coach there from 1993 to 2001. In 2002 he became the co-defensive coordinator for the Kansas State Wildcats. He kept that position until 2004 when he got hired by the Wisconsin Badgers to serve as the defensive coordinator as well. After one year as the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin, Barry Alvarez announced his retirement from coaching, and Bielema became the head coach of the Badgers.

Bielema was quite impressive his first year at Wisconsin. Not only did he lead them to a Capital One Bowl victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks, but he also led them to a 12-1 record. Bret also led Wisconsin to a victory over the #1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.

Bielema ended up winning 17 of his first 18 games as head coach of the Badgers, which is the second-best start to a head coaching career in the Big Ten, only seconded by former Michigan coach Fielding Yost.

Between 2006 and 2012, Bret racked up 68 wins as the Wisconsin head coach, and only lost 24 games. He coached the Badgers in six bowl games, but only won two. Two of the losses were in the Rose Bowl.

As I mentioned before, Bret did lead Wisconsin to a victory over the Buckeyes in his first year, but that was the one and only victory he saw as Wisconsin head coach. Overall he went 1-5 against Ohio State.

Although Bret did fair very well as head coach of the Badgers, never having a losing season, now he finds himself with the Arkansas Razorbacks in the very impressive SEC. In the Big Ten Bielema found himself against many tough matchups, including Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and his alma mater Iowa. But some may argue that the SEC is a tougher conference. We won't get into comparing conferences right now, but he will find himself in games against the likes of the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Auburn Tigers the Florida Gators and many others.

I'd say it's safe to say that it's going to be tough for Bielema to see the same success he saw his first year as Wisconsin head coach, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. However, he is playing Florida, Alabama and LSU at their home stadiums.

Bielema has an quite the impressive coaching career, and I expect to see the same style and same winning attitude out of him at Arkansas, but the SEC is a little bit different than the Big Ten. Will it be a difference that benefits Bielema or hurts him however, we will just have to wait and see.

- Matt Lytle

@mattlytle