Razorback Football Spring Practice Q&A with Bret Bielema Part 2

This is the second part of our ongoing post-spring practice Q&A with Arkansas Razorback football head coach Bret Bielema. Part 1 is available here.

Question: Since the time you took over the football program in December, through spring practice, is there anything you would have done differently? Did things progress the way you wanted them to?

Bielema: I’m sure there are some things along the way, but nothing glaringly jumps out. You know I usually try to take a … You know for me, there are four mahor parts of your program.

There is winter conditioning. There is spring ball and summer conditioning. And there is how you handle the fall.

Obviously we’ve been through the winter conditioning program and now going through spring ball. I really wouldn’t go back and change anything there.

You know, a couple of guys we need to bring along on a development area from just purely putting on weight. We need to kind of get game plan together on those guys. But I really like the way we handled spring practice and the attitude our kids approached it with.

Question: Does Defonta Lowe still have a shot to be part of the team?

Bielema: You know, no, Defonta won’t be back with the team. He’s still in school. He’s doing really well academically, actually. We are going to look into the options he wants to pursue here in the next couple of weeks. Him and Austin (Flynn) both.

…

On players, depth charts, etc.

Bielema: I’m a big believer in that everybody on this team has a role. I don’t care if you’re the second-string quarterback or the second string snapper, middle linebacker or whatever it is, they have to know what that role is and let it be defined and let them know where it’s going to be.

As far as with Brandon Mitchell, obviously, I think at quarterback he’s got some special gifts that we definitely can use or make better. If there’s another role, with him at another position, that will be something we will kind of work through together.

Question: So he (Mitchell) can play both?

Bielema: I think so. Without a doubt.

Question: Early on, you said we are going to embrace this underdog role. … On Saturday you said, well, we did this and we did this and that is indicative of championship football. … What should fans be expecting for next season?

Bielema: Well, I think when I made that reference, I just meant that it was a football team that just went 4-8. It was a team that had loss its head coach, prior to the season ever starting, and then an interim coach that was on his way out the door, obviously, and bringing in a new coach. I don’t think there were a lot of people that were talking about Arkansas football. And that is what I meant by the underdog role.

I think going into the fall, it reminds me a lot of when I first took over at Wisconsin. we finished that season 12-1, but I think we started the season ranked like 65th or 68th in the country. And because everybody thought A.) we lost a lot of really good players; there’s a new coach; didn’t really know a lot about him, and I think that same thing now.

Obviously, in our division, we’re playing not only in the best conference, but in probably the best division in college football. I don’t think a lot of people have their eyes on Arkansas right now. And I think that is a position we really, really, really would like. It’s one I think you can work up to the other.