It was a week ago today that Jeff Long was fired as the University of Arkansas' athletics director.
I guess I don't understand -- and I'm sure I'm not alone -- why Long is the fall guy for the failures of others, namely Razorbacks head football coach Bret Bielema.
The truth is money talks.
But let's be real honest about this -- this is really not about Jeff Long, so much as it is all about Bret Bielema, who likely won't be employed by Arkansas in the coming days.
When Jeff Long hired Bret Bielema away from Wisconsin in December 2012, it was praised across the board: From sports writers, commentators, experts, former Bielema players and fans. Long was a genius, right? What a hire!
It hasn't worked out though. And because it didn't work out for Bielema -- who I like a lot by the way -- it didn't work out for Jeff Long.
Bielema, after the Razorbacks lost 28-21 to Mississippi State this past Saturday, is 29-33 in five years at Arkansas, and even worse he's 11-28 in the Southeastern Conference.
For a while there it seemed like Bret was trending upward.
I remember vividly in 2014, shivering in the cold all day tailgating with friends prior to Arkansas hosting my 17th-ranked LSU Tigers. The Hogs blanked Les Miles' LSU team that night 17-0, and then the very next week, Arkansas shutout No. 8 Ole Miss 30-0, and then beat the Texas Longhorns 31-7 in the Texas Bowl to finish the year 7-6.
The Hogs improved to 8-5 in 2015 and won the Liberty Bowl, but last year they finished 7-6 again and had a disappointing finish, blowing big leads to the Missouri Tigers in the final regular season game and then another blown lead against Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl.
Then there's this season. Arkansas is 4-7 heading into Friday's regular season finale against Missouri, and it could be even worse. The Razorbacks rallied for a big deficit to stun Ole Miss in Oxford on Oct. 28 for their only SEC win. They also nearly dropped a stunner to Coastal Carolina back on Nov. 3.
It's been a tough year, and if I were a betting man I'd say it'll be a tough chore for the Razorbacks to defeat a red hot Missouri team on Friday afternoon. After a 1-5 start, Missouri has won five in a row, including SEC blowouts of Florida (45-16), Tennessee (50-17) and Vanderbilt (45-17), by a combined score of 260-83.
Who knows, maybe old Bret can go out a winner as a Razorback on Friday.
But back to Long.
A headline in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Saturday said Long was fired out of convenience and that his performance reviews were all positive.
Here's a guy who was the first chairman of the College Football Playoff committee and is still on the committee. He's a guy who had the guts to fire Bobby Petrino back in the spring of 2012 after Petrino lied to everyone about the incident of a motorcycle wreck that revealed much inappropriate behavior.
Long has helped raise lots of money for the University of Arkansas and its athletics program and he seemed to have been truly respected by the coaches he was in charge of.
It's a shame the University of Arkansas decided to let him go over the lack of the success of Bret Bielema.
I'm confident both guys will land on their feet somewhere and be successful in what they do next.
-- Graham Thomas is the managing editor for the Herald-Leader. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Sports on 11/22/2017