We aren’t advocating firing Bret Bielema.
But there certainly some people that are. Even before the embarrassing loss to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl, there were not one but two GoFundMe accounts that desired to raise the money to fund the buyout.
Tyler Jones of Tomball, Texas is a self proclaimed “die heart Razorback fan” who was born and raised in Central Arkansas. His GoFundMe campaign seeks to raise $4.6 Million for Bielema’s buyout. “We an incredibly talented football team but our coaching staff accepts and strives for mediocracy.” Jones said in his plea. “The state of Arkansas deserves so much more than this. Thats why I am trying to raise money to buy out his contract so we can hire a coach worthy of our football program.”
(We think he meant mediocrity by the way).
Zac Bowman of Centerton filed his GoFundMe fundraiser for some $1,000 under the category of “emergencies”. “I feel we need to bring an end to his career here in Arkansas and bring in another better coach into his position.” Bowman pleaded in his description. “Thank you for you consideration , every penny counts to bring an end to this mad man.”
If you were worried that they might be getting close to overthrowing the establishment, neither campaign has raised a dime.
While Jones and Bowman have every right to attempt to raise these funds, maybe with a donation to the Razorback Foundation as an end result, here is what they need to understand.
As Andy Hodges so aptly pointed out on HogCountryOnline.Com, the buyout if they want to fire Coach Bielema before next season is some $15.4 Million. The buyout does drop over time per the latest contract extension, as low as $4 Million by 2020.
This is a lot of money in a small, one horse state. This also comes at a time when we are building a brand new addition in the north endzone of the stadium.
We may be wrong, but our hunch is Bielema is here to stay.
Whether he becomes the next Houston Nutt in Fayetteville is yet to be determined.
Grant Merrill
Grant Merrill is the Publisher of InsideFortSmith.Com, and owner of parent company Great Plains Digital Media. Prior to jumping into the digital world, he was a longtime sports talk show host on stations across Arkansas. E-Mail: grant@greatplainsdigital.com
Adam
December 30, 2016 at 9:19 am
He will get so miserable here that he moves on just like Nutt did. The fan base took a huge turn last night and even level headed fans are wanting change. Bielema won’t be here more than a couple more years as the fans will start to grind on him. He will jump ship and head back up north.