The Blue Board

You have to say this though. He will be able to get better recruits at Arky than at Wisky.

I think that's a fair presumption and I don't disagree but let me play devil's advocate. Why was he getting Florida athletes to come up to Wisconsin? The primary selling point was "take your SEC speed and come outrun these Midwestern boys". Throw that pitch out the window in the SEC.

He'll prob be able to recruit a little better at Arky than Wisky but he'll have to be able to recruit significantly better to compete in the SEC west than big Ten an I don't see any reason to think that will happen.

Barton, first I would like to say, thank you for chatting. Love when the staff chats as they seem to keep the most honest and open perspective.

I agree with what you're saying and the schedule is MUCH harder. However, look at some of the recent athletes at Ark and Wisc.... I don't think there's much of a comparison. Felix Jones was the second best (maybe third) back on that team. Wisconsin never had depth with athletes like the Razorbacks had. Maybe he recruits EVEN BETTER at Arkansas due to support, facilities, tradition and playing in the big boy conference. If he can get florida kids to Wiscy, don't you think he will draw even better to Fayetteville? JMO...

To say everyone else rated Bielema as the best hire is an exaggeration of epic proportions. Stewart Mandel of SI. com and many other media types actually rated Malzahn as the best hire partially because Bielema doesnt seem to fit in at Arkansas. Personally, I am taking a wait and see attitude toward all these hires

As good as Saban and Miles are at recruiting, they have/had big advantages over BB.

The names Alabama and LSU both go a long way to help them with recruiting as well.

It doesn't matter how Bielema won his Big Ten titles...HE WON THEM! I don't see LSU fans or Auburn fans or Bama fans saying "Well, it's nice that we won the SEC, but there should be an astericks next to this one since so-and-so was on probation." Give me a freakin break! Excuses are like buttholes...everybody has one and they all stink. Bielema is a great coach, and was a consistent winner on a national level with average talent. Gus has been a head coach for exactly 1 season, Stoops has never been a head coach, and Jones won at a Big East school.
It's not that hard Hog-haters.
Oh, and Simmons, you should know better.

BB is an average coach. The last two year he wouldn't have been in the Rose Bowl if not for the Tat5 and Sandusky. He had one quality year in 7. Congrats Hogs.

only question about butch jones is if gets fired in 3 years or 4 years.

What have tee Martin done usc went down this year

Thank you.

Hawg fan?

That team was was fun to beat.

Not so sure about this. He does not have Brian Kellys leftovers at UT.. he has Dooleys. Not so sure he is a decent enough recruiter let alone, a coach to warrant optimism.