Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema has made no secret about his openness to adding transfer players if it means helping his team’s chances to win. Looking back on his time at Wisconsin it was Bielema who added transfer quarterbacks not once, but twice in hopes of giving the Badgers a shot at winning a Big Ten title. One time it worked beautifully with N.C. State transfer Russell Wilson. The other time it did not quite play out as perhaps expected, with Danny O’Brien of Maryland. Bielema likes to go after players with good character, and that stance may not be something that changes anytime at Arkansas.
“Everybody adds players to the program,” Bielema said in a recent radio interview on SportsTalk with Bo Mattingly, as transcribed by 247 Sports. “Especially at Arkansas, when we go after a transfer, we’re going after the highest quality of people. I’m not trying to get a rebound off any law enforcement or drug issues or anything else. We look for high quality.”
The timing of Bielema’s recent comments is worth noting as well. Former Missouri wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, dismissed by the university this offseason, was officially added to Oklahoma’s roster as a transfer player on Thursday, the same day Bielema appeared on the radio program. DGB’s problems were drug related according to previous reports, and that is something Bielema takes seriously at Arkansas. At a time when the debate on whether or not marijuana should be legalized continues to evolve, Bielema is standing pat on his stance, as he generally does,
“I’ll be honest, just a couple weeks ago, there was a Baylor wide receiver that got into a little trouble [Bielema is referring to Robbie Rhodes, who is no longer with the Baylor program]. The thing he had gone through, we could be his greatest asset, with a strict no use of marijuana, no use of drugs. That’s something I really enforced when I got here, something I firmly believe in.”
“Across the nation, there’s a whole new process about legalizing marijuana,” Bielema said. “If I allow it to happen here, I’m allowing bad behavior to continue that will cost them their career. We’re pretty adherent to that policy.”
Helmet sticker to Saturday Down South.