New Arkansas coach Bret Bielema took a shot at the SEC while he was coaching at Wisconsin about 14 months ago.  He took a shot at the SEC’s overall strength again this weekend.  He also managed to compare himself — favorably — to Alabama’s Nick Saban.

Now, his words about Saban don’t particularly read like a joke, but if he says he was kidding around, we’ll buy it.

But in trying to defuse his Saban joke yesterday via Twitter, he also chose to remind the world of his predecessor’s downfall.  Bobby Petrino wrecked his motorcycle and his career a year ago yesterday.  And here’s Bielema’s tweet from late yesterday afternoon:

Ha.

What a card.

Here’s guessing Petrino, his family, Jessica Dorrell, her family, her fiance, and his family appreciate Arkansas’ coach bringing that up again.

But what’s Bielema care?  He’s a cocksure coach who won big at Wisconsin (though plenty of Badger fans reminded him he didn’t win as many Rose Bowls as Barry Alvarez had).  Bielema also landed the job at Arkansas in part because he sent a letter to Razorback AD Jeff Long congratulating him for his firing of Petrino after his crash and for Long’s comments afterward.  With that in mind, it should be no surprise that Bielema had no problem re-opening Petrino’s old wound.

Nowhere in the SEC rule book does it say a coach has to be a nice guy.  Steve Spurrier’s been lippy over the years.  Lane Kiffin flapped his gums for a year.  Dan Mullen’s taken a helluva lot of shots at Ole Miss during his tenure.

But if Bielema’s going to joke about Saban’s record, kid about the SEC’s strength, and jest about a winning coach’s off-field downfall, he’d better win plenty of football games.  His track record suggests he will.  But he’s talking like a man who already has.

Big difference.

New Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema was asked Friday on ESPN Radio if it was fair to say he left Wisconsin for Fayetteville in order to put himself in a better conference.  His reply:

“I played in the Big Ten and enjoyed every opportunity that I had there as a player, an assistant coach, a coordinator, and a head coach, but I get what you’re saying and that’s one of the main reasons I came here was… when we go to playoff system in 2014 and to know you can be a one-loss team and you’re not even in the championship game in the SEC (but) you very well might be in the consideration (for) those four (playoff) teams, that’s very intriguing.

And I’ve just never been able to have the resources I’ve been given here at Arkansas to hire a group of assistant coaches.  I’ve lost a lot of really good coaches at Wisconsin.  And it was just getting very frustrating for us.  There’s some contractual things I was frustrated with and the opportunity to come here and have them open the doors with open arms… and the fanbase here is insanity!  Bigger than I could ever imagine and it’s just really an exciting time…

(The Big Ten) is a great, great league and everything that goes into it, but on the flipside of it the SEC… we’re building a new facility here at Arkansas that is off the charts.  It is just gonna open so many doors in recruiting.  I’ve been blown away the last two nights talking to kids on the phone recruiting that are gonna open some doors that I just didn’t see out there for us in their avenues.”

Bielema also revealed that he had “some conversations with Tennessee” before accepting the Arkansas job.  Clearly, as we stated last week, Bielema was ready to get out of Barry Alvarez’s shadow in Madison.

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Dave Hart and Tennessee’s biggest boosters need to walk into a Knoxville meeting room, drop the cones of silence from the ceiling, and relax.  While Vol fans scream, national writers and rival fans throw barbs, and mid-level donors set their hair on fire outside… Hart and UT’s leaders should remain calm.

The absolute worst move Tennessee could make right now would be to panic and rush a hire.  That’s what everyone says they need to do and it’s what we at MrSEC.com believe they will do — based on the school’s past history — but it’s the last thing they should do.

As we’ve said before, searches are almost always viewed as total failures right up until a coach is hired.  Example: Bret Bielema to Arkansas.  Bielema had grown tired of simply being Barry Alvarez’s replacement.  Razorback AD Jeff Long properly gauged this and grabbed Wisconsin’s coach out of thin air.  Presto!  Long went from being a buffoon to a genius in Hog fans’ eyes in the span of about two minutes.

If Tennessee found that Nebraska’s Bo Pelini, for example, was tired of living in Tom Osborne’s shadow and could grab him, don’t you think UT’s search would be viewed in a bit different light?  Instead of hiring a man from Louisville with three years of experience, they’d be swiping a coach from one of the winningest programs in the country who happens to have more head coaching experience and an SEC pedigree from his days at LSU.  Oh, and as a head coach he’s never won fewer than nine games in a season.

Pelini makes $2.7 in Lincoln.  If Tennessee offered him $4 million, would NU match it?

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According to multiple sources and reports from the Palmetto State, South Carolina baseball coach Ray Tanner will be hired as the school’s athletic director on Friday.  At 54, Tanner has made it clear that his future lies in administration.  Now the Gamecocks will give him that chance, but it comes at a price.

Tanner — who came within a whisker of leading Carolina to a third-straight national title this season — will step down immediately as the Cocks’ coach.  He will not double-dip as both coach and AD.

Earlier this week, the man Tanner will replace said that anyone moving from the coaching ranks to the ranks of administrator might have a tough early transition.  According to Eric Hyman (who’s heading to Texas A&M at the end of the month):

“(The board of trustees) needs to decide what they think is in best interest of the school and if Ray’s it, he is certainty capable.  He is a very,very talented baseball coach and he’s got talent and it is going to be a learning curve for him, and so what he needs to do, is have a strong staff to be able to support him and assist.”

Well, according to folks in Columbia, the board and USC president Harris Pastides have indeed made their decision.  And it’s Tanner.

While the day of the ex-coach as AD has for the most part died away, there are still a few exes running big time programs — Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin and Tom Osborne at Nebraska come to mind.  Still, Hyman is right.  There will be a transition involved.  Carolina could have gone out and grabbed an experienced AD.  The program’s coffers, fan support, and excellent stable of coaches would have made the job very enticing to anyone.

Instead, the powers-that-be felt more comfortable with the man they knew.  If Tanner is as successful in the boardroom as he’s been on the baseball diamond, Carolina fans will be happy with that decision for years to come.

Nick Saban hasn’t been afraid to put marquee programs on his team’s schedule.  Since 2008, Alabama has faced Clemson and Virginia Tech in Atlanta.  They’ve played Penn State at home and then on the road.  They’ll open with Michigan at Cowboys Stadium in Texas this season.  And Bama’s scheduled to return to Atlanta for their 2013 (Virginia Tech again) and 2014 (West Virginia) openers.

But the Tide wasn’t interested in playing Wisconsin. 

According to Badger AD and former coach Barry Alvarez, ESPN tried to set-up an Alabama-Wisconsin neutral site game recently, but UW favored a home-and-home series instead.  Alvarez told The Wisconsin State Journal that Saban declined that offer.

With the exception of the Penn State game at (Un)Happy Valley last fall, you’ll note that Saban has lined up key games with big-time foes mainly at neutral sites.  Perhaps he’s of the John Calipari school.  Of course, football is different than basketball… and lining up one neutral site game is different than lining up two or more per season.

As for Wisconsin, the Badgers are trying to beef up their schedule as college football transitions to a new playoff era.  One with a selection committee that will base its picks to some extent on strength of schedule.

UW is scheduled to play eight Big Ten games per season and will also be taking on a Pac-12 team each year as “big league” foe #9.  Alabama would have been a 10th quality opponent.

Alabama and other top SEC programs will likely try to keep at least nine quality foes from other power conferences on their schedules each year, but if schools like Wisconsin are trying to line up a 10th name opponent, that still puts the SEC behind the eight ball when it comes to the new playoff selection panel.  And that’s not even counting the Pac-12 where teams will play at least 10 power conference teams per year and some — like Southern Cal — will face 11 or even 12 depending on the year.

Just more evidence that the SEC will eventually have to go to a nine-game football schedule.  Whether the league’s coaches and ADs are frightened to do so or not.

(Oh, and for the record, Bama fans lost out on a great road trip in this deal.  Camp Randall Stadium and the city of Madison are favorites of this writer.)