Since 2011, Arkansas hasn't won more than eight games in a season and has more campaigns with four or fewer wins than ones with eight or more. And they haven't won an SEC title — ever.
That's not exactly winning, though Razorbacks' athletics director Jeff Long said winning isn't the only goal.
Following their offensively challenged home loss to TCU in Week 1, Arkansas is now 1-1 on the season and 26-27 under fifth-year head coach Bret Bielema, who's struggled to get over the hump since arriving from Wisconsin in 2013. Bielema has finished above .500 in the SEC once and has finished fifth or worse in the West three of his four seasons.
“Yes, winning is important,” Long told fans at the Little Rock Touchdown Club this week. “Now contrast that if you’re a win-at-all-cost program which we’re not and I’ve said many, many times we’re not, then you don’t worry about the academics, you don’t worry about the conduct, you just win.
“And you know what? When I arrived here 10 years ago, that’s not what the leaders wanted at the time and certainly that’s certainly not what we’ve delivered."
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Long did not name — or even hint at — any programs he believed were employing a winning-at-all-costs strategy, though it's assumed divisional foe Ole Miss was dancing in his mind. Hugh Freeze, who arrived in Oxford one year before Bielema, owned a 39-25 record in five seasons, along with one 10-win campaign and two more with eight or more wins. He also had two wins over Alabama, who has outscored Bielema and Arkansas by 85 points in four meetings. Then he was ousted amidst a messy NCAA investigation and allegations of personal indiscretions.
“Yes, we want to win," Long added. "Yes, it’s a priority. Yes, it eats us up from the inside that we don’t win more.”
Arkansas has a bye in Week 3 before hosting Texas A&M on Sept. 23.
