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Kliff Kingsbury has 'moved on,' Bret Bielema has not
George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports
7 hours ago
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Kliff Kingsbury has apparently said his piece on Arkansas coach Bret Bielema. Now it's Bielema's turn.
Saturday night, after Texas Tech’s 35-24 win in Fayetteville, Kingsbury said Bielema “just got his ass kicked” — and kept going from there.
Nelson Chenault, USA TODAY Sports
Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury says he has moved on from comments he made Saturday after his team beat Arkansas.
But Monday?
"I've moved on," Kingsbury said Monday during the Big 12's weekly teleconference. A moment later, he reiterated: "I've moved on from that. We've got our big game this week against TCU, so I really don't even want to revisit it."
FOR THE WIN
Kliff Kingsbury says Bret Bielema 'got his ass kicked' after Texas Tech beat Arkansas
But during Bielema's weekly news conference, Bielema was eager to revisit it. “He was arrogant," Bielema said of Kingsbury, according to The Associated Press. "If that was an ass-kicking, I’d love to see what last year was. I’m happy he got to vent.”
Bielema's reference to "last year" was about Arkansas' 49-28 win against the Red Raiders in Lubbock.
This is not the first time Bielema's words have sparked controversy or come back to haunt him this season. On Sept. 9 he questioned the quality of Ohio State's schedule before the Buckeyes played Hawaii, then saw his own team lose the following Saturday to Toledo. That led to a mocking reference last week from Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan.
Kingsbury's comments Saturday night were sparked by comments he said Bielema had made during the offseason at a Texas high school coaches convention.
"He stood up and said if you don't throw to the fullback, we'll kick your ass," Kingsbury said, "and if you throw it 70 times a game, we'll kick your ass. He just got his ass kicked twice in a row and probably next week by (Texas) A&M as well. That did feel good."
Bielema had compared his preferred traditional offensive philosophy to the up-tempo spread attacks now in vogue in college football — including at Texas Tech — and which have proliferated for years in Texas high school ranks.
"To walk in there and say those (things), it definitely rubbed me the wrong way," Kingsbury had said Saturday. "He's a prideful guy and he says what's on his mind but it just hasn't worked out for him."
Bielema’s response at the news conference Monday: “If we start digging into what coaches say at clinics for motivation, it’s gonna be a weird world.”
Later, Bielema added, “I was like, ‘C’mon, brother, don’t be so sensitive. I’m not talking about you in particular, just saying what I believe in.’ ”
Kingsbury played high school football in Texas. He's the son of a Texas high school football coach. But he said Monday he doesn't feel the need to defend the spread.
Nelson Chenault, USA TODAY Sports
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema is one of college football's most talked about coaches during the week. That's not necesssarily a good thing.
"I never had to defend it ever," Kingsbury said. "I wasn't defending anything. I was just stating facts."
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said he was aware of Kingsbury's remarks and told USA TODAY Sports he did not see any issues the conference would need to address.
“I haven’t seen (Kingsbury’s comments), and I haven’t had them represented to me as anything that would violate our sportsmanship policy so I have no plans at this point” to take any disciplinary action against Kingsbury, Bowlsby said.
During his Monday news conference, Kingsbury said he and Bielema shook hands after the game Saturday. Asked what was said between the coaches, he said: “(It was a) normal postgame handshake.”
Whatever was or wasn’t said then, there likely won’t be much more conversation between the coaches.
“We weren’t talking before,” Bielema said, “and we probably won’t talk now.”
At least, not to each other. -------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...
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