AN OPEN LETTER FROM BRET BIELEMA

Dear college football fans,

As many of you already know, there has been an ongoing conversation about the dangers of a new trend in our sport in which daredevil coaches convince their unknowing players to play the game of football at breakneck speeds. I mean it. These dudes are going so fast they're going to break their necks. Personally, I'm not going to stand for it. If coaches like my friend (also, enemy) to north Gary Pinkel continue to push football in this direction, we're going to live in a world where people can do other dangerous things like jump really high to put a basketball directly into the hoop with their hands or even drive cars in excess of 80 miles per hour.

Now if you're like me you like to live in reality, not some fictitious world. I go by the things I see, and from what I've seen the faster you go in football the more scary it is. I know that many of you ask where the research is to back up my statements regarding the dangers of these spread offenses, so I did a little research with my own two eyes. Just take a look at this Auburn team. When they played against us, their offense went so fast that their defense magically started to get hurt when we drove down the field:

For you number-loving nerds out there, I also use this graphic that shows the correlation between uptempo offenses and people getting hurt really bad as a reference:

I'm very tired of hearing people accusing me of taking this stance to try and give myself a tactical advantage. That's absurd and ridiculous, I'm very concerned with the safety of my players. My very large, hard-hitting, aggressive, testosterone-filled players. My style of play is conducive to the well-being of each and every one of my players. We take our time down the field and don't concern ourselves too much with getting in the end zone.

I learned during my time in Wisconsin how dangerous winning can be to a football team, so here at Arkansas we are committed to changing that. In time, my colleague Nick Saban and I will convince the world how detrimental these spread offenses are to the integrity of our game, though he's still got a little work to do with that whole "punishing defense" thing. I believe we will all come to our senses at some point, I just think the world should know I came to mine a little sooner. Let's slow football back down, one dive play at a time.

Yours in earnest,

Bert