Bret Bielema Fueling Arkansas Football Spring Practice With Memories Of "Unsatisfied Disappointment"

This is an excerpt from my column at Sporting Life Arkansas, which you can read in it's entirety here.

What he has seen, according to comments he made at a Tulsa Razorback Club meeting on Wednesday, is a group of players disappointed with how things turned out last year. Not that you need a reminder, but in case you forgot – the Razorbacks went from Top 5 in the preseason to one of the worst seasons in school history.

Not exactly what anybody around Fayetteville had planned. Not that they’re dwelling on 2012, but Bielema has noticed a healthy amount of frustration from the team’s holdovers, especially the senior class.

"They have an unsatisfied disappointment in the season a year ago," Bielema is quoted as saying in the Tulsa World. "It shows up in everything they do. I have over 20 seniors when they came to Arkansas they were not 4-8 [caliber players]. They had come to Arkansas to have success. That’s a big part of what we will feed off in the future."

Arkansas doesn’t need anybody wallowing in self pity, but a little reflection on how and why things went wrong is rarely a bad thing. If the Razorbacks can use that frustration to push them through the spring and into summer workouts and fall camp, that’s a good thing.