re: So is Kaleb Blanchard going to be considered now?

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This I dont understand, Blanchard will be a big back and that's exactly what Bielema is using. Also makes no sense to drop him when Arky desperately needs RBs. Bielema is making friends fast down in LA either by doing this.

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That's what I don't understand either. It seemed to me as well that he would be a perfect fit. Petrino loved big backs and it seemed like he would transition seamlessly into Bielema's offense.

The only things I can come up with are the injuries or its actually Chaney that doesn't want him. Petrino made a living on offering guys that were injured in high school and weren't heavily recruited. It seemed that he took a couple of these each year. Knile Davis being a great example. Perhaps Bielema isn't comfortable with the same thing. He does run his backs a ton so maybe that was a red flag to him.

If that's not it then maybe Chaney vetoed him. He actually wasn't dropped until Chaney was hired. They cut three commits loose on the offensive side of thr ball after Chaney was brought in. Bielema said he was going to let Chaney have a lot of say over personnel so maybe he isn't as big of a fan of the big backs. Bielema has said that our offense isn't going to be a replica of the Wisconsin offense. He said he wants to combine elements of what they did at Wisconsin with what Chaney was doing at Tennessee and some of the stuff that we have been doing at Arkansas under Petrino. Perhaps they don't feel the need to be as focused on big backs because of this?

Either way, like I said before, I still would have kept him due to his loyalty to Arkansas through the whole process and the fact that we don't have any RB's on campus right now. We have a grand total of three scholarship backs coming back next season currently. Jonathan Williams (SO 6'0, 205) who will be our feature back next season, Kody Walker (SO 6'2 240) who is coming off a broken leg and was actually moved to FB under Paul Petrino this past year before getting hurt and Nate Holmes (SO 6'1, 175) who is more of a 5-10 carries a game scat back that will never be a starter.

I would have honored Blanchard's commitment regardless and then gone out and signed two additional RB's to go along with him. There is more than enough space to let you sign that many guys and not be worried about him being the only guy that you can turn to if you aren't 100% sold on him. At least give the kid a chance however.