HOOVER, Ala. — Not that Kirby Smart will be checking, but it doesn't appear that the Georgia football coach will be receiving any Christmas cards from Bret Bielema any time soon.
The Arkansas coach -- who watched Smart pluck his offensive line coach Sam Pittman for his new staff in Athens and inquire about Hogs offensive coordinator Dan Enos -- wasn't exactly thrilled at the developments even six months on and said as much on Wednesday at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala.
"I don't hire anything but coaches that I think are going to be great," Bielema said, following a question about what the Bulldogs should expect from Pittman.
"As far as what Georgia is getting, you got to try to figure that out on your own."
Bielema was much happier to retain Enos, who was not even available to talk with Smart due to an SEC non-compete clause in his contract.
"Kirby, yeah, he actually called me a couple days before. First, he wanted to talk to my offensive coordinator and try to take Dan Enos, and I said, I appreciate it, but there's a thing called the SEC clause, you can't have him," Bielema said. "Kind of stuck my tongue out, wiggled my nose and felt good about it."
There was no such clause in Pittman's contract.
"I had a feeling that just out of what I had witnessed from their program and what they believed in and what we've been able to do offensively and how we're able to build it there might be a slight interest," Bielema said in regards to the Bulldogs. "When they got Sam, obviously, it's something that they wanted."
Yet Bielema closed by saying he is more than happy with Pittman's replacement in Fayetteville.
"I was able to – the thing that Sam was great in, we've been trying to continue those forward, but the areas that he might have been a little bit weak in, I wanted a great technician. I wanted somebody that really talked about pad level so I wanted an NFL coach. I was able to bring in Kurt Anderson who I was excited about," Bielema said.
MISSOURI COACH SAYS OPEN DIALOG KEY: After watching his players boycott practices and threaten to not play in a game last season due to racial unrest on campus, Tigers head coach Barry Odom (who was an assistant last season) says it is key to maintain an open dialog at all times with his players.
"Well, I think the thing that you look at, for me, as a coach and a teacher, everything that I want to do is make sure that I've got such a great relationship with our team that if there are an instance that comes up, that they feel comfortable coming in the door, walking in the door and let's sit down together as a team and as family and address those and find out," Odom said.
Odom added that it is key for coaches -- especially in the current climate -- to remember that players need nurturing away from the field as well as on.
"Maybe lose sight that they are not just football players, we've got to realize – I got to do a great job on teaching and educating our kids, my kids, that it is," he said, adding that recent tensions could require special dialog.
"I think if you look at the things that have happened in America in the last two weeks, there's still ongoing discussions that we have every day with what's going on, and I think that's important for me. I treat the kids just like I do my kids at home, and I'm going to treat them fairly and honestly and I want them to have a relationship that we can sit down and talk through a lot of those issues to make sure that it's not a fair judgment to me to put anything on – I haven't walked through his shoes. He hasn't walked through mine. Let's get together, share ideas, share our philosophies and our beliefs and make sure that we've got all of the facts before we do anything from there."
STOOPS UNIMPRESSED BY SATELLITE CAMPS: The NCAA's foray into allowing satellite camps has not impressed one SEC coach.
Kentucky head man Mark Stoops says he'd much rather get recruits in one-on-one situations rather than the large groups and frenetic pace of the camps.
"We have not gotten a lot of out of them. We want to see players on our campus," Stoops said. "The most results we get – satellite camps are recruiting. Let's not call them anything else. You want to evaluate and recruit. So we want those players on our campus."
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