Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema has a spot on his coaching staff to fill. Robb Smith left for Minnesota thus opening a position on Bielema's staff. Paul Rhoads has been promoted to defensive coordinator.

Bret Bielema is still looking to fill his staff.

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Rhoads coached the secondary last year with help from Smith. However, with the Hogs going to the 3-4 defense it isn't necessarily a sure thing that Bielema hires a defensive back coach. He could opt for someone to help Vernon Hargreaves with the linebackers.

On Wednesday, Bielema met with the media to discuss the coaching situation.

"Yeah, we've snuck some guys in," Bielema said. "I had a couple guys in over the last few weeks. I snuck a few guys in on the road. Met with some people that are employed by other places and they couldn't talk, you know, so being on the road is actually a pretty good time to be able to do some things under the radar."

Anything planned for the immediate future on the staff?

"We've got a guy coming in tomorrow," Bielema said. "We've been affected, there's a guy that I was heavily interested in that was with a team that got beat a week ago, so I couldn't deal with him until after the playoff loss. Still involved with one guy who is still playing."

That would indicate Bielema is considering someone from the NFL. The Green Bay Packers lost to the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots topped the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Patriots and Falcons will play in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Bielema isn't in a hurry to fill that spot and isn't working under any particular timeline to fill the staff.

"There's a couple things on the broader picture that I can't change," Bielema said. "I'm not in a hurry to change. We'll go these next couple weeks filling out and complimenting the rest of the staff.

"When I can get that done, it'll be news that day, but I don't really wanna speculate on when it's gonna happen or how it's gonna happen. The things I can tell you is that on Feb. 20, we'll be back in the office for four straight weeks getting into spring ball and my staff should all be in place by then."

One tricky situation for Bielema is the fact that what appeared a certainty a few week's ago, a 10th assistant, isn't looking a sure-thing now.

"At one point we were pretty much told we thought we were gonna get the 10th coach no matter what," Bielema said. "So I was planning on that move within the move, because the last thing you wanna do is fill out a staff with nine guys you feel you can attack the season and then a month later, find out you're gonna get a 10th coach because it could really dramatically affect who you hire if that makes sense.

"I just can't get administrators to believe in that as well. Right now I'm gonna go with the assumption that we're gonna have nine for the fall and if we get a 10th, it would be an added bonus. I was kinda strategizing going into the idea that because we've been told we might get one as early as March and that would greatly affect how I'd hire."

Bielema did admit though he has formed some ideas of what he may do.

"A little bit of gymnastics that I've been trying to hold out for," Bielema said. "But I have an idea of what I wanna do and where we're gonna go and it could happen sooner than later, but a little bit of it depends on what happens in the next six to seven days."

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