Bielema was named HC in waiting as DC before Barry Alvarez retired and moved to the AD role.
He was a good coach but never fully fit in. By the time he left there were multiple issues floating around. He got popped parting with co-eds but the bigger issues were between him and Alvarez.
Barry was still around the program constantly. It was his baby and I think most coaches would have had issues with how he loomed over everything at the time. Brett wanted changes to high academic requirements, more money for assistant coaches, more modern offense... Barry basically told him I did it this way, so will you.
Even his success as a coach was generally framed as Barry picking the right guy... I understood why he moved on, just not to Arkansas.