Arkansas Blog

If you can't be a team player, or fan, theres is always Tulsa, or OSU.

Yeah, there's a great idea.

Let's hang onto HND and FB and just run off as many fans as we can before the old coot dies.

I would think Houston could tell ya a thing or two about supporting OSU.

gee......

I would donate money to fire Wally Hall... Why do we have such a pathetic sports writer in the state's leading newspaper?

That new website actually uses Wally's gossip collumn to argue for getting rid of Houston and Broyles. It's hopeless whenever you have to rely on Wally's tripe to further your argument.

Folks, let's get a grip. It is only college football. Things happen!

I do not know who is "at fault" or "who to blaim". But at the end of the day is it really that important.

I am sure that all of the world's doomsayers will remind us all that there are more important things happening in the world...but...

I have a queasy feeling in my stomach about the football program. Hearing all kinds of rumors about the Nutts taking off after next season (as anorth 10 win is almost a lock). The basis for these rumors is that our recruiting class is dragging ass in the conference...11th I think, by some rankings.

I am no Nutt fan...and Frank Broyles, having done much for the University, is past his prime...but it's time to dust off and get with the program. It is what it is and is probably going to be that way until Frank dies...

I will welcome the next coach, whoever and whenever that may be. But with all the negative pub, we are going to have a hell of time recruiting...

And we still need a quarterback...

Just heard David Lee HAS been hired as new offensive coordinator AND quarterback coach. Emphasis on the singular, there.

I thought perhaps it was just me, but I'm hearing more and more people who agree with my assessment of this situation.

How moronic is it for Springdale World to think they are God's gift not only to high school ball but that the UA football program would be turned over to them?

If Gus was so good, why couldn't he figure out pass patterns that would be open that didn't start out of the spread? Mustain had 9 interceptions. Now one or both might have developed into SEC stars but get a grip people - Springdale ball isn't the SEC! Geez

i realize there are problems with the program. i know max has an ax to grind with lindsey for some reason but i really think he tries to help the university. he has all the money he needs and spends time trying to help. why would they try to hurt the program? they may make wrong decisions but i really think they have the best intentions in mind. broyles may need to retire and bring in one of the younger professionally trained phd's in his place, hopefully terry don phillips. perhaps he is of retirement age before frank retires. old coaches are no longer athletic directors, they should be professionals, lawyers or businessmen with athletic backgrounds. we were lucky with frank with his background in industrial management and tv after coaching. i do think it is time for nutt to resign after the drama which will not happen and he will not be fired so we will see what happens but lets not accuse people of trying to hurt the program.

ARK. BLOG: You can hurt by being overly "helpful." Meddling, in other words.

Okay, I just cannot take it anymore. I never played football. Grady, Arkansas was too small. But I played basketball and have read every column Orville Henry wrote since I was about 12, 45 years ago.

It seems that most of the armchair quarterbacks are down on Nutt and want more passing and the no huddle hurry up offense. I seem to recall similar sentiments back when another conservative was coaching at Arkansas, a fellow named Hatfield. He finally got fed up and moved on. I did some checking and he was 55-17-1 at Arkansas. They went to a bowl game every year. As I recall that included an occasional Cotton Bowl. Does anyone recall the years following Hatfield?

Oh, and about the no huddle offense, what happens when it goes 3 plays and out, you know, a dropped pass, an overthrow, maybe a sack. That takes about 30 seconds and the defense is back on the field. I wonder what would have happened in the fourth quarter at Auburn with the NHHU? As I recall the old conservative running game took about 9 minutes off the clock and kept the ball away from Auburn's offense. I cannot remember anything else all season that was as fun to watch.

If I had Mustain's talent, I would want to prove I could play at Arkansas. If he chooses to leave, then maybe he is not much of a competitor.

"If I had Mustain's talent, I would want to prove I could play at Arkansas. If he chooses to leave, then maybe he is not much of a competitor."

Why should Mustain "prove" anything?

He like Malzahn believe the the NHHU is the way they want to go. They have something to prove there.

And if they are correct then the boy may end up in his own Heisman race later on.

Malzahn has no downside to moving. From credible accounts he is not taking a pay cut. He does not have to worry about Nutt vetoing his calls. He gets to use his QB to prove his system will work.

And if he is right.......he will end up as a Head coach somewhere that may even give him the opportuntity to come back and kick Nutt's team's ass.

Of course, Broyles would never allow that game to happen....like playing ASU....no upside for the Hawgs.

And the 3 and out analogy.....we did a lot of that without using the NHHU......if the offense works....that is a moot point.

Rackensacker:

I believe the springdale mafia or whatever you want to call them believed that the program would essentially be built around, if not turned over to, their kids because that's what they were told while the recruiting was going on.

Then they signed and joined the team and then reality bit.

Do I think the springdale parents have any sense? Hell no. I have two sons about that age.

But I do think they were lied to, and so was their coach, especially after reading that excellent column in the link to the SW Times Record by Scott Faldon.

and i agree wtih the poster who said surely other things are more important. Still, everyone loves a good soap opera, and this is a great one!

when st houston and crew were courting a hot recruit from my home town, they told the kid and his family that if he didnt sign with the Hogs they were all disloyal. He wanted to go to miami. he went to the UofA but it didnt work out.

sure, all recruiters probably lie, but as this has proven its not a good idea to lie to coaches you hire simply to get the recruits.

after youre on the team you're just a cog in the machinery, not a parade all-american or anything else. players are possessions, just like a piece of meat, and if they cant do what the people on top want them to do, they;re useless. All that recruiting sweet talk goes out the window.

I find the most incredible thing about this is that Houston has yet to mention that he did the same thing when he went to OSU! If he has mentioned that, I missed it.

Actually, every coach since Frank has been a running coach. The wierdest fact of all is that Frank's success was built with a good passing game. How many remember the excitement of Brittenum to Crocket and Montgomery to Dicus?

Holtz was known for effective passing and occasionally throwing the long ball but he was a veer option coach. Remember Roland Sales 200 yards rushing in the Orange Bowl. Calcagni was a running QB. And, yes, who didn't get sick of Kenny and the Flexbone. Quoting the Bible on his TV show and wearing those plaid shirts, he was dry as burnt toast and so was the Flexbone. Danny was a running game guy who only went to the pro sets because Frank wanted to sell tickets. Oh yes, sell tickets, now we see the interest in the passing game. When Houston was in trouble Frank mixed his witches brew around another rumor of a passing offense knowing how well this would quiet the crowd. Only this time it backfired on him. Before it only cost Danny. Houston Nutt wouldn't even be that popular now except for Joe Ferguson, Clint Stoerner, and Anthony Lucas, the left overs of that one effort in 40 years to actually put a passing game on the field.

Darren and Felix are wonderful runners. Matt Jones brought great excitement to fans in all but meaningless games. Finally, the string is running out. If the hogs are ever going to be any good again it will be after Frank is gone.

Mustain's skills are suited for Gus' offense. That's all the kid knows. He should go to a system that maximizes his skills - the spread and pass every down. That approach will work at a mid-major like Tulsa. Remember, Mitch wasn't all that thrilled signing with Arkansas in the first place. Didn't help any that Springdale groupies are just a few miles away telling him how great he is.

Remember a few years back Houston Cougars scored 40 points a game and did great for a year or two until people figured out how to defend their pass-every- play offense. Their Heisman Trophy QB turned out to not be good enough to be a NFL backup even with his passing stats at Houston. Gimmick offense produced great numbers for a couple of years until defenses figured it out.

Tulsa might do well with the spread in USA conference, in which case, the coach will move up to a bigger program and Gus might get the chance to be coach at Tulsa. Or not.

Nutt believes you have to run the ball to win consistently in the SEC. Frank's background shows he agrees. End of discussion. Based on what I've seen in my years of watching, I don't think a pass oriented team that doesn't have the talent level of Florida or LSU can win consistently in the SEC. Arkansas is never going to attract the talent of a Florida or LSU. More top talent in Louisiana than Arkansas and 2-3 times more in Florida.

The object is to win the game not see how many passing yards you can accumulate. "Entertainment" to me is win the damn game.

I agree that Nutt was pressured into hiring Gus in order to get the Springdale kids who UA had to have for pr reasons. That was a mistake. Look at the coach's style and your skills. Nutt is run focused, a strong defense, and field position football. Don't sign there if you are a drop back passer or a receiver who wants 60-70 catches a year. Mustain, Williams, and Cleveland had that figured out but were swayed by Gus going to UA and the hometown pressure. In the old days, being a Razorback meant more to a high school kid than big numbers in college but I'm not naive enough to think that is the case very often any more. McFadden seems to be a throwback since he never visited anywhere but UA, plus he was a runner and the program was run-oriented.

What really baffles me is why Arkansas had no passing game last year. Plus, Dick looked better his first year than last year. That tells me something was wrong with the QB and receiver coach that had nothing to do with running the ball most of the time. How come nobody was open most of the time or the QB couldn't hit the receiver when they were open?

I would say Broyles was a run first but be able to pass coach. Probably 60-40 run to pass. Bill Burnett and Bruce Maxwell ran for a bunch of yards in between those Montgomery to Dicus passes.

You need to be able to run and pass. Do too much of one and not enough of the other, and defenses will stack the deck against you whether you are a run team or a pass team. Very rare is the team who can do only one and win in a major conference.

"Nutt believes you have to run the ball to win consistently in the SEC. Frank's background shows he agrees. End of discussion."

You got that right.

"What really baffles me is why Arkansas had no passing game last year. Plus, Dick looked better his first year than last year. That tells me something was wrong with the QB and receiver coach that had nothing to do with running the ball most of the time. How come nobody was open most of the time or the QB couldn't hit the receiver when they were open?"

I think this is where you and all the huggers are wrong. Developing a passing game, just as a compliment to a good running game takes lots of emphasis and practice time. What you saw on the field was a running team with a very basic possession passing scheme designed to be effective occasionally and make a few first downs and extend a few drives. You saw it work well enough against South Carolina. What you get with that team is not SEC titles but just what you have seen for 30 years, a team that can win 65 per cent of its games mostly against equal or lesser opponents and once every ten years put itself in position to win the division. It is a start but, it has to move on to add balance or it will continue to stumble along forever.

Is there a luckier coach than Stan Heath? His team flops against lousy Ole Miss, trailing by as many as 14 in a laydown before making a run and merely bowing down by 2. Before the bloggers and the radio talk-show types could chew on Heath's butt into multi-syllabic parts, up comes Malzahn's departure and Mustain's surrender. Even if Heath's Hogs lose a game tonight that they should win, all the attention and resulting heat will be drawn from them by the continuing football soap opera.

It seems to me that Heath's on-again, off-again Hogs were off-again one year ago this week when Mitch the Erstwhile Messiah announced he would sign with Arkansas after all. And Stan got let off the hook again.

yesterday on the radio rick schaffer who is as big a gus apologist as there is talked about an interview he had with gus two days before. he asked several questions. 1. did you run all your offense? no but a lot.
2. did you call every play? yes.
3. did nutt overrule you on anything? on trick plays he asked nutt but he never said no.
i would say gus pretty well had control of the offense. he wasn't calling all the wild passing plays but we did not have a quarterback that could hit anything but the ground or the other team. cut the crap and be razorback fans.

"How moronic is it for Springdale World to think they are God's gift not only to high school ball but that the UA football program would be turned over to them?

If Gus was so good, why couldn't he figure out pass patterns that would be open that didn't start out of the spread? Mustain had 9 interceptions. Now one or both might have developed into SEC stars but get a grip people - Springdale ball isn't the SEC! Geez"

But here's the problem. We hired Malzahn and promised that he would be the sole OC and call the plays. In February, before Gus coached a single practice, Nutt was in touch with David Lee offering him a co-OC job, reneging on the deal he made with Malzahn. Conveniently this was after signing day. I'm not concerned as much about losing Mustain because I think he's the end all, be all. I'm not even sure he'd start. I'm not convinced Malzahn was the next Bill Walsh or even Mike Leach. What I do know is our coaches flushed integrity down the toilet and now our already mediocre recruiting and team morale are plummetting. Nutt has undone everything good that happened this season.

"What really baffles me is why Arkansas had no passing game last year. Plus, Dick looked better his first year than last year. That tells me something was wrong with the QB and receiver coach that had nothing to do with running the ball most of the time. How come nobody was open most of the time or the QB couldn't hit the receiver when they were open?"

According to the players not nearly enough practice snaps were allotted to the passing game. Obviously part of the problem is that neither QB got the majority of the snaps over the course of the season. Joe Kines, now at Alabama, said it best when he said this was the first season he could remember in the Nutt era that the WRs didn't telegraph their routes so that the corners knew what they would run before the ball was even snapped.

Some people are saying you can't run AND pass. That's ludicrous. These days you have to be able to do both somewhat well at times if you want to succeed. We lost the LSU, Florida and Wisconsin games because of lack of a passing game. The 4 downs with 4 incompletions at the end of the LSU game was particularly disheartening. We'll never be better than the 3rd or 4th best team in the SEC, even with the best athlete Arkansas ever produced, without some passing game.

I am a Razorback fan, that's why I want to cut the crap. That is really the issue here. If it were just one lie or two people wouldn't be this upset. We are just tired of all of the crap along with missed opportunity after missed opportunity, sick and tired of the spin and the excuses while watching one screw up after another.

Sure a team has to run to be successful. Just check with Texas Tech. There is that level of team that can never compete and the show is the thing. Arkansas hopefully is one rung ahead of that. Most of what you see with the building based on young players and being competative every 3 or 4 years is our lot at this level. But, wasting those building years by not building a complete team based on a sound, balanced philosphy is getting very old. Throw in a lot of whining and excuses and scapegoating and lieing and you have a recipe for this mess we have now.

Papa's Boy

Click on Cato

i'm selling my house and moving to tulsa. i can't wait to watch mitch play some ball and gus coach the hell out of the tulsa football program!!!!

lets go golden hurricanes!!!! we are going to be unstopable now with gus "super coach" malzahn and mitch "wonder boy" mustain. tulsa football rocks i can't wait for this football season. i love gus and mitch, i with that i could give the both of them a really big hug and kiss 'em on the mouth!! did i mention that tulsa football rocks. well i'm off to make me a mayonnaise and dill pickel sammich.

jimmy T out.........

Mitch needs to get a pair and stop letting his mother lead him around by the nose. The Springdale players are not the first, nor will they be the last, football players who have not been gotten what they believe they were promised during recruiting. This year Razorback fans were blessed to see what a true team player looks like - Robert Johnson. It's a shame his teammates were incapable of learning from his example.

My opinion is HDN and FB, both, should resign.

Now!!

"Mitch needs to get a pair and stop letting his mother lead him around by the nose."

The irony in your statements are amusing.

So a "team player" is a guy who is willing to let the coaching staff shit on them and use them as they see fit to save their own asses?

Why hang around and waste your career so Nutt can save his.

There were folks on the radio yesterday trying to compare the "promise or committment" to play for the Razorbacks to joining the Army.

"You're 18 and ya sign on the dotted line to protect this country....you need to be a man and keep that promise"

My response to that is "ok, so I guess the Army or US govt can lie to ya just like Nutt and ya have to stay cause it makes us all happier"?

It's clear now that this has been 90 per cent Broyles for several years now and that Houston is just his mouth piece and scapegoat.

Speaking of Scapegoat, Stan the lamb better make the NCAA this year.

You have a point....St Houston, as someone has named him here is gonna be safe....

Mediocrity can be tolerated from him. He has buttered his bread in the right way apparently.

Stan's departure would appease those thinking the whole sports program is being allowed to sink to new depths.

While saving Nutt to be the ordained future AD.