Arkansas Blog

i guess all the mess at the end of the season had its toll. let's don't blame the kids on this one. they were down a few coaches in number, they had people unfamiliar to them as a coach such as campbell coaching defense. it's too bad but it happens. now let's hope that felix stays for another year.

At least Reggie put McFadden and Jones on the bench when it was apparent the game was lost. It was the right thing to do and may have potentially kept them from a futile injury that could have cost them and their families millions.

I'm ready for the new coach.

Am I alone in feeling like I watched more ads than football?

I believe it was more like: Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, and so on. By the way, did anyone notice that Mizzou was running a spread offense, you know, the kind of offense that King Frank said wouldn't cut it in the mighty SEC as he and Nutt-case were ousting Gus Malzhan...

I'm so cotton pickin' mad! Take McFaddin and Jones out???? Why???? Weren't they both still Razorbacks? I say let McFaddin go, I've had enough of him. I want Felix to stay. Yes, I, too, saw more ads than football, and that was the most rediculous excuse for a play-by-play announcer that I've seen. I don't care if he use to be a Hog -- he stunk. I wish ESPN had carried the game.

It's all HDN's fault. Period.

We were out-played, out-smarted and out-coached. They were not ready to play.

Well, get a life, folks. It was only a bowl game, and Arkansas has never taken bowl games seriously. (You could ask Frank Broyles.) Who remembers who won? Bowls are meant to be rewards and fun for the players. The Hogs played badly, but it would have mattered only if anything had been on the line. Now Petrino can get started on the '08 season, when the games do matter.

Took a trip in the Way Back Machine (Thank you Sherman!!) and thought this little piece would best reflect how I feel about the Razrbacks' dismal outing today. Click on name.

It's not that surprising that the players'/coaches' minds/hearts weren't in it. But that was obvious as the game unfolded. The fake punt fiasco -- Arkansas calling a timeout to negate its own successful fake punt and then trying the same basic play again -- was a clear sign the Hogs were going to be outcoached, as was the inability to adjust quickly to the rushing attack that saw the star Mizzou back generally go for 15-20 yards before first contact. The rash of fumbles and illegal motions, etc., were indicators of the players' mindset once the game was out of reach. If Reggie H was planning on this being his one-game audition for a head coaching job one of these days, he knows he -- and his interim team -- blew it.

As I watched the game today I became aware of a sneaking suspicion about something. I really did feel sorry for Reggie Herring.... consider the staff he has to work with. Almost to a man they all had an allegiance to Houstn Nutt, most had to be TOLD to get back to Arkansas and go to work to get the team ready for the Cotton Bowl because they had already stated their allegiance and had already gone to work at Ole Miss. To most of them they could care less if Arkansas won the game, they had a new job with their boy HDN. Reggie and the team were put in a no-win situation and it showed today. Under the circumstances, the team did a pretty good job of holding it all together as long as they did.

I too am ready for the new coach and a new spread offense that won't work in the SEC.......

GO HOGS!!!

Hog Nation
Thanks to your great coverup of the DMac Escaladegate, he was able to drive it to Dallas and play in the Cotton Bowl. The UA was indeed indignant in reporting him being eligible for the game, to say the least. Without his short score, the Hogs very well might have been bageled, 38-0 and that would have truly been an embarrassment for never-say-quit Pertino to inherit. Is it Go Hogs or Went Hogs??

Another thing ... Pat Summerall was lame and Brian Baldinger was even lamer. Summerall regularly didn't know who had the ball or how many yards he'd gained. Baldinger exposed his ignorance of the college game in general and the teams involved in particular. He bragged about one Mizzou receiver's ability to drag his second foot in bounds after a catch when only one foot inbounds is needed in the college game. The weird camera angles and quick-trigger director switches from one camera to another were also distracting. Others' thoughts on the production/announcing?

One more thing from a sports analysis perspective: The Hogs got absolutely whipped on the line of scrimmage. Dick rarely had time to throw, and the Arkansas defensive linemen were too busy getting beat up by the Missouri offensive linemen to even reach out and try to stop the running backs. Games usually are won and lost in the trenches, and that was the case today IMO.

sad sad sad

The fun is just getting to go to a big time bowl game. With the mess at the end of the season, we are lucky it wasn't 72-0.
I hope the team, spirit groups and fans enjoyed the Cotton Bowl Festivities. Dallas generally puts on a good show for the Cotton Bowl, and it looks like they did again this year.
It was a good trip for the students and even with the outcome, a nice way to end the Broyles era (he lost his last game as coach down in Texas too, in Austin). The Razorback Marching Band got good coverage at half-time. It was nice that Fox showed at least part of their show. Spirit groups also seemed to have a good time at the parade and pep rally yesterday.

I can forgive everything but those goofy all-red uniforms, which look obviously borrowed from Plano (Texas) High School. Petrino should burn them as his first act as head coach.

Hey, I hear the defense just arrived at the stadium...

Congrats to the Mizzou Tigers....

Now the new era can officially begin.

WoooooPigSooooooie!

Go Hogs!

good luck to Dmac and thanks for the excitement.

Reggie said the all-red suit was a tribute to Frank. Huh? I hate suits with the pants and jersey the same color, except white. I also hate dark pants and light jerseys.

Lets not get too carried away with the whole Malzahn/no huddle offense thing...I think Broyles was referencing Gus's incarnation of the offense, in its purest form, having difficulty in the SEC. Remember kids, all the Villagers told us last year that, since Florida won a National Title with a QB not biologically developed for Meyer's offense, this year, with Jesus Christ Superstar at QB, they should be unstoppable. The Villagers told us that we should see Meyer's offense in its purest form. At 9-4, they had a nice, "Nutt-like" year, but not the year the Villagers told us they would have. As a consolation, Jesus Christ Superstar was allowed the Heisman.

Of note, just because you run a spread offense doesn't mean less talented players become more talented. You have to have the horses to make it work. Also, all spread offenses are not the same. Rodriquez at Michigan is different than Meyer, who has a scheme different than Malzahn, etc...Petrino's teams do spread the field, but not to the extent of the above coaches.

For years it has seemed that the offensive coordinators who attend each Razorback game have decided that the forward pass is the solution to all our problems, i.e. we need to throw the fucker every play...doesn't matter if it's completed, just throw it--something good has to happen. Remember, the kids at Nebraska experimented with the forward pass and didn't like it.

Right there with you, Big Fan. The production and play-by-play got on my nerves! It made it really diificult to watch an already difficult game. What's done is done. All the heartbreak of 2007 is over. I'm looking forward to 2008 & the new coach and all he has to bring to the table. Good luck to DMac. We appreciate your heart. You were a blast to watch. Happy New Year.

Forget the game, always next season, I was very disappointed with the band at halftime,
we have a state high school band who is gold.........won every competetion hands down,
Lake Hamilton in Garland Co.
Get out and support that high school, they will be your next Hogs, band members, voters,
politicians, civic leaders, mayors, governors, congressmembers, senate, president.
Support our young, we have some great ones coming on the scene.

About the uniforms, the announcer kept saying it was the first time the Razorbacks had ever worn all red uniforms, but I could swear that they did once before right after Nutt came. Does anyone else remember that, or is it just my faulty memory?

Did you see the IMPEACH signs in the Rose Parade? Click on Cato

Never before had the red-red combo been worn. Red pants have appeared only 4-5 times over the years -- and the results usually haven't been good. My first memory of them was a whipping by Texas in Austin on Labor Day Weekend of 1981 when Tom "It's Not Unusual to Be Loved by Anyone" Jones was our lame QB.

Am I alone in feeling like I watched more ads than football?
Posted by: eLwood

I was in the stands and there was considerable grumbling about the everso frequent "official timeouts" that seemed to drag this game into infinity.

"The UA coaching melodrama played out over a year and it was so tacky, so trashy in so many respects, that it was finally sad, maybe pathetic, for what it said about everyone involved in it, the fans included."

Bob Lancaster
Columnist
Arkansas Times
December 27, 2007

WILL PETRINO BE NEXT? HOPEFULLY NOT. BUT WE WILL KNOW SOON ENOUGH.

I know Kelly is here, here, here ... but I think more research is needed. I know the red/red has been used before.

I can forgive everything but those goofy all-red uniforms, which look obviously borrowed from Plano (Texas) High School. Petrino should burn them as his first act as head coach.

Er, Uh, Plano colors are maroon and white NOT Cardinal and white. Sir Pulaski, you obviously need an upgrade on your monitor.

Which team would come to play
Is something wondered every day
Of this season
The team today
Came out to play
But
Ole Miss coaches had their way.

Caught some of the USC game tonight. USC pretty much looked like they could beat about six NFL teams on a given day. The announcers got to talking about the USC QB situation next year. Mitch was mentioned as a possible starter. If he starts for that program he becomes a real national player. Maybe a year from tonight he plays for the national championship while Houston brings his latest batch of snake oil to Ole Miss and the new coach here struggles with so few returning starters. I want the day to come where Mitch wins a national championship....just so I know Houston Dale is sitting somewhere in his den watching it....knowing deep inside how poorly he treated the kid who could have turned the program around. I hope Houston's wife took a night off from the e mail to watch USC.

Strange, I couldn't agree with you more. Losing the talent from Chickenopolis was the dumbest thing to ever happen in R sports. Frank of the Ozarks rightly lost his throne over it. This new guy from the Falcons mentioned building a Nat'l Championship team. I think he has the glands for it. We will wait and see if Frank has lost his ability to fuck up steel balls.
.

durango.....if those sorry fans (myself included) that wanted the possibility of a better future for our football team give Petrino even half the time Nu..."the coach that was fired" got, then we have been more than fair.

Poor Nutt.....set for life....and his huggers still bitching.

"We will wait and see if Frank has lost his ability to fuck up steel balls."

We will also wait to see if Frank's successor (as a coach) can match or better Frank's record of 144-58-5 and a national football championship (1964). And we will patiently wait while Frank's successor, Jeff Long, (1) performs the equivalent of increasing the UA athletic budget from $900,000 a year to $44.8 million; (2) raises $250 million for new and renovated athletic facilities; (3) raises $10.5 million to restore Old Main; and (4) raises $2.5 million to buy books to help the library maintain its accreditation.

As for Mitch winning that national championship at USC, he'll certainly need to improve on his 2006 record at Arkansas: 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions, while that same year Casey Dick was good for nine touchdowns and only six interceptions.

"When you win, nothing hurts." Joe Namath/Alabama

"If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, "Roll, tide, roll!" Bear Bryant/Alabama

"A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall." Frank Leahy/Notre Dame

"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." Woody Hayes/Ohio State

"I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation." Bob Devaney/Nebraska

"In Alabama , an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant." Wally Butts/Georgia

"You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life." Paul Dietzel/LSU

"I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game." Bear Bryant/Alabama

"There's one sure way to stop us from scoring-give us the ball near the goal line." Matty Bell/SMU

"Lads,you're not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died." Frank Leahy/Notre Dame

"I never graduated from Iowa , but I was only there for two terms --- Truman's and Eisenhower's." Alex Karras/Iowa

"My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor." Bowden Wyatt/Tennessee

"I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades." Duffy Daugherty/Michigan State

"Always remember ..... Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David." Shug Jordan/Auburn

"They cut us up like boarding house pie. And that's real small pieces." Darrell Royal/Texas

"They whipped us like a tied up goat." Spike Dykes/Texas Tech

"I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me and he said: "Well,Walt, we took a look at you and you weren't any good." Walt Garrison/Oklahoma State

After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his pos-tgame message to his team: "All those who need showers, take them." John McKay/USC

"If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education." Murray Warmath/Minnesota

"The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb." Knute Rockne/Notre Dame

"Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon." Spike Dykes/Texas Tech

"It isn't necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it." Knute Rockne/Notre Dame

"We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking." John McKay/USC

"I've found that prayers work best when you have big players." Knute Rockne/Notre Dame

"Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football" John Heisman

Well, I am wrong. Younger brother confirmed that it is red "pants" that I am remembering, not red/red combo. I am getting old.

I noticed the other announcer failed to second the opinion that Mitch would be the starter next year and All-Pac 10 to boot. Even to the point of saying he'd give his opinion off-air.

I doubt Mitch starts next year. SC way is "wait your turn" and they have a QB with two years of waiting on hand. Mitch will play and maybe by year's end is considered the starter if the other guy falters. Or maybe not. On the other hand, can Mitch stand the mental pressure of playing in the LA pressure cooker and being the guy who is supposed to make the machine run? Jury is out on that one to me. If he is upset by an email from an idiot, what will he do when the sports writers start criticizing him?

But then Mitch will have a much better supporting cast in LA than in Fayetteville, so that will help. He won't have to do so much himself. Hit a few passes and hand the ball off to the next in line great running back at SC. SC doesn't need a great QB to have a great team.

Personally, I'm thinking the QB Arkansas really needs is Kodie Burns at Auburn by way of Northside. He looked like the real deal running the Troy style offense which is a lot more like what Petrino runs than SC's west coast offense. Tubby has to be pleased by what he saw from Burns. Unfortunately, Arkansas fans won't be so pleased by what they see from Burns the next three years, I'm afraid.

Well, the fans who wanted Nutt gone because he couldn't recruit may say "I told you so..."

The fans who wanted him gone because he failed to win more despite enough talent to win the SEC and contend nationally may say, "Well....ummmm.....errr..."

Unless they think there was one healthy wide receiver on the team who could go elsewhere in the SEC as the No. 3 WR in three-man sets. Or Casey Dick (bless his heart) could go to say, Mississippi State and start in place of the QB who passed UA to shreds.

Seems to me this game showed that two superstar backs and two stellar linemen don't make a team soooo talented that a coach has "wasted" the players abilities if he doesn't win a championship.

I don't know whether Coach Broyles' "spread won't work" comments had anything to do with any decisions or were made up on the spot, and in the vein of "Coach Holtiz is tired and needs a rest" or "I was born in Gerogia in 1924 and grew up there and I've never used the N-word in my life."

But I'm learning a lot from the thread tonight. And I wish Coach Petrino unbounded success.

GO HOGS!!