Best Razorback Games of 2008-09 — Home Rules

This week marks the end of the 2009 ‘fiscal year’ for Razorback sports.  And while most media outlets write their recap stories at the end of December, we actually think it’s more appropriate to do it now before a new set of seasons give us new highs and lows to live through and discuss.

As some have pointed out, 2008-09 was mostly a year to forget for Razorback sports.  Hog fans languished through a rough fall and winter, only to be rewarded as spring turned into summer.

Coming in at #5 on our countdown, however, is one of the few highlight games of that cold winter.

No matter what sport it is…Razorback fans always want to beat Texas.  The football team couldn’t…uh…quite pull it off down in Austin in September.

But as they say, timing is everything.  And during a seven day stretch in late December and early January, you didn’t want to be a visiting team coming in to Bud Walton Arena.  After a huge victory over #4 Oklahoma just a week earlier (more on that later), the Hogs went toe-to-toe against the #7 Longhorns and survived 67-61.

Razorbacks rally to upset #7 Texas

If you watched the game on TV, it was great.  But if you were there, you know that it was an electric atmosphere that night.  The crowd was raucous and, for a while, it was loud enough that I even thought I was back in Barnhill Arena again.

The signature play of the game — Michael Washington’s driving dunk with 22.5 seconds left — just about brought the house down.

Looking back at the basketball season now, it never got any better than that for the remaining three months.  (Not that seeing Nolan again wasn’t awesome.)

But finishing the season 2-15 after that game doesn’t take away from how exciting it felt that night to think that home court advantage had finally returned to the Arkansas basketball program.  The ‘Bud, we believed, was back.  And it felt pretty good.

Who Is Marty Biagi?

None of us here at RBN consider ourselves ‘recruiting gurus.’  However, we do follow it religiously thanks to our favorites…Richard Davenport, Dudley Dawson, Trey Biddy…and, yes, even Otis.

It’s caught our attention, when reading their little tidbits about prospective recruits, the number of players who mention how much they like their lead Arkansas recruiter, Marty Biagi.  That got us thinking…who the heck is Marty Biagi?

Biagi joined the Razorbacks as a graduate assistant in August last year.  He works closely with Razorback Defensive Coordinator Willy Robinson in the secondary, and helps Kirk Botkin and John L. Smith with special teams.

We first noticed Biagi last fall during two-a-days working with the Razorback kickers.  What caught our eye was after putting them through some normal kicking drills, Biagi had the punters working on properly fielding high snaps that had sailed over their head.  Teaching them how to circle, scoop and kick on the run showed just how closely Bobby Petrino’s staff pays attention to detail.  How many people would practice that?  It was fun to watch.

Coach Biagi should know a thing or two about kickers.  He was a kicker and punter, and was special teams captain for the Marshall Thundering Heard from 2005-2007.  Knowing that coaching was in his future, Biagi, while still a player, assisted the Marshall staff by breaking down film and assisting with scouting reports during the season.  He left — with one season of eligibility remaining — to pursue his career in coaching.

Instrumental in the recruitment of new Hog punter Briton Forester (5-10, 185, Palomar, Calif. Community College), Forester’s father Fred, owner of a California software company, was sold on Biagi.

Forester said his time spent in Fayetteville leads him to believe that Biagi has a very bright future in coaching.  “I look for him to go far,” he said. “He’s like 24 years old and I’ve been to board rooms of Fortune 500 companies all over the country. He’s very mature.”

Biagi was also recently praised by current recruits, brothers Terry Lee and Terrence Talbot of Huber Heights, Ohio.  Terry Lee (6-3, 270, 4.8), a defensive tackle, and Terrence (5-11, 170, 4.47), a defensive back, have offers from several schools including Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.

“He (Biagi) seems like a person you would like to get to know,” said Terry Lee, who reports a 405-pound bench press and 510 squat. “He’s the type you can talk to and rely on and get a good opinion.”

No doubt Biagi looks to be a rising star, perhaps following in the footsteps of some famous Razorback GAs — Pete Carroll and Jackie Sherrill just to name a couple.  Hog fans should enjoy him, and the fruits of his recruiting, while he’s here.

Long: Razorback Athletics Will Be Getting More ‘Social’

The most recent “Web Chat with Jeff Long” video was released on Friday and, with it, some interesting comments were made by the Arkansas Vice Chancellor and Athletic Director on the topic of social media.

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SEC Trigger Men: Loaded And Ready

Can your quarterback make a play?  In the SEC, everything else being equal, it usually comes down to that.  Some coaches are happy just to get a “bus driver” at the position; others look for playmakers who can make their offenses go.

Every year here at RBN we like to take a quick glance over the SEC landscape to check the state of each team’s quarterback situation.  This year, nine teams return a quarterback that started at least one game last season.  That leaves three — Arkansas, Georgia, and Alabama — looking for “trigger men” to assume the role.  How do we see it in 2009?

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LSU 14, Arkansas 5 (College World Series)

ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Hogs’ post-season run ends at Omaha

The Arkansas baseball team’s season ended on Friday afternoon at the College World Series with a 14-5 loss to Southeastern Conference rival LSU in Omaha, Neb., after an amazing run that saw the Razorbacks go from an afterthought to a tie for third in the college baseball ranks.

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Win Or Lose, Hogs Making Us Proud

Who would have thought it?  If the Hogs had nine lives to start this College World Series trek, we burned about half of those or more in the 4-3 win over Virginia on Wednesday.

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