Jerry Jones announced today that his new football stadium would play host to a 10-year series between the Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas A&M Aggies beginning October 3, 2009.
“This is truly a momentous day for the Arkansas football program,” [Jeff] Long said. “The chance to renew a football rivalry with Texas A&M at what will be the finest sporting facility in the world is a tremendous opportunity for the Razorbacks. The series will also allow our university to gain more valuable exposure in the southwest and will boost recruitment of students and student-athletes.”
I don’t know if this really qualifies as ‘momentous,’ but it does get us much needed exposure in Texas every year. Kudos to ‘Coach Jones‘ for spearheading this deal. I expect this to be a great game for fans and for the program.
Check out the new stadium.
While I like having the Waggies to beat on again I don't like having to take a beating in Austin this year only to have to wait six years for some payback.
I totally agree!
I'm a little confused by that too. I wonder why it's going to take so long to resume that game. It probably has something to do with the Sooners and some other non-conference program.
I think it is great and will only help in recruiting Texas, but I would rather it be Texas than Texas A&M. I am definitely going to try and make it to one these games in the future.
Hawgfan100 — You're thinking we'll take a beating in Austin? I thought that too last time we went. Didn't turn out that way.
Lightning strikes twice in a decade, Hogblogger? Perhaps but consider these (in no particular order):
Game will be played in Austin
Hogs are breakiing in new offensive scheme
Hogs are breaking in new coaching staff
Texas has a pretty damn good team
Texas has a pretty damn good new defensive coordinator (whom we are very well aquainted with; anyone remember last year's Auburn game?)
According to Clay Henry (hawgsillustrated.com) we don't have much in the way of talent or depth at wide receiver (which came as a surprise to me considering we picked up, what, eight WRs in Nutt's last recruiting class; not to mention the WRs we got in the most recent class?). Since we need to have at least some sort of threat in the pasing game to win at Texas; this, if true, doesn't bode well for out chances.
All of the preceding lead me to believe that we could very well get clobbered in this game next year. Of course, being the True-blue Hog Fan that I am, I'll keep my hopes up (and my fingers crossed) for that second lightning strike! ;^)
Oh yeah, i forgot to add we'll be breaking in some youngsters on both sides of the ball next year as well.
We have an odd collection of talent at wide reciever but we do have talent. We have mostly possession recievers. We need a game breaker. Either one of the freshmen is going to get a shot or someone is going to have to develop with better coaching.
I worry more about QB. Petrino will get it done but I don't know if it will be by next September.
Hawgfan100 – all true and good points. Maybe Texas will be over-confident. I suspect not. I just know that Arkansas tends to win games they have no hope in and blows games they should be competitive in. I'm sure the fact that we have all new coaching and schemes will give Texas plenty to think about. They'll have to watch Louisville film and play guessing games.
As to Clay — I don't think you can measure our talent based on the past. I've been to a lot of practices and seen a lot of wide receiver talent the past two years that has gone totally unused. Houston Dale could not, would not develop a passing game. Coaching and scheme makes a huge difference.
I agree with Petrino — the passing game is about match-ups. You must dictate to the defense and force them into coverages where you have an advantage in a match up. Houston Dale did not believe in this and didn't utilize that in his offense (except to telegraph running plays by inserting the 'blocking receivers'). When a quarterback doesn't have match-up advantages as well as smooth progressions and check downs, they are going to look bad.
Players, no matter how talented, can't out-perform the system on any type of consistent basis.
I expect our view to our talent to change considerably over the course of next year.
I agree 100%! We have a lot of unforseen talent in the recieving ranks, believe it or not. If you don't get the reps, your not getting the practice you need to prepare for opponents. Houston Nutt was as predictable as falling leaves in the winter time. Anyone (D-coordinators) could prepare for him. It was only a matter of getting your team to take Houston's team serious. Remember LSU, the National Champs? Do you think they really got up for us at home? 'Ol 1 demensional Ar-Kansas? Not a chance! That's why Houston's teams blew the one's they were supposed to win, and won the one's they were supposed to lose. Overall, he was nothing more than an average coach at best. Wait and see. Petrino may not win anymore than 4 or5 games this coming season, but I'll bet good money he'll exspose Houston's inability to coach on a highly proffesional level. You will see improvement towards a completely balanced offense in his first year, and you will see Hog fans excited about a coach who'll FINALLY throw the football when needed. I would have much rather seen D-Mac in that type of an offense, than what we seen him in for 2 of the 3 seasons he was here. At least we had Gus for 1 season. Sorry, guess I had a flash-back. Did anyone here the comment Mitch Mustain made about the coaching change in a Los Angeles newspaper? I think he hit it right on the head.
i agree with all your observations, especially the future outlook on our talent. Clay is too quick to sell these kids short.
i never could figure out why Nutt would act in such an obviously detrimental fashion to his own self-interest. It doesn't make any sense. It will be interesting from a comparative standpoint to see how it goes at Ole Miss.
Your point on coaching and schemes is well taken too. One of the things I enjoy the most is seeing how two coaches match wits on the field. For too long we've been overmatched and predictable in this aspect of the game, certainly against the best of the competition. I suspect that if Petrino is half as good crafting a gameplan as he is in running a program then we'll have plenty to cheer about soon. I didn't pay near enough attention to him at Louisville so I'm going mostly off second-hand reports. The only real variable here might be how soon the players buy into what he's selling. For my tastes, the sooner the better.
GonzoHog, please provide details (or a link).
Just beat me to the punch, Gonzo! Nice to see great minds thinking alike! ;^) What did Mustain have to say?
He basically said "that's what happens when there is a lack of professionalism in the coaching ranks". Sorry Owasso, I couldn't provide a link cause I heard it on the local news, (FT. Smith) and I haven't found a link to it yet.
Good enough, thanks.
Much appreciated here as well. And the kid might just have a point, too.
Go to Los Angeles Times Sports, and look up the story "The battle at quarterback for USC". You'll have to scroll down to the 20th story. It's 2 pages of Q's and A's with Mustain about the QB competition. You'll find the comments about the coaching situation on the 2nd page.
Checked it out (thanks for the directions). MM handled it well; at first he even tried to get by without comment, He should have known better, ;^) When pressed he responded much as Gonzo said. The situation at Arkansas was not handled properly or professionally and you see the results today.
I think the article was good, but you can't compare Nutt to Carroll that is like comparing a Kia to a Bentley. I think Mitch handled the situation with class unlike that Nutt job and his partners in crime. I am pulling for him to win the SC QB job but I think it's going to be hard to unseat the local kid, even though his arm is more lively. We are going to have rebuilding year for sure, but it is worth it to get rid of that clown, they could still surprise some people becasue we have one thing in our favor every other team in the SEC is going to have to prepare a little differently for Arkansas.
You got it brother!! That's the exact same thing that was going through my head too. There is no comparison of a grapefruit to a prune, and Mitch did handle the questions as classy as you could ask for from a 19 or 20 year old kid. I also agree it'll be difficult for him to overcome Mark Sanchez for the starting QB job, but not impossible. I think Sanchez will have to improve quite a bit to keep Mustain off his heels this year. From what I've heard through the rumor mill, Mustain is the more consistant passer with his accuracy, but Sanchez has that extra year of being the back-up last season, and is a little more familiar with the system, while Mustain is a year excluded from live competition. It'll be interesting. Also, I agree that we'll automatically be a harder team to prepare for. We've been vuneable for years and years now, just because we were so predictable under our previous coaching staff. I think that automatically brings us up to an even par with what Nutt has done in the past, with our best teams. I don't see Petrino having his butt handed to him consecutive years like Nutt did, while talking out the side of his mouth about bringing in a passing game, or using the TE more this year, and blah, blah, blah….. He didn't become the coach he is today by using that philosiphy.
Gonzo, I would say it is easily the most competitive job this off-season, they also have a sophomore who is good as well, but neither one of them have the arm strenght of Mustain and not to mention he lit the 1st team defense up last fall on scout team. Like I said earlier the only surprise we have on the rest of the SEC is the element of surprise. They will not know how to prepare for us and that is half the battle of course developing some guys who can execute the new offense is priority one. I hope Petrino told them there are no returning starters everyone has got a chance including freshman.
From what I heard, that's exactly what he told them (with the exception of Luigs, last year's Rimington winner ;^).
We can't rely on surprise for too long. Eventually it'll wear off. By then, hopefully everyone is in place to just go out and whip opposing teams.
I don't really exspect many wins this coming season, but what I'm really interested in, is just how well coached this team will be mechanically, and disipline-wise. Win or lose, if close attention is paid to detail, it'll be pretty easy to see. In this order, 1.QB 2.WR and 3. Special Teams is what i'll be paying extra special close attention to.
Question for those who have easier access to the program; in the past, how many walk-ons has Arkansas typically had in football? How many of those had offers outstanding when they decided to walk-on?
Thanks!
There are two intangibles you need when going through a transitional period like this, prepartioa and execution of the different units like offense,defense and special teams. If someone is better than we are then so be it, but hopefully they will not show up on Saturdays and look like a high school team. I have confidence in Petrino will have them ready to play in the fall. As for your question Hawgfan I can't imagine they are too many guys who had scholarships elsewhere and decided to walk on, a free education is hard to pass up.
I hear you LA Hog but, if I'm not mistaken, three kids have done just that already. That's why it struck me as remarkable.
Hawgfan 100, I haven't paid just a whole lot of time to it, but I did happen to remember that 2 out of the 3 recent kids your talking about, was a RB and a WR. I think thier both Arkansas kids, and I can't remember who the other one was right off. It does seem kind of odd though. I think I read the most recent one (the WR) had an offer from 3 smaller schools, but decided to walk on for the Hogs enstead. It could just be a case of them growing up, alway's wanting to be a Hog, combined with the fact they really believe in thier abilities to be good enough to play, and earn a scholorship outright. Looking at what profiles they did have, it look's like they all had pretty good size and speed for thier positions, and were pretty productive at thier schools. I noticed the kid that I mentioned at RB was something like 5'10", 190 lbs., and ran a 4.45 in the 40. Look's like he had a heck of a year as a SR. at Nashville, but hadn't played since the 8th grade. Nowdays, if Major Division I programs don't have some kind of a clue what kind of player your going to be by the time your a JR., there's a good chance you'll get overlooked.
I have to admire a kid who gives up that kind of opportunity to take a chance and really see what he's made of. This kind oif desire and attitude can only make the Hogs better as a team.
I agree, and it probably has a lot to do with Petrino as well. It would be interesting to here what kind of conversations he's had with these kids.