June 18, 2013

A Shell Of A Team

September 9, 2012 by

Thirty point favorites aren’t supposed to lose.  Teams that are 30 point favorites and prepared to play don’t lose.

(AP Photo/Danny Johnston) My first look at the offensive line at the Fan Day scrimmage of fall camp three weeks ago gave me great concern.  They didn’t move smartly to the line of scrimmage.  There was no coaching or correction going on.

Whatever was happening on the field seemed to be okay with everyone.  They were coasting in the scrimmage and easily getting away with it.  I called Tipster, “Has the offensive line been this way all fall?”  He said what I saw was the norm.

Sixteen starters returned, yet we have a team that looks like everyone but the quarterback and a couple of running backs and maybe one receiver is new.

So what’s going wrong out there?

On offense — not prepared to play.  Tyler not making good checks at the line of scrimmage.  O-line getting blown up on a regular basis.  Brandon Allen had no prayer of doing anything sustained with the O-line playing the way it did.  Play calling at a loss for what to do.  In two games, the offense has played maybe two good quarters.  Fans should take note — Paul is not Bobby.  That’s why he had to come back to Bobby for a job.

(Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) On defense — not prepared to play.  The starting linebackers missed too many reps in the fall.  The defense was allowed to play the offense in practice — meaning that they were allowed to “play the play,” which made them look and feel really good but really just kept them from getting better and gave them a false sense of confidence.  Against Jacksonville State, the secondary looked as if they thought all that was necessary was to show up for the game.

All the talk of staff staying together and about getting results without having to yell and get in people’s faces was just that — talk.  Reality has been encountered now for two games:  You don’t just remove a coach like Bobby Petrino from his system and have the system function at anywhere near the previous level of efficiency.  His blood pressure at the Fan Day scrimmage would have been off the charts.

Teams play the way they are coached and practiced.  This team was coached under the assumption that it was going to be real good.

As a result they were overconfident and underprepared.  Just a shell of what we all thought they were going to be.  When adversity hit, they folded.  The mental toughness of the program is, at this point in time, gone.

I was afraid this would happen.

Can they pick themselves up and get it together?  Or have we seen the start to the most disappointing Razorback football season ever?

I’m sure you will tell me.

Filed Under: Arkansas Razorbacks, Football Tagged With: , ,
  • Bill

    Insightful for sure. I agree, unfortunately. A team needs to play with a sense of urgency, wanting to explode on every play, both offensively and defensively. You are further right in that a team takes on the personality of its coach. I am sure John L. is a great person … but seeing his hands-off approach along the side line is NOT what is needed, in my opinion. The players do not need a friend, they need a coaching staff who will direct them to the next level … or, we’ll never get there. Anything worth its salt or worth achieving requires more than cursory hard work, it requires extraordinary perseverance. Our team, across the board, needs to understand we do not live on past accolades, we live in the present, and our actions, both on and off the field, set the foundation for future recruiting for our Hog Nation. Posted by a Hog fan & 1974 alum from Virginia.

  • mlpick911.

    When Tyler had to go out the whole team just looked like a lost goose! Our coaches were hard on the players and their confidense just kept sliding! The talk of a national championship had the players thinking they were better than they were! I have never seen a team get so many lucky breaks as ULM! Every time the ball bounced they seem to have had it go to them! We had our chances to win the game but we failed! Look for ULM to go to Auburn bumping their chest and get blown out! Anyway life sucks waking up on Sunday morning after the Razorbacks lose one like that! I hope we don’t start that as a trend! Alabama has got to be licking their chops after last night! GRRRRRR!

  • Jim Dogg

    This blog said much of what is wrong. I might add that this was the curse of the Crowe. Granted that JSU didn’t win but it did point out to anyone who wasn’t a rabid Hog fan that there were lots of problems that LM could take advantage of. There was also the Miles effect. Smith, Haynes and P. Petrino seemed to have had it. Miles, as remembered, totally froze mentally against Bama and it showed on his face. He kept waiting for Jefferson to pull it out and it didn’t happen. At the end he didn’t even put the other QB in to give him the opportunity to have played in a championship game. It wasn’t being inconsiderate, just that his brain wasn’t functioning. The brains of the Hog coaching staff seemed to be unreacting similarily. To wit: At the end the LM Qb waltzed into the end zone. He had been doing this the whole game. After the JSU game the Hogs didn’t have a D package for this? Also, was the missing BP effect of micromanaging. Would BP have left Allen in the game at the end especially when the Hogs got good field position after poor punts and could have won on a FG. MItchell would have given the LM defense a different look when the passing game wasn’t working. Second half looked like LM was a SEC team and Arkansas the cupcake. It’s obvious that Smith was hired to be a bus driver and there is no real head coach.
    Most disturbing is that the hogs were physically and mentally unprepared: poor tackling and no swarming to the ball. Acting as if they were in a daze. Especially in the secondary where receivers (as noted by the announcers) gained 5-6 yards after they were tackled. If these problems are not resolved then they might not even beat Troy. This performance reminded me, in part, of Nutt’s last days in regards to receivers running poor routes and not getting open for Allen. Speaking of whom I got the impression that his face looked somewhat like Robinson against Alabama: Confusion and psychological fear. Also. like Nutt, the opposing coaches semed to have figured out the Hog moves. What is most depressing is that this was the same team, minus a few players , that handled KSU at the Cotton, especially defensively. Arrrgh.

  • Rob Martin

    I agree with all of you. John L is only taken up space on the side line and is not being the Head Coach he was hired to be. Watching him go into the huddles before the offense or defense goes onto the field and then walk away after not saying anything to the team is not what the team needs. Why have him? Arkansas needs a Head Coach that can and will lead the team. Like Jim said, John L doesn’t need to be the bus driver, he needs to be a leader. I can only hope that Jeff Long is also seeing this as well. As true fans we want to see them improve each week and Arkansas is doing just the opposite.Yea, there were injuries to some key players and I hope that their condition continues to improve, but the team had not been playing well in both of their games. How sad! Just trying to figure out what games maybe a possibility of winning.

  • uvahog

    A very well-argued case, HogBlogger. I predicted we’d go 8-4 this season because we didn’t have Bobby, but 8-4 looks like a complete impossibility now, and I think I might say that if Tyler wasn’t out for several weeks and we’d pulled that one out. For me, this season might as well be over. I’m sure something redeeming can come through all of this, but I don’t know what. Hopefully Long is already starting the search process for a new coach. That decision has the potential to make or break Razorback football for well over decade.

  • hog in iowa

    I agree with what’s beeen said already. I have a question though. Where did this “above the shoulders” or “lower leg” injury terminolgy come from? It just seems like a stupid and childish explanation to me. It Tyler got his neck wrung or has a concussion or Koddy has a ruptured achilles, just say it. It serves no purpose to servre up this nonsense-speak.

  • Roadhog

    I agree that this is a shell of a team. Conventional wisdom says the strength of a team should be its defense. The next most important facet should be the running game. Then, thirdly should be the passing game. Since B. Petrino arrived the emphasis has been placed on the tertiary phase, the passing game, leaving defense and the running game in shambles.

    Coaches placed their hopes of success for this team on one man in particular, Tyler Wilson, and when he went down the team collapsed. If the defense had been stout and the running game even average, the Hogs should have maintained the 21-point lead they held in the 3rd quarter.

    I think everybody knew that without T. Wilson this team was nothing much. Even a great running back like Knile Davis can’t run without blocking. But it was actually D. Johnson who was getting it done in this game, until for some mysterious reason they stopped giving him the ball. Under Petrino, Brandon Mitchell had been projected to handle an option-style running attack, but he was demoted to receiver, one who disappeared after the first quarter in last night’s Debacle on Markham.

    So this team was never very strong and it would have required a Cinderella-style season to have been successful, given the lack of defense and a strong running game to anchor the passing game. He who lives by the gun. . ..

    A lot of fans have been wistful for Bobby Petrino, but he had lots of near-losses as HC of the Hogs. His teams were never powerhouses, always relying on play calling and slinging the rock. Now that philosophy has come home to roost, to mix metaphors. Regardless of those who absolve B. Petrino of responsibility, these are not only his players but his schemes. J.L. Smith was brought in precisely to continue what Petrino had started, in hopes that he could rescue the season and salvage the mess that remained in the wake of the Petrino fiasco. It has not worked. A new approach must be taken, new horses midstream.

    My attempt to answer HogBloggers questions: I doubt this team will pull together because the coaching staff itself is in disarray, knowing they will all likely be gone after this season. There’s nothing to build on. Tyler will be gone. Knile will leave. Cobi. The underclassmen have no idea who will be coaching them next year. Lots of fans and players will withdraw their passion to avoid those feelings of bitter disappointment that come with losing. I will watch through my fingers, without expectations.

    • Jim Dogg

      Roadie, I have to disagree with you on some issues. First, there is talent on this team to win games. Which games those will be will depend upon how much better they can become. Both coaches and players must respond. The coaches have their own careers to think about and it’s obvious that this is the end of the Smith era and the interim coaching staff. Lying down and riding it out, you would think would negatively impact future job opportunities. I think it’s unfair to assume that this is BP’s fault because these were his “schemes”. A lot depends on how these schemes are introduced in a game. Example: Would BP not have had Mitchell ready just in case? Did they ever consider that Wilson would get hurt and Allen might not work out. (In fairness, it maybe that there was a package using Mitchell but they wanted to hide it from “Bama and they kept believing that Allen would get er done, after all it required a Hocker FG.) Also, the criticism that some of BP’s wins were close; well so were many other SEC teams’ wins And what about the Sugar Bowl which they should have won? Sometimes they go against you. Not a powerhouse (?). Last year they only lost to the 1 & 2 teams in the country. No, they were not Bama and LSU, but neither were any other teams in the country, therefore by your definition, the only powerhouses.
      Sofar it seems that PP hasn’t improved his play calling from his days at Illinois. I’m going to interject something very controversial here, based on what I have seen in other coaching situations where coaches have not used good judgement relative to their own personal feelings about players. PP and Allen’s dad are good friends. Perhaps there was the feeling that pulling him out in the last two series, or even in over time, might have had an negative effect on the young QB’s confidence. But when things are not working and the QB is visibly rattled and with an experienced option QB sitting on the bench, …well? I’m not in Arkansas at the moment to follow this but I think that the plan will be to use Mitchell early against Bama, even if Allen starts. First series or two will tell the story.
      Also don’tnecessarily bet on Wilson and Davis leaving next year. Wilson might be able to take a medical redshirt and if Davis doesn’t improve he will drop way down in the NFL scouts assesments. Wilson needs big numbers to go high in the draft and he may not be recovered enough to put those up. Another year, another coaching staff, may convince him to stay. Just sayin’. Other players on other teams have come back in this case it might for for personal stastistical purposes.
      Also, I don’t see how changing horses in midstream would help and might make things worse. Best that the coaches figure out how to do their job better and get the Hogs to a bowl game. Otherwise it looks like a long winter.

  • GolfHog

    There are a lot of ways to slice it but, and, the whole Grandpa Smith hire may be Jeff Long’s achille’s heal, his second Pelphry hire. It may be that in a tough situations Jeff spits the bit and goes with the closest solution that looks good.
    It’s one thing to con the fans to sell tickets, that’s Long’s job. It’s another thing to leave these kids hanging with big expectations. We all bought in here in Arkansas. The national media seemed to understand that it wasn’t the same team without Bobby.
    He never should have put her on the payroll.

  • GonzoHog

    I should’ve known better. I honestly believed with the experience and leadership on this team, we would be easily prepared by a familiar staff and system.
    Where did the defense go we all thought would be so good against the run? Where did the improvement go on the O-line?
    I agree with HogBlogger and some of these other comments. We are a shell of a team and look lost without CBP. What a shame.

  • West Coast Hog

    Tyler Wilson getting hurt was bad, but I would think the University of Arkansas football team should be able to block and tackle against ULM. There is just no reason for them to be this flat and they weren’t that impressive against Jacksonville State either. Alabama is coming so let’s hope they show better effort.

  • Nea alum

    Very accurate and astute account of what went wrong. Blame belongs on both the team and the coaching. Being in eastern Arkansas, I told my wife it will be a tossup of who gets beat worse — Arkansas State vs. Nebraska or the Hogs vs. Bama. I’m leaning toward the Hogs doing worse. Game over before halftime.

  • boristhehogboy

    I smell bacon come this Saturday too.