May 23, 2013

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly — Texas A&M

October 1, 2012 by

Some random thoughts after the Razorbacks’ beatdown on the road at Texas A&M.

The Good

  • (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) Congratulations to Dennis Johnson for breaking the SEC record for career kickoff return yardage (2,755 yards and counting).  Granted…it took playing on some teams that had historically bad defenses in order to attain this accomplishment.  But if the new kickoff rules stay in effect, it may be a very long time before this record is broken.

The Bad

We’ll let you decide…which one of these staggering facts were the “worst of the bad” on Saturday?

  • Aggie quarterback Johnny Manziel shattered the SEC record for total yards in a game (557), breaking a record shared by Archie Manning of Ole Miss (1969).  Watching the Hogs chase “Johnny Football” (as Andre Ware dubbed him 10,000 times during the telecast) was laughable at times.
  • After putting together a solid first quarter that saw the Hogs leading 10-7, A&M reeled off 20 unanswered points in the second quarter.  In the last three games, the Razorbacks have been outscored 51-0 in the second quarter.
  • With the game’s outcome completely decided, John L. Smith and Paul Petrino continued to trot out Tyler Wilson in the fourth quarter.  Wilson continued to take hits after delivering his throws as the Aggies teed off. This, even after A&M had pulled their starters. Mindless decision.

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) The Ugly

  • Paul Petrino needs to do a little more coaching and a little less yelling.  While we know Tyler Wilson has made a few mistakes this season, the seemingly constant berating he took from Paul Petrino on the sidelines again on Saturday is getting a bit old.  Note to Paul: You might want to ease up a bit, brother…Tyler might be your only friend in this state right now.

Of course, we can’t possibly mention everything that was “Good, Bad and Ugly” in a game that was the third worst conference loss since 1992.  What did we leave out?

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

    The perfect storm that is Razorback football is essentially unwatchable. The fact that Jeff Long was not smart enough to know who he was hiring, that Grandpa Smith was smart enough to take $850k off Jeff, that Paul Haynes got 1/2 a mil from anyone, that Paul Petrino is called an offensive coordinator, that Tyler and Knile turned down millions to return for this humiliation, that anyone, even Houston Nutt, could recruit for 4 years and end up with this secondary, has to be the single biggest joke in the history of NCAA football.
    OK, we can’t have wholesale firings, no matter how good it might feel. But, at the very least, put Paul Petrino up in the box and let Tim Horton call the plays. This is not the Petrino offense without BMFP calling the plays. Someone has to simply this to match the talent.
    Knile takes a simple swing pass 80 yards, Did we ever call another? Swings, draws, screens, the short passing game is the running game. We can run some when the other team is not looking for it. The little back door play worked well at times. WE CANNOT RUN IN SHORT YARDAGE! Simple stuff really.

    • Jim Doggg

      Your last paragraph said it all regarding the offense. To my mind, however, it seems that you have to practice swings, screens etc. If not, pick time for the defence. This team is woefully unprepared and worse lacks creativity to adjust to different circumstances, such as when the running game isn’t working then why continue to repeat failure with the same plays? Whatever happened to getting your skill players in space?
      Would you explain why you feel confident that Horton could do a better job. I for one don’t, at this time, understand the logic of that. Has Horton ever called an offensive game? (I think that you would expect Horton as RB coach could figure out how to get RBs in space and cll those plays. As I said, this takes practice). I don’t know the ins and outs of the assistants, but I open the question that Horton might be part of the problem. If this disaster continues then any change might be better, but as of now….
      And stop with the fire Long business. Long has done some good things regarding the athletic programs in general. Examples: Baseball team ended up in the CWW. Hiring Anderson was a coup since he was a hot commodity on the coaching scene. Long was a victim of unforeseen circumstances, as it were, an experiment of turning over control of a team to a committee of assistant coaches who knew their tenures were going to be short. In hindsight who knew what would happen?

      • GolfHog

        PPetrino was a position coach (recievers) that BMFP allowed to hold the title OC while Bobby coached QBs. Paul lasted at Illinois for a couple of years before Bobby had to take him back. Horton was scheduled to be OC at Air Force when he was brought back to Arkansas. He is an Arkansas guy. He and Bobby Allen have the most invested in the Razorback program while PPetrino and Haynes are just waiting to get back on the coach carousel. Bobby Allen was really trying to hold things together on Saturday. I think that they would bring new energy and focus to the program. Accountablity could be a good think right now. These kids are smart enough to know ‘stay the course’ is not a good thing when you are headed over a cliff.
        Jeff Long has been holding on by the skin of his teeth for a while. This was the bone head move of all time. There is work to be done to pull this together and Long is clearly unable to offer any help to these kids or this staff. He is the John Pelphry/John L. Smith of ADs.

      • GolfHog

        Oh, and, I knew. Check my comment back in April. I think my phrase was, “every man for himself.” This was foreseeable.

        • Jim Doggg

          You nailed it. But who could’ve predicted the results?

  • Jim Doggg

    I take issue with you on only one thing, somewhat. Actually an answer to your wondering why they kept Wilson out there to take an unneccessary beating. First, Wilson probably wanted to be out there and with his competitive nature probably could felt he could rectify the situation somewhat (and increase his stats). Second. and more importantly. since coaches are supposed to be in control of decision making, they had no other option. Replace Wilson with Allen? Well how did that work out before Bunky? Also, Coach Allen, seeing how things were going might not want to see his kid fail once again in that he might not be like Wilson vs Auburn. Allen is not ready yet with this play calling group. Plus as things turned out fans would have wanted want to know why Wilson, the last great hope, was pulled. The decision to take Mitchell out of the QB rotation has forced Wilson to go all the way. Everybody expected a two QB package but this failed to materialize. If this coaching staff gave a fig for Arkansas then they would work Mitchell back into a rotation and that would give the new coach coming in a Qb with some experience.
    Also, you forgot one good thing. The freshman running back Williams from Allen, Texas. He did well. My son in Allen tells me that Williams runs like Dennis Johnson and is a bull. That’s a good thing.

    • http://www.razorbloggers.net/ Walking on Sunshine

      Playing backups (including backup quarterbacks) to gain experience when the game is out of hand would seem logical to most instead of Tyler scoring a meaningless late TD.
      I’m sure Tyler did want to play, but for his long term health, it makes sense to take him out in lopsided games like that. Plus, we need to find out what we have in Brandon Allen.

      • Porcine

        Yep, Wilson is a senior. The less green the young guys are next year, the better.

      • Jim Doggg

        Shine, what you say makes sense except that this season doesn’t make sense. I would have no problem with “we need to find out what we have in Brandon Allen” except that he might not be here next year. A new coach (and you know that the Hogs will have a new coach) will want to bring in his own people. This means house cleaning, and as I see it, none of these assisants have shown much in this crisis that would argue for retainng them. There is no guarantee that Coach Allen will be retained and ergo, B. Allen may want to transfer. You have to have priorities here. Playing Allen might help Allen but not necessarily the Hogs. Playing any QB with the performance of this OL is bad for any QB’s health including Wilson’s. I don’t understand the reluctance to put MItchell back at QB for relief of Wilson, he’ll most likely be here next year. Let’s see what we’ve got in Mitchell.

      • DFC

        Yes, it would make sense to me but there again I am not getting paid big bucks to make those decisions. I do not recall any coach since Hatfield trying to get a 2nd ready. And I do not recall any other coaches doing that nowadays. Why? I was amazed that TAM left their no. 1 in as long as they did.

  • OwassoHog

    My good from last week: Knile breaking the long catch for a TD! Flashes of old that need to be repeated more often. At this point, Knile needs to come back next year if he doesn’t bust it from here out.
    My bad from last week: Wilson’s continuing to UNDER throw the ball… I lost track of how many times this happened.
    My ugly from last week: UNIFORMS!!! Oh my goodness… please, retire them!