Thanks for the rant. Also for the example of cohesive flow to writing that you provided. Without people like you to set us straight no telling what foolishness we might all think. And for the record, I pay little attention to Wally. About as much as I'm going to pay to you in the future.

HOGFAN23 – Ben Cleveland has a nerve problem in his neck and is out for a while it appears.

Kiffin has done well in the pros…and last I read was with Tampa Bay Bucs. His son of course is new HC with Oakland and is said to be a great one when he was at USC.

Someone mentioned the great(?) Don Lindsey. Don may have been great at USC when Holtz hired him to return to Arkansas but he was everything but great at Arkansas. Believe at one time he was at Ole Miss….one time in Honolulu, but not sure where he is now. If he coached elsewhere as he did at Arkansas, you can look in the unemployment line for him. He started out great against Houston Cougars and Arkansas smashed them. Bill Yeomans said after the game that Lindsey's D was so unsound that someone would make Arkansas pay for it. He was right. Arkansas paid and paid that season until Lindsey was no more. I saw run after run after run with no one within 30 yards of the opponent's runner for a bunch of games after Houston. Outstanding coaches, like Ken Hatfield and Houston Nutt, can take what players they have and fit the offense and defense to the talent. Apparently, Lindsey could not do that at Arkansas just as inexperienced high school coach Malzahn could not blend his system with the outstanding running backs of McFadden, Jones, and Hillis. [He even had to let the running backs coach come up with the suggestion of the WildCat (i.e. WildHog). He was so out of it that he could not even think to name the WildHog correctly from the gitgo instead of the WildCat. Apparently, his mind was with another college.] It is the measure of a great coach whenever they can take the talent that they have (as Nutt and Hatfield did upon arrival) and create their system around them.

Would be interesting to see where Lindsey is now if he is still in coaching. Fred Goldsmith is head coach at a D-II school with App. State (and I am sure that he is not looking forward to that game with App. State). And kinda amusing, our new LadyBacks asst. basketball coach's husband will face App. State in 3 weeks. I feel for Coach Carr at Michigan for rotten fans will not remember that Carr won a national championship at Mich. but will want his head on a platter just like a few rotten Hog fans with our distinguished Houston Nutt.

There was a lot of passing game that I saw in practices that didn't make it into the Troy game. Lot's of stuff that could have been used to build confidence. Good possession types of passes. Our poor passing game happens more because of what do off the field than on it.

Casey hit RoJo (Waco) right in the numbers. He was on target to Hillis several times. Nice pass to Fish. Truthfully, I don't feel the issue was with Casey and his confidence. I think he would have been fine throwing a bit more. I continue to be a Casey fan. I was a Clint fan too. I was close enough to him after the Tenn game in Fayetteville to see the tears in his eyes as he hugged Angie on the field. I told them they should sell the movie rights, because it was a great story. (Good thing he checked off into that pass play!)

I think the confidence issue with the passing game is more with the coaches than the players. The coaches worry about mistakes in the passing game and in punt returns. Last year we had 18 interceptions and the punt return game cost us big in the SEC Championship game. Sometimes the focus on worrying about something actually cause issues instead of preventing them because of the atmosphere of fear that is created. Players come and go, our worry list stays the same.

When you perform 'afraid to make a mistake', tendency is that you do.

Hind sight tells me that '98 was more about Joe Ferguson keeping Clint together than any other single factor. Clint had several bad halves but not a bad game.

And of course Casey is taking too much of the brunt of the coaching staff promises. It is just like promising it all last year and abandoning it so early. Why they would pull the same stunt this year is beyond understanding.

As you say, you have to practice and play to develop confidence and a good rhythm. Evidently our QBs don't get to do either.

Alabama will be a good test. Saban will have the schemes if not the horses so it should be a good gauge of how the year will go. If he can stop us with 8 and 9 in the box we will see it all year if we don't make him pay with a few plays down field.

Agree with you on the tackling. However, we still have the holding issues at times that Batman was quite famous for. Herring just gives up a lot of yards in the first half of games. We need to average allowing 12 points a game, so we gave up two games worth of points against one of the 'gimme' teams. Not good.

I agree Markuson will get it better. Also, I don't think the zone blocking works as well for breaking runs as man blocking and clever play calling. We will have more of a '3 yards and a cloud of dust feel' at times against good defenses.

As of passing, you don't what you can do until you give yourself an honest chance to try. Our passing game is like a nervous golf shot. We are so afraid that something bad is going to happen that we make it difficult for something good to happen.

Kick coverage – just lost contain on that one return. The field is much more open due to moving the ball back. Varva was doing the 'line drive' thing early which didn't help. Later he focused more on hang time and things improved. Hang time on kickoff is much more important than it used to be. What used to bounce in the end zone is now fielded at the three on the run.

Dmac blasting that guy on Felix's return was worth the price of admission, and perhaps even the pain of working through the crazy traffic although that is a stretch. The traffic was that bad.

Good grief, it amazes me the (in the words of Roscoe P. Coltrane) "dipsticks" we have in the stands, including the student section. If they'd make tickets more than $1 in the student section you'd get real football fans in there. As it is every frat boy, sorority girl, and foreign exchange student who can't identify an Offensive lineman from a WR are in the stands not paying a lick of attention to the game (Paying more attention to Mr. Jack Daniels or Mr. Wild Turkey) except when one says to the other in a slur "Heeeeyyyy, leett's shtarth da waves"… and then the band is like "Yeah, that's how we can change up the same ole routine… no one will ever guess this would be a good time to do the wave!!!!… COME ON EVERYONE, LET'S DO THE WAVE"… as the opponent continues to march down the field.

Note: There are very knowledgeable football students in the stands… they're just outnumbered by the ignorant ones.

It hard to argue with much of the assessment here. I have felt that Herring does a pretty good job. Call it setting the bar low but after growing up watching Richard Brothers and Ahmad Carrol bounce off ball carriers I have felt that we have never tackled better than the last two years.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is Kickoff converage. On the radio, that sounded like a major issue that we better address quick. Was this not the case for those at the game

As for passing, I think what you do is dictated by what you have and in a nasty cycle what you have is dictated by what you do. We can't move forward in the passing game without the right players and you'll never get those players if they don't think they'll get the ball. Its still too early to tell if we can break the cycle this year. Its hard to wait two more weeks for a game. What a tease. Go Hogs!

My favorite was the South Carolina game a couple of years ago when Superior had only one play remaining in the third quarter with a strong wind at his back. I don't know if everyone in the stadium knew he was going to throw but I did. Of course he went long for the winning touchdown against a blitz.

I still remember Miss State making that 4th and 17 when we did an all out blitz with Keith Burns.

I'm torn on styles. I just know we need to give up fewer points to be a top 10 team.

This should be an excellent team, maybe not quite as good as last year, but still very capable. We have holes in the defense that are undeniable and on the O-line and at QB. Darren may have to take over the passing game. We have a tougher road schedule. The only thing this game really suggests is that Lee is not going to have much effect on the passing game. Maybe by midseason he can add an option QB package for Darren although his ball handling must improve a great deal.

Alabama and Kentucky will tell the tale.

It is hard to say much about our scoring. Based on Saturday Felix's long runs will have to replace a passing game. On defense though, I think that that may be the nature of attacking defense. Dale loves the attacking defense. It stops some drives and keeps some drives alive. It wins some games and loses some games. I assume we use it because we cannot recruit the players to run a straight up defense. You would think that bend but don't break would be more in keeping with our ball control offense.

Every year Herring has improved our defense, so I'm confident that will hold true. Jerell Norton showed alot of promise, and Michael Grant has been top notch.

Last season we had a bye right before #2 Auburn, then smoked them. Call it optimistic, but I'm expecting the same this year against Alabama on national TV.