Ten’s Not A Charm
September 24, 2007 at 10:35am by HogBlogger
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football
For the tenth (and last?) year in a row, Houston Dale Nutt’s Razorbacks followed up their first SEC loss with a second.
The Razorbacks had 495 yards in total offense…over 35 minutes in time of possession…and the offense scored 13 points.
No point in taking shots in any direction…the thing speaks for itself. There were four key possessions on offense:
1) 13:37 to go in the 2nd quarter. Felix Jones makes an amazing run down to the seven yard line. On first down, out of the Wildcat, had we handed the ball to Michael Smith coming across he would have scored untouched. However, we ran DMac up the middle into the arms of two linebackers who never even bothered to move. Second down…DMac again. Third down…DMac again. We reach the two yard line and settle for a field goal.
2) Kentucky fumbles the ensuing kickoff and we get the ball on their 36. One yard on first down and then two incomplete passes force the Hogs to punt.
3) 7:59 to play in the 4th quarter. With a 29-27 lead and an exhausted defense, the Razorbacks have the game in their hands. Three DMac runs between the tackles nets nine yards. Following the punt, Kentucky goes 68 yards in six plays for the touchdown to take the lead.
4) 4:02 left in the 4th quarter. The DMac show continues: off tackle for two yards, pass over the middle for three yards (with a nice tackle by the umpire), and Casey Dick is sacked while pondering a swing pass to DMac. The fourth down throw falls into an empty space.
Here’s the breakdown:
| 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | 4Q | 1st Half | 2nd Half | Totals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rush Yards | |||||||
| Arkansas | 48 | 207 | 59 | 24 | 255 | 83 | 338 |
| Kentucky | 5 | 3 | 75 | 87 | 8 | 162 | 170 |
| Pass Yards | |||||||
| Arkansas | 86 | 35 | 0 | 39 | 121 | 39 | 160 |
| Kentucky | 83 | 37 | 36 | 106 | 120 | 142 | 262 |
| Total Yards | |||||||
| Arkansas | 134 | 242 | 59 | 63 | 376 | 122 | 498 |
| Kentucky | 88 | 40 | 111 | 193 | 128 | 304 | 432 |
| Time of Possession | |||||||
| Arkansas | 10:21 | 9:38 | 7:25 | 7:38 | 19:59 | 15:03 | 35:02 |
| Kentucky | 4:39 | 5:22 | 7:35 | 7:22 | 10:01 | 14:57 | 24:58 |
| Points by Offense | |||||||
| Arkansas | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| Kentucky | 7 | 0 | 7 | 21 | 7 | 28 | 35 |
Kentucky’s offense needed only 86 yards per touchdown. Arkansas’ needed 268. Not exactly the best way to win a ’shootout.’
For those who might be wondering what HogBlogger thinks an offense should look like — watch Kentucky in the second half. That’s what success looks like. Multiple sets; balanced running and passing; and solid line play. Fourth-string running back and key wide receiver making major contributions; mixing in no-huddle; and changing plays at the line. In other words…an offense that gets better as the game progresses and gets the ball into the end zone.
As for the defense…more on them later.
Wait…okay…I do have a ’shot.’ To the fans that have hung their hat on, “we run the ball and that’s how we win” — ain’t working. That’s all I have to say about that.
Guys, I said I would own up if we failed, so here I am.
I must say what I witnessed saturday night, was a team that wasn’t mentally or physically prepared to play football. Our offensive game plan was completely Vanilla, with no creativeness. I keep hearing that our staff isn’t showing everything they have in their offensive package in past games, not give it away. Well, what are they waiting for? Mental mistake after mental mistake. I can only attribute that to poor preperation. And there is no one to blame for that, but this staff.
The last three and out we ran three dive plays and punted. It made me sick to my stomach.
I watched a WAAAY outclassed (in talent) Tulsa team on thrusday night throw for over 300 yds against a very good Oklahoma team. There is a case of someone taking less and doing more with it. In our case we are taking more and doing much less. Maybe David Lee needs to stack a few more concrete blocks and ladders out there for our guys to play with. What a joke. I now believe what others have been saying elsewhere. “OUR INNOVATIVE AND CREATIVE OFFENSE MOVED WEST TO TULSA!!! Looks like he’s getting the last laugh.
In the past, I have battled tooth and nail in support of Coach Nutt and this staff. Those days are over!!! Did you hear the fans booing the staff at the end of the game. It’s time for a change “Starting at the Top”.
I feel sorry for McFadden and Jones…top quality in the entire country and they are being let down by their coach. McFadden may have lost the Heisman because of it. I am not one to pile on, but our new AD should consider a change of leadership on the gridiron.
I have tried to be patient in calling for the coaches jobs also but it is obvious that the team around the SEC no exactly what HDN is thinking just like the fans. The play you talked about earlier when he ran him 3 straight time to get down to the 2yrd line and kick a field goal. The little delay up the middle with Dmac out of the wildhog they call everytime. If I know its coming I know other do as well. The coaching is pathetic to say the least and I read the article last week that talked about Pee Wee league coaching and that is exactly what we have in our coaches here.
Defense isn’t the problem, it’s offense at the moment
Bluff – that’s serious stuff coming from you. Remember last year in many of my posts I was talking about the creative things we were doing in the running attack from game to game? Not seeing it now. The move back to zone blocking has not been a good thing. Notice on the game tape how Kentucky ran the counter versus how we are running it. They ran it the way we did last year. We didn’t. There’s more to this game than just thinking you have better horses. It matters how you hitch them up.
Dieing – I was calling plays too. And calling for things that I could see in Kentucky’s defense that we weren’t even trying to attack.
Buaman22 – defense against Alabama, offense against Kentucky (although the defense did get tired on the line)
On offense – we actually called some nice plays at times. Casey is locking in on receivers, making it easier for the defense at times, and the overthrows are killing us. That’s the worst I’ve seen him on that. He was much more accurate as a freshman than he is now. Also, I get the sense that he either is not making reads or is being told not to make reads in the passing game. He didn’t read the safety on the corner-post play, missing Tuck open on the post and getting the tipped ball intercepted on the corner. Houston Dale loves to throw that corner route. I hate it. Almost always incomplete. Believe it or not, my feeling is that the quarterback coaching is not getting it done. Romo is doing fine on his own it appears.
1.After a week of trying to stay positive and expect the best I had an epiphany late Friday night. Something that I was trying to ignore had been bothering me all day. It was the article about Houston having to give a lesson to a bunch of 20 yr. old football players about enthusiasm. At that point I knew we were in some real trouble as I believed and still believe that the only way Kentucky beats us is if we show up flat. We did and even with most everything in the first half going our way I thought was played poorly.
2. That was the worst Arkansas football game that I’ve seen since ….. Well hell I can’t remember a worse game although in my mind we didn’t even field a team in the 90’s so there may have been some worse games during that stretch.
3. It looks like it may be time for a change but out of respect for these kids lets let them play it out and then assess things at the conclusion of the season. No change will be made in mid-season and if it was nothing good ever comes from a mid-season change.
4. I was embarrassed by our team Saturday night and I was embarrassed by our fans. Everyone on that field knows how you feel now, but booing your own team comes off as classless and hurts recruiting of future players (we can write off anyone that was at that game as a recruit) and should we decide to go after a new coach it affects that as well.
This post could have 10 pts. to it but what would be the point of that.
Since Dale’s dismissal is the end of Broyles era I would like to take a very quick and superficial look at this whole idea of ball control football.
The last time Arkansas had an average yards per game rushing this high was Frank Broyles last year, 1975. His record, 5-5-1.
We are continally sold on this idea that “statistically” more teams lose a game than win a game, “statistically” the team with the larger time of possession wins, “statistically” the team that runs and stops the run wins. So we have been told that this simplified, boring, meat head football is “statistically” better than balanced or high risk football.
Well lets start with the idea that “statistically” the better team wins most of the time. The better team is much more likely to make fewer mistakes, control time of possession, run the ball better, and stop the run better. “Statistically” having the better team is a winner.
Beyond that this is a game. It is fun to watch and fun to play when all of the parts and pieces and plays are used. I believe that our beleaguered reciever corps is actually capable of looking much better but, they are only asked to block and run one reciever routes. This is supposed to be fun for the players, coaches, and fans.
Yes, winning is important and lesser teams will resort to either high risk or low risk approaches to offset their difference in talent. But, to become so low risk that you play the game without a QB or recievers is going too far. And, why do that when you are the better team. We are actually better than most of the teams on our schedule but for some reason we have resorted to a low risk attack that actually benefits the other team, not us.
We can be good enough to run a balanced attack and we won’t be any worse off than we have been for what, 20 years since arkansas won a conference championship. Let’s play real football again here in the hills, win or lose.
http://www.hogville.net/yabbse/index.php?topic=158138.msg2471977#msg2471977
It’s time for the Zookification of Nutt.
Use the link above to learn more.
Reaganite,
I think I’m going to puke. What is or isn’t done will be done based on what happens on the field not because some classless fools fly a banner around during the game. That makes our whole program, fan base, and state look like a joke and again it isn’t fair to the players to have be surrounded by that. Those that hate Nutt will get their way. Its time for our own fans to stop adding insult to injury. This is all depressing enough, don’t you think. The way this trasition goes will depend to some degree on how idiotic our fan base behaves.
Carolina,
I know you want the fans to represent Arkansas with class but, that train left the station years ago when they were lied to and played for fools. If you ignore people and treat them poorly long enough they will eventually act out to get your attention.
Look at Dale’s ridiculous PR after this loss, acting as if it was actually a well played contest between to evenly matched, well coached teams and we just made a couple of simple mistakes and had a bad break or two. Dale accepts no responsibilty for this team in any real sense and is not held responsible by his supervisors. It makes people sick, as it should.
Blind,
Its a little hypocritical to criticize a coach for failure to take responsibility and then give fans a pass. If its a higher standard we wish to hold our coaches to then you have to behave like it. Fans can blame Houston for the performance of the team, but you can’t blame him or Broyles for your own behavior. That’s a cop out.
Look at the big picture and realize how you harm the program that you profess to love when you do things that embarrass us at the national level.
Sorry but embarrassment came long before the fans starting booing!
I don’t get your point Carolina, you are going to have to explain it to me.
Mine was that if Dale had come out earlier and taken responsiblity for his poorly coached teams rather than blame the kids (he recruited and coached) as he has always done, people would have a higher expectation from he and Frank that this will not continue without proper action being taken, whether that is noticeable improvement, resignation, or termination. But since he and Frank continue to blow colored smoke and act as if nothing is wrong the fans feel a need to make the statement that they disagree.
Perhaps your side is simply that things really are fine. Frank and Dale know that things really are fine and the more they tell us that the quieter we should be in hopes they will be right or change on their own. I don’t really see that working. Sure we could all just stay home quietly. It hasn’t come to that yet. So there is room for disagreement on both sides.
Maybe that is the next question. Why do the boo birds still attend. Will they?
People! Fans sometimes boo. That’s their right. Comes with the ticket. To stand up, yell, scream, wave blue cotton candy, shout instruction from the 50th row to coaches, players, officials, and even airplanes pulling banners. When you sign up to walk on the field at a major college or professional level you sign up for all of that.
While I personally don’t care for the booing, I’ve been known to express my displeasure in many other ways (usually involving the use of the word ’stupid’ or ‘idiots!’). The only standards of behavior that I feel should be enforced on Razorback fans (beyond those expressed on the ticket stub) are that you must wear current (meaning Adidas) official Razorback logo wear, never wear anything to a game that has previously been at a losing Razorback game, and that all such logo wear should be purchased through the RazorBloggers Fan Shop so that I get a cut. However, from the looks of the crowd on game day, results on the scoreboard, and our monthly statements, few agree.
Stop moralizing to fans for acting like fans have a right to. We lost the last two games. Hardly a time to have a competition about who’s the most right. Nothing’s right when you lose.
I completely agree with Carolina Hog. The behavior of HDN or Broyles does not justify FOIs, flying banners, etc. When your actions start reflecting negatively on the school you profess to love, especially when we are most likely on the verge of a coaching search, its time to take a step back. Boo if you must, but that affects the players (and recruits) every bit as much as it does the coach. Is that really your intent?
We are so close to the end of the Nutt and JFB era. Please, just let this season play out and Nutt will go quietly into the night after wasting the most talent we have had in years.
Bluff, I appreciate your comments. That should tell a lot of folks where we’re at right now…when someone like Bluff, who stayed as positive about HDN as I’ve ever heard for so long, has turned. It took me a while to get there too…
If all the booing and banners and fireronzook.com got Florida Urban Meyer and consecutive #1 recruiting classes then I don’t see what the big deal is. Every one of the players I have talked to knew exactly who the booing was directed to and they said he deserves it. I’m surprised no one has brought up our failure to win despite having an additional coach in the booth. That Danny Nutt is a sneaky guy but those ESPN camera’s are everywhere so fast it messes you up.
I have been enlightened! I never knew that the Letter of Intent that recruits sign each year contained a clause that says that fans do not have to be courteous once you enter the playing field. Same logic…I suppose that PeeWee parents take to their kids’s games back home when they yell, kick, and scream at junior when junior embarasses them by not consistently catching that ball. I suppose that logic works for some folks. What is scary is that people like this actually may be voters!
Carolina,
Fans are left to classless actions when AD’s don’t do there job.
Defense,
Keep preachin, eventually you’ll have a congregation. You have been so incredibly enlightened. I feel a little brighter just reading your posts.
What I gather from these responses is that fans are really hacked off at Houston (Nooo!, Really)?. I thought Nutt’s coaching philosophy was off base a long time ago. Jurassic in time, I think. I thought that they should have gotten rid of him after the Minnesotta debacle in Nashville. Talk about a team that wasn’t prepared. At Half time in the pissoir you could cut the fan’s anger with a knife. However, Nutt did recruit these guys and the one’s that left last year, so he should get credit for that. Those players have given the Hogs some national and SEC recognition. Hopefully, Nutt can right the ship and redeem himself in the next two games. Hey, look at Michigan. If he loses to either NTU or Chattanooga then we should contact Mickey Rooney about coaching the ‘Backs til the end of the season.. He couldn’t do worse and he’d be cheap..
Thanks HogBlogger for the shot. That’s cool. I’ll just keep the comments to myself from now on.
We’re just terrible. That’s the bottom line. I’m with Bluff. It might be time for a change at the top. But does Long have what it takes to do it? I’m not so sure.
To say money is an issue, would be untrue. We were ready to pay between 2 to 21/2 million $$$$$$$, to hire a basketball coach, before we got a bargain with John Pelphrey, so as far as I’m concerned, it shouldn’t be an issue to get another quality coach, to coach the football team as well. 2.5 mil. ought to be good enough to draw interest from a good coach. Fayettville is a good place to live, and the A.D. who will be in place come January won’t be Frank Broyles. That in itself ought to be worth about a mil. Times are changing on the hill. I can feel it. Hopefully, it will be for the better!! GO HOGS!!!
I sat in the stadium with about 7 minutes left to go in the game in total disbelief at our lack of ability to move the ball on offense. At that point the sick feeling in my stomach had turned to laughter at what I was seeing on the field. I actually tried to start the “wave” after we made the brilliant time out call on their two point conversion try.
“Let’s see were 4 points down and need a touchdown to win if they miss, if they make it were 6 points down and need a toucdown to win, Hmmm, let’s call a timeout and think about this. Good Grief!!!
Bluff, I know this has been tougher on you than some of us. I think it must be tough on Dale and the coaching staff as well to watch themselves blow two very winable games in a row. But, as you say, when you call plays like that and manage the game like that you don’t give yourself much of a chance to win, almost none. This bunch has run out their string, they are at the end of their rope, practically bankrupt of energy and ideas.
I bet Houston is even a bit shocked, even at the depth of his denial. Mike Cherry left Arkansas to tranfer to Murray St. just as he arrived. He comes to Arkansas to find Joe Ferguson and Clint Stoerner and Anthony Lucas in place. Cedric Cobbs is recruited his first year and then Matt Jones appears out of the blue. The boy’s luck ran hot for a long time. His skills were never pushed to the limit long enough to see what they really were. In his mind he probably took a great deal of credit for all of that success and was shocked that others could question his skill.
Life is funny. I hope he saved some of his money. I know Lee and Herring are leaving with a cool million. Frank is very generous with our money.
It is always funny to hear player after a loss. They are interviewed and they all seem to say the same thing which is obviously what the coach just told them as to why they loss and the last loss seem to be because they can’t put a full game together and they were out of place never the coaches just made bad calls or the coaches didn’t have us prepared. I use to coach an AAU basketball team and I always felt it was my job to prepare my team for what they were about to face in an upcoming game and if by chance what we have practice was not working then we made adjustments and called plays to help us score or maybe do a full court press to try to cause a turn over but the coaches have placed the blame on the kids which seems to be the trend on the hill.
As a long time Nutt supporter, I must say that if he can’t pull this season out of the gutter (read only one more loss and that includes the bowl game), it may be time for him to go. I say “may” because I remember when we ran off another successful coach who couldn’t win the big game or a bowl game. His name was Ken Hatfield. Now I’m not longing for the days of Ken Hatfield but I’m not longing for the days of Jack Crowe, Joe Kines, or Danny Ford either. If we think we had a hard time getting a big name coach in basketball, what makes us think we’re going to lure a big name coach in football. We are without question one of the top 3 basketball programs in the SEC. Can you really say that about our football program?
My point: Be careful what you ask for!
if Frank isn’t involved with it, it will probably seem like we achieved the impossible. I don’t think a lot of people realize how Frank has effected the area of hiring a quality coach, with the way he’s handled the firing process over the years. If I were a coach, knowing that Lou Holtz turned this program completely around, the way he did in his first year, with Frank Broyles recruits, and then witness the destruction of it just a short 5 years later, mainly because Frank found an exscuse to start a scwabble with Holtz over in-state recruits, I think, maybe, as great as a coach as Lou was, what would be the chances of this same thing happening to me? After Lou left, everyone knows how he turned the Minnesota program completely around, with less than steller athelets. After that, He got his dream job at Notre Dame, where he could just sell the heralded name of the school to top ranked athelets, and 3 national titals later, the rest is history. This sounds a lot like the relationship between Houston Nutt and Gus Malzahn. When you have that kind of a creative mind, that far exceeds your own, you will try and do whatever nessesary to get that guy away from you, and try to bring in someone else who isn’t so inferior. From that point on, Frank made sure no other coach under his watch, made strides that would exceed his own. know stop and think about that for a minute. How many coaches in the past actually showed little or no interest at all, to this university, because of the dictatorship that was in place? If it were you, and you knew full well the possible complications at hand, what would you have done? I know what I would have done. If I’m a hot comodity as a coach, and my name is out there, and I,ve pretty much got my choice of several different schools I could go to and coach for good money, I won’t put un-needed stress on myself, much less my family, to coach a team that isn’t stable at the top, because of super-duper ego issues. Hopefully, those days don’t exist anymore.