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A Year Of Change

December 27, 2007 by HogBlogger 

The year 2007 is in its final days and my traditional period of reflection has begun.

The drama that consumed the last few years of Houston Dale is over — traded in like a 10 year-old car that ran okay…but had an interior that smelled like old gym socks.

Bobby Petrino / Becky Petrino (AP Photo/Beth Hall)Bobby Petrino appears to be bringing the fan base together and creating excitement in recruiting.  His strong winning record and history of explosive offenses as a college coach have me optimistic about the next few years.

While Petrino has seemingly been humbled and damaged by his experience in Atlanta, I expect he’ll regain his swagger and be ‘in demand’ pretty quickly.

But think of it this way…if Petrino is successful enough at Arkansas to leave for a ‘better’ job, that just makes it easier to attract the next coach.  If Utah under Urban Meyer, Boise State under Chris Petersen, and Louisville under Petrino can get to a BCS Bowl, I’m optimistic Arkansas can, too.

As for the program as a whole, we now seem to have mercenaries in charge of much of Razorback sports.  The ‘We Are Family’ notion is coming to a close as Coach Broyles sails off into the sunset of the Razorback Foundation.

While the mercenaries make us feel really good right now, we must remember that they are primarily motivated by money.  Any appearance that they care is an illusion — created simply because seeming to care appears to be necessary in order to obtain more money in the future.

Yes…I’m a bit cynical.  I’ve also worked with mercenaries and know their ways all too well.  As the old saying goes, “The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

Darren McFadden / Marcus Monk (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)Unfortunately, lost in the shuffle of an extended coaching search was the fact that the Razorback football team had a pretty good season.  Everyone hoped and expected better but, overall, fans have to be pleased to finish up beating the number one-ranked team and earning a bid to the Cotton Bowl.

The players and coaches deserve a lot of credit.  They could have easily folded after failing to hold on to fourth quarter leads in the first three conference games.

DMac and Felix have been just amazing to watch.  Without a doubt, these last few years the Razorbacks have had a running back tandem unlike anything seen since the days of the ‘Pony Express‘ at SMU.  Other than all the coaching and fan-related drama surrounding the program, it really has been a great time for Razorback football.  It’s too bad we all couldn’t fully enjoy it together.

Reggie Herring has really surprised me as interim head coach with his supervision of the football team through December.  His opening statement to the press was better than anything I’ve heard out of the athletic department in years.  He has been nothing but positive about the players and their preparation for the Cotton Bowl.

The match-up against Missouri should be the best game on New Year’s Day.  Both teams average about 40 points a game, so it stands to reason that it should be a shootout.  I’m excited about the game and more than optimistic about the Razorbacks’ chances.

How optimistic?  Well…hang tight for now.  We’ll be making our bowl predictions with you on Friday.

Go Hogs!

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Comments

9 Responses to “A Year Of Change”

  1. BlindHog on December 27th, 2007 11:44 am

    You can call them mercenaries,. The polite term is professionals. Frank deserves credit for building a basketball program and the best fascilities in the nation. Donors and coaches deserve some credit there too. Other than that Frank was often less than professional and his ‘caring’ was often misdirected, as caring often is, to favor his own position and reputation over the object of his affection.

    The new era begins with very high expectations in the three major sports. I hope they can turn promise into reality. Either way the change is as welcome as it is over due. I can’t wait until spring practice to see how this new team comes together. I know the players will be excited for a new era as well.

  2. HogBlogger on December 27th, 2007 4:08 pm

    Blind - Professionals in general tend to have an array of motivations. While mercenaries are professionals, their financial and survival motivations take major precedence over any other possible motivations.

    As to Coach Broyles - I believe his caring for the Razorback programs was his prime motivation. Money was way down the list. I believe he put the program above his own reputation. I do think he, like many in the ‘powers that be’, felt that he more than any other could best understand and progress the Razorback programs. This is very typical of long tenured leadership and not at all exclusive to Coach Broyles.

    Coach Broyles’ expertise in the past 20 years has been in raising funds, not in the administration of athletic department staff. As his comments about the spread and no-huddle offense clearly indicated, some parts of the game had passed him by. (Florida won the National Championship with a spread, Indy won a Super Bowl with a spread combined with no-huddle. The Patriots mix in both and are currently 15-0.)

    You have to wonder how his views and desire to continue coaching might have been different had Bill Montgomery over-thrown rather than under-thrown that sprint out pass to Chuck Dicus in the corner of the end zone and we had kicked a field goal and beat Texas in ‘69.

  3. GonzoHog on December 27th, 2007 5:36 pm

    One thing is for sure HogBlogger, old habits are hard to break, and when you consider that the Hogs biggest sucsesses came in the ’60s, back when Frank was young, but still somewhat exsperienced, that’s probably the era which Frank still relives the most. That was the era of “power football”, and knowone coached it better or motivated it better than Frank did. (except maybe Paul “Bear” Bryant himself) If we are truly a stepping-stone for Petrino to eventually go on to something better, then we should finally consider ourselves in the elite bracket of schools that won’t settle for anything less than the best. This is what we all wanted (most of us anyway) Call it mercenary, call it professional, call it what ever you like. They all qualify, but the bottom line is, the coaching change was nessesary. Petrino could leave in a couple of years, even though I think it’ll be a little longer that that, but before he leaves, I also think he’ll take us to that level we all desire. If he does, we’ll be in a very good position to bring in another high-profile coach to continue what he got started. If Petrino truly consider’s the SEC to be the best in the country, and the nations best coaches already exists right here, why in the world would he want to move anytime soon? He has a buy-out clause that state’s he’ll pay back 2.85 million $$$ if he leaves before 5 years, and also a clause which state’s if he does, it can’t be for another school in the SEC West. The East has Urban Meyer in Florida, Steve Spurrier in SC, Mark Richt in Georgia, and Phillip Fulmer in Tennessee, which seem’s to be the best candidate to leave in the next couple of years. If Fulmer doesn’t get fired, I don’t see any of the rest of the East paying Petrino enough to move. Outside of the conference, ND, USC, Ohio St., Michigan, and Oklahoma look pretty set with thier coaches. Texas probably won’t change, unless Mack Brown up and deside’s to retire, and UCLA is still a ? Petrino has every motivation possible, over the next 5 years, to stay right here and build a dynasty. He certainly isn’t interested in the NFL anytime soon.

  4. BlindHog on December 27th, 2007 7:47 pm

    Maybe boys, maybe. Frank may have been a mercenary who just never got a better offer. Petrino may be a professional who got lots of better offers. That doesn’t mean he will get a better offer than Arkansas. Listening to the talking heads is a fools game. This has certainly proven that. When I guy with the class and reputation of Bob Griese takes off a guy like Bobby Petrino

    When Bobby takes a team picked 5th in the west next year and beats Texas and Florida and goes 10-2 he WILL be in demand. If he goes 7-5 wins the Independence bowl we will be safe for a few years. One thing is for sure. We will not be bored with a junior high offense. Win, lose, or draw, we will play to win. Frank’s brand of caring did not include football strangely enough.

  5. mike in magnolia on December 28th, 2007 12:29 am

    Just one qestion; what in the world will we talk about this spring and summer without all the drama? I hope ya’ll can keep it exciting and interesting.
    But I’m sure you will.

  6. TipsterHog on December 28th, 2007 11:09 am

    Mike…we’ll try! And hopefully we’ll do it without making up stuff about players buying Cadillacs.

  7. Anonymous on December 28th, 2007 11:17 am

    Gonzohog, Not trying to disagree with your point about the 60’s being great success, I would have to say that Lou’s success in the late 70’s and Ken Hatfield in the mid/late 80’s were also some very good times. Granted we didn’t win the big one (thought we should have after the 78 Orange Bowl/11-1 losing a squeeker to Texas), but we did have our moments.

  8. GonzoHog on December 28th, 2007 5:45 pm

    No doubt about it, “77 was a great year, followed by the ‘78 Orange Bowl win over heavily favored OU, and thier Hiesman Trophy winner Billy Sims. That was, and still is my favorite season of all. I was 11 years old, and was a very dedicated Hog fan already. Granted, the 1964 Hogs are still the best, with the National Tital to boast, but I wasn’t born until 1966, so that game was kind of irrelevent as an unborn Hog fan. I think my passion took off about 2 years before, when the Hogs beat Geogia in the1976 Cotton Bowl 31-10. The ‘78 Orange Bowl would cement my passion for the Hogs for all time!

  9. GonzoHog on December 30th, 2007 3:48 am

    A lot has been made about D-Mac and the Caddie issue. It’s a shame this type of crap has to be brought up before the Cotton Bowl. Enstead of just enjoying all the festivities leading up to the game, once again, we have a dark cloud hanging over the program. I’m courious why the T.V. station out of L.R. appologized so quikly. Could it be that someone in charge has seen a bone-headed mistake in reporting, and believe’s there’s a potential lawsuit? I wonder. All the same, the damage is done. If this is a direct result of “freedom of the press”, then I say we need to change the damn law! Anyone can make up a story. It doesn’t take a genious to do that, but it does take a little integrity to just simply state the facts, nothing more. Of course, we don’t impose laws that stipulate that kind of disipline into our society. What a shame! Anyone remember Joseph Stalin? He once made the statement “We will never have to defeat the Americans, because they will destroy themselves”.