As far as Nutt handling it himself, probably so until the wheels started to fall off then he “turtled up” and things just got worse. Houston could have handled the post portion much better and things might have settled down some.

Sure Frank was a major part, firing Stan but not Houston, Dallas meeting, Mitch, Dana, etc, etc, etc. White added his two cents too – support Houston but silence about Stan. Not to mention the whole situation with Nolan from a few years back thrown in to the mix.

Lots of folks contributed to the mess including the fans but the fans were the ones that "piled" on.

The fan base was divided on Nutt, not the Razorbacks. All 17,000 Arkansas alloted tickets for the Cotton Bowl were snapped up in short order. Many more fans will go. The fan base will be behind the 'Backs next year no matter what. And when the Hogs play the Rebels next year at home you can bet that the fans will not be rooting for Nutt.

(Besides the fine christian man who loved his kids and that helmet yet still couldn't find the truth or any peace) the real paradox with Nutt was that he could build the program to a fairly high level (5 pretty good teams in 10 years, kids to the NFL from inconsistent recruiting classes) and still accomplish so little. He had lots of meaningless wins, some huge meaningless wins, but never more than a couple of weeks at a time in the top 25. Very, very strange stuff. Maybe he was in the verge of putting it all together.

They never made much of an effort to save him, just let twist in the wind.

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. . .Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.”

You and I are snout to snout on this thing. I bet we're from the same pigpen…the days of Jim Mooty, Bambi, Billy Moore.

"In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virture and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." – C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Not because of the fans. Razorback fans for the most part are excellent fans. We only divided over defending a winning coach who was making improvement and wanting an honest, decent man to represent our university. Both are right to defend.

This is nothing like the Florida fans who had a fit the moment Ron Zook was announced (although there are excellent lessons to learn there from that search. They announced they were after Stoops or Shanahan. How did they think Zook was going to compare to those names?) This is nothing like running Willingham off from Notre Dame after 3 years. This is not the same as running off Solich after a 9-3 because he did not make the BCS, and although there are those who will say it is too close, this was finally about character, leadership and very bad timing. There was no way to leave Houston in place for 2 losing seasons. The timing was just bad for all concerned. That part is really nobody's fault.

If this is a snake pit it is because those in charge do not have the best interest of the University and the program at heart. Those people who have the responsibility of leadership at this University will not come to an agreement and work together for a proper, common goal (Groucho Marx.) Present a mature, unifed front to a viable candidate and not this absurd soap opera and we could move past this in no time. But, that is not going to happen (Peter Townsend.)

Unless we stumble onto a Pelphry by accident we are about to go through another Jack Crowe/Danny Ford period just to resolve the power struggle on the hill. In a few years when J. Frank and J. White are gone we can get a real coach and move forward (Abraham Lincoln.)

Marx: Some fans will bitch about the goings on on the hill regardless of the situation. Some people are negative and allways will be.

Pete: We (the fans) become to comfortable in our surroundings to venture out and try something new (ie. giving an up and comer a chance instead of an established HC)

Lincoln: Sometimes your situation must reach a breaking pt. to facilitate a mend (Nutt had to go, however it happened, for the fans to be able to come back together.

Where's my T-Shirt?

If you are adding to the "charge", you are a "drain" on the battery!

1. Gus Malzahn. I like Gus, I like his offense. But those who are advocating him for the Hog job are not familiar as to how management works. Gus' biggest drawback maybe his inablility to attract top drawer, proven assistants. Some have said that head coaches are only as good as their assistants who do most of the basic work. Head guys put it together. Gus' youth and lack of experience and connections would inhibit him in attracting desirable experienced assistant coaches because they would not respect him. We saw that in the way that the Arkansas coaches treated Gus, especially Reggie. At the very least Gus needs another successful year at Tulsa and then to move up to a a head job at a Conference USA team, make his connections and assessments about coaches, and then also be successful as well. Then Gus will be ready for the big time. (then there is also the little matter of the inevitable explosion regarding that choice between the nuttcrackers and the nuttlovers)

2. Reggie Herring and even the assistants going to ole Miss are in an interesting spot. Wally Hall was in a manic mood the other day screeching loudly about the new ole Miss coaches stealing our in-state recruits. After taking his Prozac and settling down, he realized the danger, if any, was from other out of state schools redirecting these young men. I contend that unless these other out of state schools are national powers or programs, e.g. Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, LSU etc., that the recruits will wait it out.

The really interesting situation to me, is the arguement being made, also by Wally and now by Ms. Oakley , that that the assistants will not care about the bowl game. I find this hard to believe since the reputations of these coaches are also on the line. (Some one should tell Ms. Oakley that the assistants are not yet coaching at Ole Miss, just there reassuring recruits of their scholarships, like Tim Horton at UA). But what is being missed here is the human element. This is Reggie's chance to shine. If he wins it and he doesn't get the head job than what happens when he goes to Ole Miss? He would have done what Nutt has failed to do in recent years, i.e., win a bowl game. If Herring developes a good defense at ole Miss and Nutt otherwise fails to deliver, guess who is there to take over? It's a rule of managers that you hire competent personell but not somebody who can easily replace you. Same goes with the other assistants. An undertone would be, "By ourselves, we won and Nutt couldn't.." Oh well, we know that St Dale is above all of this self absorbed, survival stuff.

3. Why hsn't it been mentioned much that although Nutt left as a multimillionaire he is going to much lesser program than Arkansas. He's stepping down. So, are we to hope that a coach at a higer level program will also step down to us. In other words, well we get a "Nutt" to replace a Nutt.

DWC. Ii noticed that one poster referred to my loquacious and long posts as evidence for my not having a life. Since you also broght this up (not referring to me, I presume) would you agree that all long winded posters do not have a life?

Owasso – who cares anymore? he's gone. you have to wonder why people want to be exactly right about why.