Missouri 38, Arkansas 7
January 1, 2008 at 2:51pm by TipsterHog
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football
Hogwired.com: Razorbacks Fall to No. 7 Missouri in Cotton Bowl, 38-7
In a match up of Heisman Trophy finalists, Darren McFadden and Chase Daniel, at the 72nd AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, it was Missouri tailback Tony Temple who put in a record-breaking performance in front of 73,114 fans.
The senior back tallied 281 yards on the ground and four rushing touchdowns, both Cotton Bowl records, to lead No. 7 Missouri to a 38-7 win over the No. 25 Razorbacks.
Also:
- Hogwired.com: Game Stats (PDF), Post-game Notes
- ESPN.com: Temple powers Missouri’s Cotton Bowl rout of Arkansas
- AP: McFadden quiet in what might have been his Arkansas finale
- Chris Bahn: Arkansas Suffers Awful End To Tough Season
Photos
- AP Photos / Getty Images: 2008 Cotton Bowl Photos
- ArkansasOnline Focus: Arkansas vs. Missouri Photos
RazorBloggers Network
- HogBlogger: One More For The Road
The Morning News
- Alex Abrams: Temple Of Doom
- Robbie Neiswanger: McFadden, Jones Must Mull Draft Decision
- Nathan Allen: Broyles Honored Before Bowl Game
- Carin Schoppmeyer: Razorback Fans Die-Hard
- Vernon Tarver: Temple Rushes Into Record Book
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- Tom Murphy: Doomed by Temple
- Chris Givens: McFadden, Hogs go out quietly, Inside the matchups
- Bob Holt: Temple shows Missouri can run ball, too, Tigers show defense also has teeth, Instant replay
- Rob Keys: Geared to stop Daniel, Hogs ambushed on ground
- Democrat-Gazette: Herring’s genius doesn’t show in game
- Marty Cook: Razorbacks replay
- Wally Hall: Razorbacks need fans’ loyalty even more now
- Nate Allen: Missouri dominates rudderless Razorbacks
- Rainer Sabin: Missouri rips Arkansas, Luigs to stay; McFadden, Jones still undecided
- Matt Jones: Temple outduels Hogs’ backs
Other Sites and Blogs
- Razorback Expats: Twenty-One Years of Futility
- ArkansasSports360.com: Harris: Waking Up To a Nightmare
- The Dallas Morning News: Cotton Bowl Coverage
- The New York Times: Missouri Wins With Ease, but Says It Deserved Better
Updated 1/4/08 7:30 a.m.
What a perfect end to the BROYLES/nutt era.
Mr. TheSpreadWon’tWorkintheSEC deserves lots of credit. He let the program linger with the likes of Kenny, Danny, and Dale just to meddle and control and ‘coach’. But, no one did it as good as Dale. David Lee was the guy he was looking for to replace Gus, no doubt about it.
Thank God it is over. Thank God we will see the NCAA football at Arkansas for a change. We deserve it. We paid our dues.
You could tell how pleased Petrino was to see the effort and idiocy on the field. I hope he wasn’t having second thoughts already. He doesn’t need to worry. There are some good players who did not see the field and some players who will do better in a real offense. Defense? I don’t know. We may be in trouble. We are going to have to be a little patient the next couple of years and enjoy the show. At least now we know it will get better.
I have not watched all of the bowl games this year, but I have not seen ANY other team look as bad in their bowl as the Hogs did today.
What a disappointment for our team and the fans that paid their hard earned dollars to travel and watch that debacle….
As expected, another painful and distasteful loss. It appears that we were totally unprepared for this game and didn’t make any adjustments that appeared to work during the game. Basically, out coached and out played throughout this event.
You were expecting anything else?
I didn’t have to travel, but I had to pay $$. I wish I would have given a performance like that when I was buying tickets (i.e. just logged on to the website and not finished the transaction). My seats were in the endzone where the players came out. The look on the team when they were going in at halftime said it all. They looked like they just wanted it to be over. I don’t like to leave games early, but I did today. When Jones and McFadden were out, so was I.
Give Missouri credit, we were in over our heads, but they came to play. They had quite a few fans also. A lot of black and gold in the crowd. I think they brought more fans than Texas did in 2000.
I wonder if Petrino can coach catching a punt . .
Nope, I predicted the “final” loss of the Nutt era.
Blindhog got it right! Reggie turned the offencse over to David Lee who was going to really open things up. Pity the poor fans who beleived that. Petrino will have to put together an offense that scores 45 points a game just to win 5 or 6 next year! It will take 3 good recruiting classes just to get back to being an average SEC team. Championships are a long, long way away.
Today was an end of a lot of things finally. We can all look forward and I plan to do so. I’m glad I stayed at home. Driving home from Dallas would be brutal.
I hope our new coach realizes bowl games are played to be won and the reward is in the winning; not just showing up. I am in agreement with BlindHog. He nailed lots of things above.
There’s nothing you can really say about this loss, except why didn’t most of us see this coming? They (Missouri) had everything we didn’t. Thier offense is completely balanced. Our’s is basically one-dimensional. Thier defense has a solid pass-rush. Our’s has none. As fans, we obviously have to be optimistic about the future, since we can’t go anywhere but up. Petrino will obviously make our offense more evenly balanced with the offense he’ll bring in, but what may turn out to be most important of all, is the 4-3 defense he’ll bring in to place. This style of defense is the same one used by Miss. St., and Ellis Johnson (D-Cord.) this year. It’s a proven run-stopper type defense, and with the right personel, can slow down the intermediate passing game. Knowone can coach heart, but with the right phylosiphy, a disiplined frame of mind can take you a long way. Personally, I think it’ll take about 3 years to see this style of football at it’s potential best. At least now, it’s finally underway. As BlindHog mentioned above, what a perfect end to the coaching career of Coach Frank Broyels.
New to site, after watching todays game it was over before it started. This coaching staff was as bad as i have seen in any sport can’t wait for next year. GO HOGS
Forgive me for piling on…but the “all red” thing didn’t help us any either. Call me superstitous, old school, or whatever. We looked like Texas Tech or Indiana out there!!!
Did anyone notice in Frank’s FOX interview during the game, that he said the Spread was the new thing, a new age offense that everyone is going to. Give Frank credit…he’s a little late to the party, but finally figured it out.
I’m with Waldron Hog…just glad 2007 is over. Good things are ahead.
I hate to say it, but even when losing, you can still find a good side to anything. Even on a day like this, I can still find appreciation in the fact that I didn’t have to watch a nail-biting idiot pace the sideline. Next year will be different in many ways!
The defensive game plan (soft zone with three rushers) against the spread was totally wrong — and we rarely got out of it or at least changed it up. And the offensive play-calling was t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e. If you saw any of OhioState/Florida, the Bucks beat Florida by rushing the crap out of Tebow and taking their chances with man-to-man in the secondary. It was close and could have gone either way but at least Ohio State kept it close enough to give themselves a chance at the end. But….. this comparison assumes we could make something happen on offense and that you have a secondary.
Of course none of this is that simple. I’ve watched a bunch of bowl games and none of the teams, win or lose, look as hapless and as unsophisticated as we did. The culture of the program is just too feeble-minded for this day and age. You have to recruit and teach players to read keys and play with situational awareness. Not to mention the coaches. The notion that this hodge-podge batch of coaches, all headed to new jobs, would do anything other than run what we already had was too much to hope for. And Missou had a month to prepare for it.
Another tidbit I loved….
When ESPN interviewed the Missouri coach at the start of the 2nd half. Holly Rowe acted surprised that Temple was used that much in the 1st half. The Mizzou coached looked at her like an elementary school teacher would explaining a basic math problem and said something along the lines of…”Well, they were dropping back to play the pass and using six or seven DBs, so we just made the adjusment and took what they gaves us”…
Huh….a coach that make adjustments…a coach that takes what the other team gives him……What a novel concept!!!
They had 9 and 10 in the box and we never went down field until the 4th quarter. How much of a coach do you have to be?
What the hell was that, Arkansas? I wanted see more of a game from the Hogs. McFadden??? How about Temple! Setting records and single handly beating Arkansas. Granted I was happy to see Missouri totally dominate their southern neighbor, but I was actually embarrassed for Arkansas fans. With the Tigers kicking ass and Illinois looking as bad as Arkansas today, this should send a message to the BCS. Missouri deserved to be in a BCS Bowl and got snubbed. Go Mizzou!
There’s another good side to this. These are the same “hodge podge” coaches that’ll be coaching the opposition next year in the West division. I hope they call plays the exact same way next year in Fayetteville the way they did today. I can’t wait for that game!
Unfortunately, your right CottonBowlChamps! Mizzou did belong in a BCS game this year. Somehow, the powers of college football decided the Tigers weren’t worthy of BCS consideration because they just happened to lose to the same team twice. OU may be the best team in college football, and the Tigers, most definately, are in the top 5 somewhere. Maybe top 3, but the one thing you have to keep in mind is this isn’t about how good you are. It’s about money. If it was about football, do you honestly think the Hogs would be playing on New Years Day? Wake up and smell the coffee. Your team isn’t the first to get screwed over the years, and it won’t be the last either.
This is exactly what i tried to tell my roomates was going to happen. Back in Nov. when Frank Broyles gave the OK for David Lee and the others to stay on our staff fully knowing that the were going to Ole Miss, we all knew that there is no possible way a coach can stay completely loyal and give his full attention to a team that he is no longer responsible for. By the way, I feel terrible for Marcus Monk. Talk about being screwed by your coaching staff. He came back for his senior year and got hurt, but when he finally became healthy this year and could run crisp routes again he didnt even get the ball thrown in his area. As of the third quarter today Andrew Davie was thrown to 6 times, Monk 1 and it was by Peyton freakin Hillis. We are so STUPID to think that these coaches would put our guys in the possition to even compete much less win.
Walking on Sunshine, on the all red comment, I’m totally in agreement here. I thought that it make us look silly! We were just never in this game especially missing two field goals like we did.
I was there and I wish I had not spent all that money for what I watched. I was mad the whole drive home. I’m going to put this season behind me.
I left when McFadden and Jones were taken out of the game. I didn’t pay $90 to watch the second team. Even if the game was out of hand. When McFadden and Jones left I was right behind them.
I hope we hear from Patrino soon. We need encouragment soon.
Now I get to go back to Dallas Saturday to watch the Hogs BB team. I hope the outcome is better.
Let’s see:
Based on today’s performance and looking ahead to next year, it’s obvious that the Hogs need the following;
Running backs (If McFadden and Jones both leave)
Receivers (especially receivers)
Kick off returners
Punt returners
Tackling drills
Field goal practice
Blocking drills, especially for pass protection
Did I miss anything?
Coach Petrino better be scouring the country for Juco transfers. I can also see a number of freshman getting a lot of playing time next year.
I also predict that next fall the ‘Backs will be picked last or next to last (ahead of Ole Miss) in the SEC West. Gonzohog: Nutt and company at Ole Miss gives hope that we might win as least one SEC game
My opinion of the game relative to Arkansas: Nuttball at its worst. The announcers were left wondering as to how this team beat LSU.
Hey CottonBowlChamps, We don’t need for you to be embarrassed for us. Tell how happy you are. Tell us how good your team is and how bad ours was today. But don’t feel sorry for us or embarrassed for us. We have a new coach and things will change. Maybe we’ll get to play again in a couple of years. If so, I’ll predict we’ll show up to play the next time.
What a sad day for us fans. I really felt let down but I can only imagine how bad the kids in school felt or will be feeling. This needs to get behind us fast and move forward. I so look forward to Petrino, and as said, it might take 1-3 years but should progress as it gets going. My thoughts were than the line needed help and I hope they recruit there well, I did not see any dominating linemen on our side of the ball. Give Misso credit, theirs guys came ready to play. I think you guys covered the other weak-links well and I need not mention any of that. I will rejoince in Nutt being gone though. Well, now to recruiting and following that. Let’s hope the kids see what can be and not what was normal Nuttplay.
If the Hog’s defensive coaches truly watched and studied the Mizzou offense, something tell’s me they would have had the defense better prepared just by watching the Kansas and Oklahoma game films alone. It was a no-brainer that they like to mix in Tony Temple when the defense back’s off to play the pass. They also would have noticed that the better teams in the Big 12 are the one’s better suited and more motivated to slow down the Tiger offense. These two games alone should have provided the Hogs with plenty of answers. The Mizzou coach sumed it up best when interviewed. He simply stated that the reason Temple was having that kind of sucsess, was because they were taking what the defense was giving them. Simple enough. So why didn’t we change things up to equelize things like OU did? We may not have the talent on the line, or at LB like OU does, but there is such a thing as making adjustments. There is absolutely no reason not to believe that we could have held this guy to under 150 yds. That was so pitiful.
The Hogs were terrible. No need for me to rehash all the pathetic play/coaching. I look forward to the regime change and the promise of a modern offense. What I still can’t get over were those HORRIBLE uniforms. We looked like Utah or Louisville. I told my wife at halftime, the most important adjustment we could make would be putting on the white pants. I know it was Frank’s last Cotton Bowl, but I don’t recall the Tide wearing all red for the Bear’s final game and I doubt very seriously that Penn St wears all blue when Joe Pa leaves.
In hindsight, we coulda and shoulda seen this coming!
For this bowl game, we had a coaching staff that, for the most part, has been hired by A DIVISION BORDER-STATE RIVAL. They already have jobs to go to, nothing to prove, and, in fact, a win by Arkansas makes their recruiting task at the new school that much tougher. The University of Arkansas was COMPLETE IDIOTS to let the Ole Miss coaching staff coach an Arkansas bowl game. Complete idiots!!
On top of that, there’s a head coach at Ole Miss who had a VESTED INTEREST in seeing Arkansas fail in the Cotton Bowl. Given the track record of the Little Rock mafia, somebody should investigate the source of the McFadden new car allegations!!!
Silver lining: No more Nutts, no more David Lee. The past is behind us. Amen!!!
The opening drive was great until they got in the red zone or near and I saw the same ole run up the middle two times in a row and a very confused Casey Dick try to complete a pass on third down. I think Reggie was pissed because he learned Petrino had hired his replacement over the weekend. What a sad day for the program, I wish the seniors the best and DMAC and Felix too bad this will be their last appearance in a Razorback uniform. I can’t wait for next year but I am sure Petrion can, he has a lot of work to do.
Well, I saw one team that performed worse than the Hogs yesterday…Hawaii. They were totally overmatched.
Are you guys really surprised by the Hogs performance? I knew we would get hammered. We all knew that Nutt had 100% control over every piece of the program, so when he leaves the wheels would totally fall off. Lee was clueless, and I truly believe that Herring did the best he could.
Besides, will all of the uncertainty over the future of the program, you can’t expect the kids to be 100% focused on the game. Christmas, holiday break, new coach, NFL draft, the gift baskets and bowl activities, all of these factors create a nightmare for focus. Most of these kids had written off the season as successful after beating LSU, and the Cotton bowl was just gravy and fun for them…..up until playing in the actual game.
Positives:
Casey Dick – who predicted he would pass for more yards and be more effective in the passing game than Daniel? He through some great passes that were dropped – my only complaint was that he needs to look downfield more. Good going into next year.
Pass rush – someone said it was bad, but I didn’t see that. We were rushing with 2 or 3 men, and still put pressure on Daniel, even sacking him a couple times.
Negatives:
Punt returns – have we returned a punt this year? This has been terrible for years, and I don’t get it. Forget about who catches the punt (Fish, Norton, etc); who is blocking on coverage? Even on a 40 yard punt, the coverage is all over our return guy every time. This has to be a formation problem – we don’t have anyone in a position to block. We never get close to blocking a punt either, so maybe we just have all freshmen out there.
Defensive formations – I can’t belive we didn’t make any adjustments at halftime. Why didn’t we go back to our typical 4 man front and man coverage in the second half rather than a quarters formation? This was just strange.
O-line – it’s like they didn’t exist. You can’t blame Dmac and Felix for their lack of production, it’s all on the o-line. You can’t tell me Missouri’s defensive front is better than LSU, etc. They must have been bloated from the Lawry’s Beef Bowl over the weekend.
Red pants – I knew we were in trouble when I saw them run on the field. Has ANY team ever played well when they are wearing a different uniform? I don’t understand how this was a tribute to broyles….how about a patch on the shirt or helmet or something….whoever thought of this needs to go too.
I’m confused by all of the down talk of this season. We had some great wins, some of our players had a great year and we went to the Cotton bowl – and Nutt left. Sure, could have been better, but could have been worse.
Like everyone else, I’m looking forward to seeing what Petrino does. Everyone on this board should have low expectations. But I totally expect we’ll be 90% pass. Smith is too small to run in the SEC and we have no other expereinced back. The thing I worry about are our receivers ability to catch the ball. They dropped a lot of passes this year…hopefully Petrino has some drills for that.
Actually, I liked the red pants. I have been hoping to see them for a while now. I don’t think that we should go that way exclusively but, I don’t see why we shouldn’t have all of the options available.
I think focus has been an issue all year and I don’t think you can be surprised by that. Nutt and Broyles should have both gone last year but that was not possible.
It is just too late in the day, the year, the decade, to discuss playcalling one more time. I must say, I thought we reached an all time low.
We really had no business there against a BCS number 6. We should either have taken the weedeater bowl or stayed home. We would have lost, but at least it would have been entertaining and over before New Years.
It may take several years for Bobby to build back a competitive spirit in this team. Houston lost it if he ever had it. It is not too unlike Stan Heath. I bet Bobby has no problem with that given time.
I heard that our schedule for next year is supposed to be the most difficult in school history. Any truth to that or is it mere hyperbole?
Win is a win, You may or may not be on target about Micheal Smith being too small for the SEC. Petrino’s offense will help in that area, because the defenses won’t be able to key on just one guy. Defenses won’t be able to cheat on the run, like we’ve seen under Nutt coached teams, with 8 and 9 in the box. I would have loved to have seen how good our running backs could have been under this system. Granted, Felix wouldn’t have had the touches that D-Mac would have had, since there there would be no room for him with so many wide-outs in the formation, but Petrino’s offense would have given D-Mac the opportunity to run in space, and we all know what that means. (TOUCHDOWN ARKANSAS!!!) Micheal Smith, on the other hand, has about the same speed as D-Mac, but not near the size and power. He’s more of a Fred Talley size-wise, but don’t count him out because of that. No running back will get as many touches in this offense as he would have under a run-oriented offense, so I think his chances improve to be effective. He’s proven to be able to catch to ball, so we’ll have to wait and see. As far as passing 90% of the time, I don’t think Petrino will commit to it quite that much. Probably around 65%, if you go by what he’s done in the past, which is significantly better than the 35% or so we seen this past year. I hope we’re able to sign DeAnthony Curtis on signing day. He come’s from an offense in HS that’s very similar to the one Petrino will use next year. He’s just as good a reciever as he is a runner, which put’s him in the same class as a Percy Harvin of Florida. There’s several very good in-state recruits that could have a big say in what we do next year.
It was brought up in the Zone this morning in Nashville
Sports talk that Tennessee should go after Malzahn…
It’s kind of funny how the local Nashville sports pundents several months ago during all the hooplah with the Nutts, thought it was a crazy Idea for Arkansas to bring a High School coach into the college level.
But now that Tennessee needs an OC, He looks like a good choice to them. What a Joke.
Gus will land with a Major somewhere, and they
will be the recipient of a good one
I’ve also heard Oklahoma might be in the mix to bring in Malzahn as an OC. I think he could do well at either one.
Hawgfan100…next year’s schedule hasn’t been officially announced yet but I think most people will look at the 2009 schedule as probably the toughest in school history.
Assuming the deal gets done, that year we will play A&M (in Dallas) and Texas in non-conference play, along with Florida (in Gainesville) and Georgia out of the East.
Here’s a good link from ARSN:
Future Razorback Football Schedules
Let’s just say, for the sake of discussion, that the 08 team features a freshman or redshirt freshman at QB, freshmen and sophomores in the recieving corps and freshmen and sophomores in the defensive secondary.
That is a tough schedule in 08 followed by a tough schedule in 09. In 2010, you have juniors and seniors with 25 tough games under their belt. Texas and Florida are off the schedule, Georgia is on but breaking in a new QB. Vandy is back.
2010, has Auburn, Ole Miss, Vandy, and SCar on the road, with LSU, Alabama, Miss ST., and Georgia at home. Sounds a lot like 2006, a good schedule for a run to Atlanta.
6-6 with a couple of Liberty Bowls would leave us well under the radar and pretty hungry in 2010. Although, if you could take Texas at home and A&M in Dallas in 09 you could generate a little buzz and set up 2010 with another Cotton Bowl.
On the other hand, I really just want to see what happens in the spring.
On the other hand, good teams often peak a year early. Lords knows they would be easy to overlook. 2006 and this years LSU win belong mostly to schedule and being overlooked.
Gonzo, I hope you’re right. No doubt once Smith gets in the open field he can run away from everyone, but I saw him bounce of SEC DLs and LBs like a pinball this year.
I expect big things from Casey next year. When you look at his stats this year, he did very well overall, especially down the stretch and was a big part of our LSU win – and 4 TDs against Miss St aint too bad. I just hope our receivers can catch the ball.
Oh My God! I am just glad there isn’t any freaking Sun Belt Conference games or Sisters of the Poor on the schedules. That was pathetic scheduling and the masterminded by Broyles to insure we got to go to some stinking bowl. I wish NCAA would institute a new rule where All 119 Div 1 schools have to play at least one non-conference team from the BCS conferences. That is the only thing about USC they will play anyone anywhere. Basically we are going to start from scratch, Coach Petrino should open up all positions and announce there are no returning starters all positions are up for grabs, including water boy.
It’s possible that Casey was one of the reasons they couldn’t develop a passing game.
I am glad he improved. Going into his Senior year he is no Clint Stoerner and there is a big upside to playing a talented freshman.
He might win the job. I doubt it will be his based on this year or his potential.
In his defense everything that could go wrong went wrong. He had no wide receivers, no go to tight end not to mention a coach who wasn’t interested in developing a passing game. It is so hard to get a read on him, personally I think they will give him every opportunity to be the starter but I just don’t know.
.
No doubt he has had the most star-crossed career that I can remember in many years. I don’t know if there is another player who was jerked around the way he was. I don’t want to take off on Dale. He did his best.
But, to pull your redshirt with 4 games to go as a freshman, lose your job to the national high school player of the year while being injured, misdiagnosed and mistreated only to come back and play the last 5 games of your sophomore year and, all for a team with one reciever and no passing game in the midst of a soap opera revolving around the guy you replaced.
It seems only destiny that he lose his starting job to his little brother and get to play the last 3 games of his senior year while winning the Eells award.
His record as a starter is 12-10, all with Darren McFadden at tailback.
Wally was right and Holtz flattered the Razorbacks.
Several weeks ago Wally Hall wrote a column in which he emphatically said, don’t let the present assistant coaches coach for the Cotton Bowl. He commented that there were a number of coaches in the area who could serve as interims. I thought (which was easy to do with Wally) that the Hallster had gone into a panic mode and was losing his marbles.. Going off the deep end so to speak. I thougjht that Herring and Co. would try to do their very best preparing for the bowl game, at least for their own pride and resumes. .So maybe the Hallster was right. Could it have been any worse considering the lack of adjustments for Mizzous running game? Outside of incompetence, the other possibility, as suggested by another blogger, was that the coaches “threw” the game as a parting gift to Nutt. I find that hard to believe because this was Nutt’s team. Its sorry performance is a reflection on him (and his coaches). I wonder if Ole Miss is now wondering if they bought a “pig” in a poke, so to speak, with Nutt and his assistants.
There doesn’t seem to be any rush by other schools to hire these guys (with the exception of Louis Campbell who is going to Miss. State – now that should be interesting when State meets the Rebs.). I think that Herring’s stock as a future head coach went down, way down after the Cotton Bowl. Almost all of the bowl teams with interim coaches lost their games, but with nowhere near the negative 31 point differntial seen in the Cotton. West Virgina showed that interim coaches can win so, there is no excuse for the pathetic Arkansas performance. One has to feel sorry for the seniors as they head out the door.
On a positive note was Lou Holtz. On ESPN the commentators were making fun of Arkansas. One comment was , “Do they drive on the right side of the road in Arkansas? they were interrupted in their joviality by Holz who said that Arkansas is a wonderful place to work and live. The people are warm and friendly and the Razorback nation is loyal, proud, and back their team Most importantly, Holz said that Arkansas produces 12-16 outstandind athletes every year and they bleed Hog red. With additons from other states, primarily Texas, he implied that the Razorbacks should be nationally competitive every year. I agree and was amazed when Frank Broyles previously said that Arkansas didn’t have the recruiting base other schools had. (Broyles has also said in athe recent past that spread offenses wouldn’t work in college; a position he reversed himself on TV at the Cotton Bowl without referencing that he had changed his mind on the subject). Anyway good for Lou, whom I regard as the best head coach ever at Arkansas, and who ws was deprived of a shot at the national championship by one of the worst pass interference calls in the history of NCAA football.
Jim, I agree with you that Herring’s stock with way down just as Stewart’s up way up after the victory.
Did Herring and crew throw the game??? No, I don’t think so. We poorly played a VERY good Missouri team. Not to mention that we had the ugliest uniforms of the bowls!
Dick looked scared during the game when there was any semblance of pressure from Mizzou, not to mention making absolutely no effort to elude tackles or make positive yards when the heat was on. It was a pathetic performance, bush league. Good luck to him in an offensive system that counts on the quarterback to make things happen. Pine baby, pine.
I believe Casey will be given every oppotunity to contribute next year. There is no substitute for exsperience. Look at Paul Smith at Tulsa. Nobody knew who he was before the new coaches arrived. He entered his Sr year much like Casey will do next year. That doesn’t garantee anything, but if Patrino see’s any kind of potential at all, believe me, he’ll be in the mix. WRs will be the key. Tuck will be back, Cleveland will be back, and everybody know’s what he’s capable of doing in a spread offense. A couple of key recruits could be the difference. DeAnthony Curtis and Jarious Wright could make an early impact if they sign next month.