Arkansas 28, Western Illinois 24
August 30, 2008 at 11:04pm by TipsterHog
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football, Recap
ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Four touchdowns by Dick leads Arkansas
Senior Casey Dick erased every one of his significant career statistics as the veteran quarterback led the University of Arkansas to a 28-24 victory over Western Illinois in season opener for the football Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Also:
- ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Game Stats (PDF), Post-game Notes, Post-game Quotes, Razorbacks rally to down Western Illinois (Video)
- ESPN.com: Arkansas nips Western Illinois in Petrino’s debut
- YouTube (Video): Arkansas vs. Western Illinois Highlights
- ArkansasSports360.com: Razorbacks Survive Scare from Western Illinois, Harris: These Razorbacks Will Take Some Getting Used To
RazorBloggers Network
- Walking on Sunshine: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly — Western Illinois
- HogBlogger: Getting Over It
Razorback Central
- Alex Abrams: Disaster Avoided
- Robbie Neiswanger: Defense Struggles, But Survives
- Vernon Tarver: Offensive Line Struggles In Opener
- Harry King: Petrino begins with close one
WholeHogSports.com
- Tom Murphy: See Dick run, see Hogs win
- Rob Keys: Hogs defense survives its struggles
- Marty Cook: Freshmen make key contributions for UA
- Wally Hall: Mr. Petrino’s wild ride ends with victory, sigh
- Nate Allen: Razorbacks squeak by Leathernecks
- Brandon Marcello: Freshmen Razorbacks have up and down debut
- David Showers: Running back, defensive scheme give Arkansas fit
- Terry Wood: Casey Dick helps Hogs survive upset bid
Updated 9/1/08 6:40 p.m.
Suprise-Suprise!!! Bet knowone thought it was ganna be that close. A reality check is definately in order here. We have over 20 True Freshmen, and/ or RS Freshmen, contributing on a regular basis, not to mention several Sophmores getting quality time, who were basically a non-factor last year. This team is young. The only thing that really bothered me about this game was the lack of pressure the D-Line put on the WIU QB, and the lack of consistant play and pass protection break-downs by the O-Line. That was a bit of a suprise. We should be better in those areas. We shot ourselves in the foot with fumbles, dropped balls, and deflections for interceptions too, but that pretty much fell upon the shoulders of our youth. It might not have looked like an impressive win, but if we were down by 10 last year, with 10 minutes left in the game, we lose. The last 2 drives of the 4 qr. for the Hogs, would have been non-existent last year. Ugly or not, this win is something to build on. I exspect us to play much better against La. Monroe. Greg Childs, De ‘Anthoney Curtis, Joe Adams, and Jarius Wright are going to be special in this offense. We didn’t get to see a lot of Wright tonight, but I fully exspect that to change as well. This will definately be a rebuilding year, but promising at the same time. If we win 6 games, Bobby Petrino should get SEC coach of the year. GO HOGS!!!!!
Oh, by the way, I almost forgot. We should never, ever, ever, wear red pants again, for as long as we are here on this earth. Amen!!!
Whew! Casey for the Heisman! haha That was close! Even though losing last night would have been a nightmare for the program, I wasn’t (too) worried about losing the game. It is a GREAT feeling knowing that we can throw we we need too. I could only listen to the game, but the crowd seemed into it the entire night. Coach P has some work to do, but folks I for one am looking forward to some great things from this coaching staff!!! So, expect some bumps, stay supportive and watch the program go to a place higher than it’s ever been!!! Nice job Casey!!! 7th all time in passing yards in a game. Sad, but at the same time amazing and wonderful to see. Folks we are throwing! The rest will get better!!!!
Beside the excitement of the Petrino era this game would tell us what we had talent wise. Was it enough to stay on the field with Texas or Louisiana Monroe? Well, the kids should be very focused in practice this week. You know they want to get better.
Young? Has there ever been a team this young? And, we have gone from a team built around Darren McFadden to a team built around Casey Vick. I had hoped one of the freshmen recievers would show some flash but, as well as they did, it was all Casey Vick last night. Petrino said it. Casey is learning how to compete. Next week he will get some help from Michael Smith. We thought our experienced line play would be our strength. But, now we find our defensive front is undersized and our O-line has not mastered the blitz.
I think this team can eventually look like what we were exspecting to see last night, at least on offense. Casey Dick will become even more effective when his O-Line get’s a full grasp of the offense when the bullets start flying. I think that close call we endured last night will be beneficial in preparing us for La. Monroe, and getting that first game out of the way will help build the confidence of our Freshmen. De’Anthoney Curtis Joe Adams and Greg Childs are going to be fine offensive weapons in this system.
I’m already hearing a lot negative feedback on some of the other sites. Can you believe one guy actually had the nerve to publicly apologize to Houston Nutt, claiming he admitted to spreading lies about him, so that we could get rid of him? Talk about looney tunes!! Half of our team’s two-deep rotation are Freshmen, and this guy can’t even accept the fact that thier going to have to get thier feet wet. Who ever said this year was going to be a championship year? Who said next year was? The stupidity never seem’s to end. This guy has already predicted our future over the next 3 years, on what he’s seen in one, stinking football game. Unbelievable!!! Good thing your not a Michigan fan buddy, cause you would’ve commited suicide by now.
If Petrino et al can teach the guys on offense and defense to catch the thrown football as well as the Louisville Cardinals once did, the Hogs will be all right. Western Illinois had a gap-stunting defense that sold out to stop the run and make Casey beat them, which he did in spite of all the dropped balls.
While it was quite a scare I did see a lot of things I liked out of this VERY young team. I’m not sure how many of you noticed that we got the ball back with about 1:30 to play before halftime and the actually made an effort to run a 2 minute drill with the intent to score. We came up short, but like I said the effort was made. Another thing that impressed me about Bobby P was his ability to make half time adjustments. While it is Western Illnois, the fact remains we were down and the half and won the game. That is something we often didn’t see out of the old regime.
I think in time Bobby will have a nice program installed here, but it will take some patience out of the fan base. If we somehow survive the next 5 games at 3-3 or better I will feel like we won the lottery.
Hey a win is a win baby, and hopefully they will use this experience and learn from their mistake and continue to grow as a t\eam. Dick is probably going to break all of the season passing records for a Arkansas Qb and folks that is saying alot. GO HOGS GO!