Getting Over It
September 1, 2008 at 6:35pm by HogBlogger
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football
By noon on Sunday, it became clear what stood out to me about Bobby Petrino’s first Razorback win: we have some lousy sportswriters covering the team. I think the local media should follow the example being set by Jeff Long and upgrade a few positions.
Both Jim Harris and Harry King felt compelled to bring up Houston Dale, as did some of the others. Here’s a news flash, guys: Houston Dale is not our coach anymore. He loves a different helmet now. We have a new coach and a fan base that appears pretty united and focused on the future.
It’s hard to have a new era when we have people stuck in the old one. Have you seen any of us writing about Houston Dale since he left? Go back and check our archives…we moved on nearly nine months ago.
I thought the game on Saturday would be easier, too. Had we gotten a two-score lead early in the game, it would have been very easy. But we didn’t. We fumbled and tipped a pass up into the air for an interception. We mixed up a few blocking assignments. And we struggled with our run defense and ended up playing the game from behind.
To their credit, Western Illinois brought an outstanding offensive line and a running back, Herb Donaldson, that I’m pretty sure we’ll see playing on Sundays in the not too distant future.
The Razorbacks brought a completely new defensive scheme and a bunch of freshman onto the field. Even though the Hogs defensive line is supposed to be a strength, they struggled against a pretty tough running game. The defense did hold Western Illinois to five plays or less on six of their 11 possessions. But a short field after turnovers led to a couple of touchdowns and a field goal.
Once the offense got on track, the Hogs scored on four of their last seven possessions. In those drives, they had 375 yards of total offense in 49 plays — an average of 7.7 yards per play — and scored four touchdowns.
As for the game atmosphere, I thought the Hog Call was as loud in the pre-game as I’ve heard it in years. The fans were enthusiastic and united in support of the Razorbacks. The crowd was pretty loud several times during the game and also showed a little patience by not booing some of the sloppy play. The fourth quarter comeback was a lot of fun to watch.
And I, the original HogBlogger, ever the traditionalist, even liked the new uniforms. I thought they were indeed ‘tight.’ The field looked nice, too. I liked the ‘classic hog’ in the middle.
The fact that this game was much tougher than many expected can actually be a positive. The Razorbacks were a little too eager to play: overanxious, trying to do too much, freshman jitters, and maybe underestimating Western Illinois more than a bit. Now, hopefully, they’re over all of that.
The first time out you rarely see perfection. Much less the 10th 300-yard passing game in school history.
Glad to see you are still around, HogBlogger……a lot of us have missed ya lately!As usual, I agree with your assessment and had fun reading it. I wondered if it is actually a good thing we didn’t blow out WIU so that Petrino can use the game to keep the team focused and learning. I noticed during the game that no one panicked (someone mentioned the poise in the Good, Bad, Ugly comments and I agree).
This is a trivial thing to keep talking about but I also liked the red pants…at least, like 10KHog says, they now are the right shade of red! However as T-Towner rightly stated in previous comments, it doesn’t matter what the pants look like, as long as they wear some AND win!
Yeah, Bobby fussed about not having the lead. You know he is used to having it and planning his schemes based on the other guy being under pressure. Still, I under estimated putting too many freshmen on the field and over estimated the effect of our line play. We are going to have to see a lot more for the discussion to get beyond 5 or 6 wins. It will be good to have Smith back this week. They will do much better on week two.
Well put Hogblogger. I said it once and I will say it again; It’s a great time to be a Hog fan!!! This coaching staff will only make these young men better!
The only thing I can think of to say, in response to Harry King’s article, is thank goodness ole “Hootie” isn’t still here!! De’Anthoney Curtis would make post season SEC honors, taking hand-offs from a bus driver. As for the rest of the team, it’s anyone’s guess.
All this talk of Hootie is silly. Can you imagine what Petrino would have done with last year’s team? Or with Mustain? Can you imagine what Hootie would be doing with this year’s team? He would not have the recruiting we are seeing now or have gotten Mallet or Joe Adams or Tyler Wilson. It is a silly argument to compare Hootie with his 5-6 record at Idaho to Petrinos 41-9 at Louisville.
The only way to call Hootie a scapegoat is to blame that whole mess on Frank and Jim Lindsey. Unless that is your take, Hootie was perpetrator not a victim.
Harry should know better.
Let sleeping dogs die fellas. Who cares anymore about what isn’t here anymore? Apparently, a lot of people with nothing better to do than to cause an uproar on blogs and news sites. I come to this site for breaking news and some comic relief sometimes about my favorite team. More and more people keep talking about something that was way over discussed the past two seasons. We have an excellent coaching staff now and some young players. Be patient and stop complaining about things the other adminstration was run off for. Cheer and support your team, or go to another site!
I like it Ward. Well put.
I think that assessment of coaches is like investing in bonds. Your best off putting it away for a couple of years and forgetting about it. Lets see where things are in 4 years. I think we’ll be happy with the outcome.
I listened to the game so its a little harder to get a feel for what is really going on. I certainly thought our line on both sides would be strengths and that just wasn’t the case. That’ what scares me. With good lines I think we can win some games.
It was an amazing feeling to know that we could throw the ball anytime we wanted and to find mysellf with complete faith in Casey Dick as the 4th quarter progressed. And how about Greg Childs. I don’t even hear his name during preseason and he was the man the other night. I think I have a man crush on Lucas Miller. Some of the catches he makes reminds me of Shebest (the player).
I hope to god we come ready to play against Monroe.
I don’t want to hear anything about Nutt until we play Ole Miss, who freaking cares. Arkansas’s football program is in a better place, as Nut said himself for the good of the state and program let’s separate and move on.
In an ironic kind of twist, I was checking out the Auburn Tigers site on Scout.com, and even though they were supposed to open things up a little on offense this year, it seem’s they wore down La. Monroe with thier running game. It seem’s that Auburn’s passing game was just bit ineffective for the most part too. Also, the WarHawk offense moved the ball pretty well at times, but turned the ball over too many times. This might be a good game for the Hogs to get thier running game going in the right direction, with Smith coming back, and Curtis, hopefully, coming in at 100%, with a little exsperience now. Like Petrino said, D-Line has to play better.
Interesting stat….Casey Dick’s 318 passing yards is almost 20% of his total passing yards last year.
I think Auburn didn’t show anything because they didn’t have to. I’m hoping our running game shows up as we go along like Auburn’s passing game will.
Also, something that has been bothering me for some time: Can we now go back to a traditional logo instead of the crappy one that shows up beside our score on CBS and on ESPN type sites? There is only one FBS team with a swine as the mascot. Everyone who sees the Hog, should know it’s Arkansas. Why do we need text in it (see UT)
Hogblogger speaking the truth. “People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present. I’ve got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There’s no future in it.” Sparky Anderson
Let’s let the coach and his staff coach for awhile. Suspect good things will happen.
Good to be back writing. I really enjoy all the comments. You guys have great analysis. And I agree, get rid of that dog bone logo. I have noted it is quickly getting phased out on the official material.
The Petrino era is a whole different deal than what we’ve all grown up with. Almost as radical a change as going from Eddie to Nolan. This is going to take a while for everyone to get used to. Also, it will take two or three classes before we really see what the potential is. I had to go to a lot of Nolan’s practices before I finally ‘got’ what was going on. It wasn’t a throwing out of the old, it was adding in a bunch of new on top of the old. Petrino’s stuff is the same way. His offense puts a lot more options on the table. But what I love most is that he expects – no, requires – that the quarterback be the leader.
So many freshman playing is not so great for today, but great for the future. I love the confidence this staff has in the players and trusting them to make plays following mistakes.
Tough schedule, tough year ahead. Let’s enjoy this and watch the program struggle a bit and grow a lot. There are great days to come in the next few years.