The End Of The Start
December 2, 2008 at 12:02pm by HogBlogger
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football
It took more than LSU’s self-destruction for the Razorbacks to win last Friday. The Hogs also had to hold together. This team has to win the award for the most resilience shown by a Razorback team ever.
Casey Dick ended his career with a heroic touchdown pass to London Crawford…and as the third all-time leading Razorback in completions, attempts, yards, and touchdown passes.
On the ground, I loved the way that Dennis Johnson brought the ‘will to win‘ into the game. His 127 yards rushing was not only a testament to him, but to the entire offensive front.
And whenever questioned about different players stepping up like Carlton Salters, I loved that Bobby Petrino said, “He’s a guy that we have a lot of confidence in.” That’s exactly what all these players (especially the younger ones) needed from their coach.
And in the finest (or perhaps only) second half performance all season by the Razorback defense, LSU managed only 19 yards on their last six possessions of the game.
The Hogs had nine players with four or more tackles. Malcolm Sheppard, Jerico Nelson and seniors Cord Gray and Walner Leandre came up big on the refurbished (yet again) defensive line. Maybe Robinson and Mitchell should have been banished earlier.
But admit it…when the Hogs got the ball on their 31 yard line with 2:14 showing on the clock, you thought we had an outside chance to win, didn’t you? The progress made this year is illustrated by the fact that not only did we actually run a two-minute drill, but that we scored on it to win the game.
For the season, eight games were decided by less than 10 points — the Hogs lost four of those. The inability to play with any consistency, along with consistently losing the special teams battle, doomed the young (very young) Hogs to a losing record.
While this year will not go down as one for the ages, it will be remembered as the year that the battleship that has been Arkansas football began to turn in a different direction. The focus has been changed from feeling limited in what we can do…to becoming confident in what we want to do.
This year was about starting over. Next year the true journey will begin.
Very good synopsis in many ways Hogblogger, a fitting tribute, well earned by this team. They accomodated a huge influx of freshmen, a totally new and complex plan on offense and defense, a completely different coaching style, and competed well all year with less talent than has been on the Razorback sideline in many a year. They were said to face the largest challenge since the Jack Crowe era and yet they prevailed against the toughest schedule in America by falling just short of a winning season and a bowl game.
Razorback teams have always been overachievers. We have always beaten the Texases of the world with teamwork and a single focus. We haven’t seen that in a while but, this bunch began to show it. We know we are about to have a real Razorback offense for the first time in 40 years but, it can not be a new era in Razorback football until the swarming, intense Razorback defense is seen again.
(with apologies to Stoerner and Lucas, Joe Ferguson snuck an offense on the field for a couple of years there)
“… totally new and complex plan on offense and defense,…”
Just imagine what this team will be capable of when the ‘Full Monty’ on both sides of the ball is completely implemented and becomes second-nature.
Yeah! ;^)
HogBlogger, you said “For the season, eight games were decided by less than 10 points — the Hogs lost four of those.”
Stats shows the following:
Wins (5 games)
Western Illinois (by 4 points)
Louisiana-Monroe (by 1 point)
Auburn (by 3 points)
Tulsa (by 7 points)
LSU (by 1 point)
Loses (3 games)
Kentucky (by 1 point)
Ole Miss (by 2 points)
Mississippi State (by 3 points)
Sorry OwassoHog, I mis-counted. And it was seven games by less than five points. Pretty amazing.
In those 3 loses, we fell apart with Kentucky… might have been robbed with Ole Miss (maybe not since we couldn’t hit the field goal with Mississippi State), and almost went to OT with Miss. State!
Yep, amazing…. cause we’d probably lost some of the wins under the former administration due to the inability to come back late in the game.
I know this site isn’t exactly Nutt country, but I have to say that with being a Houston Nutt fan and growing up in the Memphis area (lots of Ole Miss fans), this has been a difficult season to watch. In regard to all of the close games, I’d say 5-7 is probably a fair outcome for this year’s team.
However, I’d also have to admit that the team did show a lot of improvement over the season, the offense is much more fun to watch, and Petrino’s style of football will help greatly with recruiting and maybe even get us more TV time.
Let’s hope the ship’s going in the right direction.
I read “the Jack Crowe era” above. I am forever grateful to Nutt for revitalizing a fanbase that had become apathetic about the football program. I liked Nutt and he was exactly what we needed at the time. However, his ego and pride began to wear on me over the course of his tenure (I have always thought he would have been a much better coach with an offensive coordinator). He would mentioned what Jimmy Johnson told him about staying in one place too long until in some ways it became a self-fulfilling prophesy. (His agent must be pretty good, because he just got another raise by flirting with Auburn)
I’ve heard some Razorback fans complaining about BP’s lack of flavor as a personality and that SEC coaches should be characters. BP’s personality is strictly business and I think some fans feel alienated by this. I for one, am glad to have a team that is strictly business and doesn’t ride the emotional rollercoaster of a very emotional coach. As we ready ourselves for a true “play-in” game in the SEC championship, . . .pay attention, Urban Meyer and Nick Saban in my opinion are about as dry as personalities come.
We are off to an encouraging start with BP and I hope the drifter doesn’t decide to go after the original SEC position he coveted.