Winning Change?
April 27, 2009 at 11:10am by HogBlogger
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks
When the winds of change start blowing it is sometimes hard to discern whether on not a storm is blowing in. So it has been with Jeff Long and all the changes that have taken place with the University of Arkansas athletic program.
Nate Allen’s Hog Calls article on Sunday took more than a few shots a Athletic Director Jeff Long’s stewardship of the Razorback athletic programs. As the always cynical observer of Arkansas athletics, my view tends to be that stories like these are planted and carefully placed.
Are Nate’s criticisms fair?
It is interesting that he leads off discussing the demise of the Arkansas Gazette. Yes, it is true that the Gannett folks from ‘up North’ bought the paper and proceeded in a vain attempt to make it into the Arkansas version of USA Today. Preceding that, however, was the failure of the Gazette to respond to the competition of the upstart Arkansas Democrat. The Gazette was beaten on the playing field – perhaps lost by technical knock-out for failing to come out of its corner to start a round would be a better description – long before the boys from up North came along.
Razorback fans expect their sports programs to be competitive at the highest level nationally. The simple truth is that neither basketball nor football has been consistently competitive at the national level for quite some time. That alone was enough to drive the need for change in the athletic department.
I don’t like it anymore than most people, but the one of the primary keys to being competitive at the national level is money. For Jeff Long to be able to accomplish what the fans want, he has to focus primarily on bringing more money into the athletic department. He is doing exactly what I expected.
Yes, the Texas A & M tickets are too expensive for most of us. Yes, those courtside seats are more suited to the Hollywood ‘see and be seen’ crowd than to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Some of the people sitting in those seats are poor when it comes to past due invoices, but rich when it comes to the Razorbacks.
Yes, where you sat in the stadium has always been based on donations. However, lifetime donations took precedence over current donations. I know – I tried to buy my way into good seats in Bud Walton long ago and had that clearly explained to me by the foundation. Keeping your same seating location has required a specified minimum donation amount for as long I can remember. I haven’t heard that either of these policies have changed. Will the amounts required increase? Yes. Just as they have in the past.
It would be great if somehow Jeff Long could balance the loyalty of the University to the fans with the loyalty of the fans at all level to the University. Unfortunately, he really doesn’t’ have time to make a gradual change in approach. The days for that expired in the latter years of Coach Broyles leadership. Playing ‘catch up’ isn’t easy on anyone.
Of course, loyal fans want a winner. A loyal university should strive to give the fans a winner. Maybe that is the change in approach that is upsetting some people. Rather than wishing we could have a nationally competitive program we are actually believing and acting as if we can have one instead of not being able to hire a top tier coach and settling for eighth.
Strong winds of change only blow after there has been a lull. Had the Gazette responded to the competition of the Democrat rather than being content in its past accomplishments it could have trounced the upstart. Had the Arkansas program had an orderly change in leadership long ago the traditions and relationships that Nate talks about would have had a much better chance of being preserved.
Leadership that stays too long tends to create a void beneath it. When the contenders to the top spot realize that the spot may never be vacated, they leave. I’ve seen that clearly in business and clearly in the Arkansas athletic department. Poor succession planning – overstaying your time – is actually the cause of the eventual loss of traditions, culture and ‘relationships.’ The changes brought in by the ‘new guy’ happen because there had to be a ‘new guy’ radical change to attempt to catch things up. If the ‘new guy’ reaches too far and fails, the organization either dies or tries desperately to recapture its past by returning leadership steeped in the old traditions and culture. I’ve seen that happen too.
Most of the actions Nate refers to are necessary because of the approach of the previous leadership, not the new.
While there is no doubt a wealthy group (the “old” financial base?) offended by Jeff Long’s unwillingness to take direct orders from them, many of those were also offended when Coach Broyles wouldn’t take orders from them. They, like all the fans, want a nationally competitive program. Even more than that, the offended wealthy group wants to be in control. When it comes down to it, their desire for control will trump their desire for winning. Most fans would prefer winning and could care less whether or not the wealthy group felt in control.
Jeff Long is trying to give us what we thought we wanted – a professionally run athletic department designed to compete at the national level. I’m for letting him do his job. Seems to me after a long period of stagnation we are finally moving. As Lou Holtz once said about moving the football, “I just hope it’s forward.”
This is a very well done and insightful review of the status of Mr. Long’s efforts. I agree that it will, as most everything does, take some time. Great post!
I guess one could say the Texas A&M game (The Jerry Jones Bowl) is a small price to pay for taking the program to the next level, even if the idea of the “average” fan not being able to attend one game on the schedual for financial reasons is a little unsettling.
In the long run, Hopefully, this will work out best for all that’s invovled.
By the way, great post HogBlogger.
I usually reserve comment on the state of the Hogs, as I prefer to read, analyze and listen. In this case however, it’s my pleasure to force comment on HogBlogger’s post. A deft summary HogBlogger, offering insightful detail on where we are and where we’re trying to go as Hog Nation.
Nate had himself a pretty good whine, OK. That made it sound even more like he was stoking the fire for someone else; way too over the top.
By contrast Hogblogger, yours was cooly rational, direct and to the point. This is big business, not scratch my back I’ll scratch yours. It was running the program to benefit the insiders rather than to build a consistent winner that has let it flounder to the point of failure.
Who knows how well Long will do. It depends on hiring coaches and getting them the support they need. He caught a huge break on Petrino but, he delivered. Pelphry, or his replacement, may be the answer to how long will he last.
Relationships my rear, this is about ticket sales and winning. Ask not what the Razorbacks can do for you, but what you can do for the Razorbacks.
The main issue that I took with Nate’s petty jabs and ‘sour grapes’ ramblings was the unmitigated gall that he definitively would know what deceased Razorback legends Wilson Matthews and Orville Henry might think about the recent goings on. He says:
“Also doubt Wilson Matthews would have been thrilled with those Walton Arena on-court seats.”
“The late Orville Henry, the esteemed Arkansas Gazette sports editor, would be appalled.”
Sounds like Nate is just going to take his ball and go home.
Great article by Nate. He has always been my favorite Arkansas Razorback sports writer. I miss his articles in the ArDemGaz. He is right about relationships being important. That is true in every detail of life and the football business is no different. If Long trashes those contacts, ultimately it will be a step backward and hurt the long-time prospects of the sports programs as he takes his next position elsewhere. They should have hired the AD at Clemson who understand all of this.
We appear to have hired another great coach to replace another great coach (Nutt), who brought winning ways back to the Arkansas football teams as they found their way into a new conference after two bad hires (Crowe & Ford). Two western championships, many nice bowl games, exciting football, high scoring, and wins over great teams were very enjoyable to watch.
The Texas A&M/Arkansas game is an important addition, but there is no need to enrich the Univ. of Ark. coffers with a hugh bowl-like pay off. That is dumb. Only a novice such as Long would not understand that. I had looked forward to this game and intended to go but with the price tag they put on it they can keep it. Yes, we can easily afford it but we do not choose to be fleeced by the Univ. of Arkansas. That would never have happened under Frank Broyles. If fans had kept their immature antics under wraps, we would still have a great coach without having to fleece the fans to get another one at a higher price tag. We have already commenced to pay for that in the defeat (for the first time in years) by Ole Miss, who has already risen from the ashes since Nutt’s hiring. I know many were hoping for a disastrous loss by Nutt in his return to Arkansas but as you are well aware it did not happen. We may need to get use to it, except Oct 24, 2009, will likely be a disastrous defeat over in Oxford. Without an NCAA-type investigation hanging over recruiting at Ole Miss versus how he had it at Arkansas during 4-long years, Nutt had his highest rated class EVER. He was doing a great job coaching with lower rated classes, albeit his knack for projecting great players that were not highly rated seemed to always keep his teams competitive. We can only look Longingly at what he is doing and will unfortunately likely continue to do as our competitor.
Newspaper history: As for the demise of the Arkansas Gazelle, it started with the old heads that ran the Gazette that were there and are now with the struggling, dumb Stevens freeby. Unwisely, they unfairly went after Dilliards in a disparaging article. So, I am told, Dillards woke up, read the article, and promptly cancelled their ads in the Gazette and moved all business to the Democrat. Understand that newspapers make 85 percent of their revenue stream from ads…not subscriptions. (Of course subscriptions are important because if no one subscribes why would you put an ad in the paper.) The game was now over for the Gazette and they hastily sold to the ones who did not know their opponent Hussman. He outsmarted the corporate folks and then they folded.
One good whine deserves another. Wow, DWC, that is truly remarkable.
Thanks for bringing up old Nutty and the delusion that he was a good coach and recruiter. The fact that he is successful with someone else’s recruits, just like his first few years in Arkansas is only reinforced by what he left behind. I doubt that he could have won a game last year with what he left behind, not to mention what kind of recruiting class would have followed under Nutt compared to the remarkable turn around almost instantly by Petrino.
I hope Nutty learned something from all of his mistakes in Arkansas, that he will hire good assistants and let them coach and recruit. I hope two years of success won’t swell his ego back to the point of phoning it in. I really do.
I hope you will eventually get over your anger and ego and, that you and Nate and all of the people who think that the program is about them will get a clue and move on. Luckily Nutty, Frank, and White made a big enough mess that we got to make a clean break and not go through all of that ‘inside the family’ nonsense that left Alabama in the wilderness for 25 years. That was a huge break after the mess Frank made for the last 20 years ‘taking care of his friends’. That’s all over. Get a clue or get some Ole Miss tickets. You could have hired Phillips 20 years ago. That ship had sailed.
Using the Gazette as an analogy for Razorback Football is just as idiotic. It just shows how desparate Nate was to make a point that didn’t exist. Razorback athletics is on the rise thanks to the SEC (Frank’s only real success as an AD.) Jerry’s big billion dollar deal may come up a stinker. Those tickets are probably over priced. We will see. The show case could be huge for us if A&M can give us a good game. That will all work itself out. Stay home. I bet a lot of people do.
The one thing we do agree on is that defense wins championships. We haven’t had one since the 70s except for the few players that Ford recruited. Glad you are back.
Defense:
I believe Houston Dale was a different coach last year at Ole Miss without the Monday after game review meetings with Coach Broyles. You should also take note that he did not take Reggie Herring with him.
Had there been a true succession strategy, Terry Don could have well been the next Athletic Director. At this point in his life, coming back to Arkansas doesn’t make a lot of sense for him. I agree with BlindHog – that ship sailed a long time ago.
Remember that the probation / recruiting issues had at their root a booster ‘relationship’ that primarily belonged to Coach Broyles. Remember also that the probation / recruiting issues that Nolan suffered had at their root academic issues that were created by people under Coach Broyles’ supervision, not Nolan’s.
The A & M pricing is as much due to Jerry Jones and his ‘influence’ and ‘relationship’ with the University as anything Jeff Long decided to do.
Many events came together to, in effect, force radical change. The common denominator in all these events was Coach Broyles. The approach Texas took with Darrell Royal, in hindsight, looks very wise.
It is ironic that many of the very people now wanting to create controversy over ‘how things should be’ were very much responsible for making things the way they are now by holding onto the past for too long. It is time to stop selling 1964 Championship videos.
Hey, where to I get one of those videos?
Anger? Ridiculous statement since I do not live or die with sports. Waste of good energy to even consider it worthy. (Just like is silly for some sports fans to say, I hate Texas, I hate Alabama, etc. Why? Good grief it is just a game that most will not even remember the score 1 year later) However, we do take exception to people maligning other people when they do not even know them but they had rather traffic in Ann Landers-type gossip. Gossip tries to destroy people. I breeze in and breeze out of sports since there are so many other things more worthwhile in life than sports. If you put it on the ballot we would likely vote to ban big-time sports since it really has nothing to do with education as it is presently configured and is getting out of control. Gone are the coaches, except for Houston and PaPa Joe, who cares about the athlete. Hopefully, our current HC cares and I think that he may since he has that good old Montana ethic. I have high regard for Montanans because when companies are looking to hire they hire sight unseen if they graduate from a college in Montana. We shall see as the future unfolds. Long talks a good game. We shall see.
As far as Nolan, his behavior was the type of behavior that is wrong in big time sports. He had big time Bobby Knight anger issues. I supported Nolan until he started his crassness. UofA should have pulled the plug on him years before they did. EEO judges have never worked a regular job and therefore they believe that the longer the administration waits to correct bad behavior the more they are guilty. They fail to see that most supervisors will go the extra mile before firing a bad employee. UofA is fortunate that they received a fair hearing after waiting so long to say “enough already”.
Hey want to borrow some exciting football footage? Try Matt Jones’ games like those overtime games. Felix and McFadden running wild. Now, that was exciting football. I have them and if I get bored and have time, will run them.
Keep your powder dry and use it wisely! Life can be a wonderful thing! Don’t waste it! Smooth Sailing!
DWC,
For someone who “breezes in and breezes out of sports”, you sure seem to be the “expert of sorts”, especially when it comes to Razorback football and Houston Nutt, in general.
Houston and Pa Pa Joe in the same sentense? Interesting, to say the least.
High regard for someone, just because of the state they graduated college from?
That doesn’t sound at all like a company I would enjoy working for. The police do enough profiling as it is.
Long talks a good game? He can’t even compare to his predesessor.
You may have been right though about the Uofa pulling the plug on Nolan. I assume you realize this is a direct insult of mismanagement on Frank Broyles’s watch, correct? the same mismanagement in regard to not firing the “yes man” coaching his football team. (who by the way, never won his school a NC like Nolan did)
Why do you think Bobby Knight lasted so long at Indiana? It certainly wasn’t becuase he was kissing the AD’s backside. (just like Nolan didn’t)
I’m not saying I agreed with a lot of what Nolan did. As a matter of fact, just the opposite. But what I am saying, is that I have a hell of a lot more respect for Nolan Richardson standing up for himself and what he believed was right, than for someone like Houston Nutt.
If Frank Broyels would’ve walked around a corner too fast, he would’ve ripped Houston’s ears off.
Somehow, I just have a hard time believing Pa Pa Joe fits into that catagory.
DWC,
My comments shouldn’t sound so shrill. Your tone is more like what I would prefer in our little disagreements.
Looking back, what amazes me most is that we just accepted Frank’s quaint little personal short comings. He runs off Lou Holtz for Kenny Hatfield and that becomes the 30 year highlight of Razorback football. We have hoped against hope for quite awhile now. Poor ole Dale comes in and wins wonderful exciting meaningless games and not a single important game in 10 years. And we are actually divided on whether, after destroying the future of Razorback football, not just thumbing his nose at the fans but at Frank and the Board, whether he is the future of Razorback football and we should keep him. After he beat LSU I was ready for him to get one more year. Thank God, wiser people than me were in charge.
Frank certainly built Razorback basketball with Nolan and Eddie, two Hall of Fame coaches. It is pretty much in shambles. But, credit where credit is due.
Long deserves a real chance. You give a coach 5 years no matter what. What has Long had? Two?
There is literally nowhere to go but up for Razorback Athletics. Frank, like Danny Ford, left the program where he found it, just 50 years later instead of 5.
Speaking of Danny Ford, like Orjeron, the man simply never got enough credit for creating the talent that Nutt won with.
If Houston Nutt is so great, then he should be able to recruit consistantly himself just as well.
With the exception of the 2006 season, he is still yet to build his own quality team, and even then, he still somehow managed to screw that one up too.
Good posts. Yes, Frank does get BIG dings in his AD job as one who did not leave Hotz and Hatfield alone. As Fred Gold Smith said, Broyles messed up a great recruiting class and (my words now) it went somewhat downhill from there.
As far as Nolan, yes, Broyles should have acted sooner but he did like 90 percent of managers/supervisors do by trying too long to turn a bad employee around. It hurts lots of people by their unwillingness, such as Broyles, to act on a timely basis. They seem to believe that a bad character will turn around by themselves but that never happens. I will accept Joe Johnson’s word on what a crass coach Nolan was, as well as Scotty Thurman. If you did not see the High Profile article in the DemGaz today, it is interesting. Scotty does not have high regard for Nolan and if you read it and you will see why. That backs up what Joe Johnson said about Nolan’s lack of care for his players graduating. The man had a BIG time anger issue that he seems to have never resolved.
For Houston, be proud for him. Be proud for Petrino. Nutt is building something special. We should count ourselves lucky that he did not go to LSU for if he had with their recruiting base, they would have stayed on top for years. Petrino may just build something special here also based on the class that Nutt had assembled and Petrino took over. As far as what Nutt left, if Nutt had been here they would have won more but unfortunately when you change systems it screws up your award-winning center and O-line. I do not blame Petrino because you have to go ahead and make the changes and suffer for the first year while installing the system. We are fortunate that he was wanting to leave Atlanta just as Holtz wanted out of the Jets organization. Yes, Broyles has made some mistakes but when you are a mover and shaker you will do thusly but just remember what the man did for Arkansas sports. He should be remembered for that not the few glitches he made such as making friends with a trucker in Dallas that messed things up for a few years.
Well, obviously, we’ll just agree to disagree on Nutt. For a guy that has coached in the SEC for ten years it is odd that the jury is still out and will remain so for at least another 3 or 4 years. Even is he wins a title with these kids it will be said that they were not his recruits.
The main reason I am glad the Frank is gone is that we can go back to a balanced offense. I just hope Bobby manages to recruit some defense along the way.
That was the one wierd things about Dale’s committment to the ‘3 yards and a cloud of dust’. He never recruited a defense. If you play ball control football you have to have a killer defense. Dale really survived on two players with speed. Matt Jones and DMac were his long ball hitters. It was a wierd formula; a hammer headed offensive line, a speedster, the seven yard out on third down, and a cimicky defense.
I mean really Matt was just running a single wing of sorts, just not a schematic one. Gus had to fix that. When DMac game in, since he wasn’t a QB they had to call it the wildcat and act like it was this new innovation when actually Nutt ran the single wing for 7 years.
Heck, Nutt never even had a QB after Stoerner. He had a wide out and a tailback. Now that is pretty wierd. It is hard to call that recruiting. I would love to know the basis for that. Is that just taking the best 25 players you can get at any position and then making a team? I don’t get it.
Personally, I prefer my football with all 22 players. I am soooooo glad the madness has ended. Now we can go back to football. You know, post war, American football.