Sure would like
Nutt to announce his resignation today effective at the end of the season. That would MAKE MY DAY.
Entries Tagged as 'My Razorback Blog'
Time to clean house
It’s time to clear house and start with a new direction. Nutt has proven that he cannot get it done. 10 Years running Nutt has lost his first 2 SEC games in back-to-back fashion. He’s shown that he has NO FREAKING CLUE how to coach a team when it’s down.
I’m sick of our football program. If not for DMAC, we don’t win 5 games this year.
Thats the other thing, we’re wasting the best RB in the nation in pathetic losing efforts.
Regarding the Alabama Loss
The big problem I saw with that last series is that we ran Felix up the gut like he was McFadden. Felix is not a between the tackle runner….he needs sweeps, pitches, and off tackle type of plays so he can get into the open field.
What I feared in the final posession, came true. We had the lead and got conservative. The energy on that last drive was COMPLETELY different than that of the previous few drives when we were behind. There is NO WAY that their deffense should have stopped us, they were worn out, beat up, and on their heels, yet we ran two plays right up the gut and lost yards.
It’s so frustrating to see plays like that happen knowing that there’s more that can happen. It’s the same feeling I’ve had for many many years. 1998 vs TN, 1998 vs MSU, 1999 vs LSU, all of 2000/2001, 2003 vs Auburn, Florida; 2006 vs LSU, Florida, and Wisconsin; 2007 vs. Bama. The common factor of all those games is that we were in a position to WIN, yet couldn’t pull it off due to clock management, play calling, or execution.
I’m sick and tired to losing the games we should win.
Nutt cost us the game
No bones about it. Passing on 3rd down with 2:30 left in the game and causing the clock to stop is a MENTAL LAPSE that NO major BCS conference coach should make. Alabama takes the ball 75 yards and scores with 8 seconds to go. There was hardly any doubt in my mind that this is what would happen.
Fire him.
Bacon Bits - Alabama vs Arkansas Preview
Posted on Hogville.net by user ‘whatsshakinbacon’
Arkansas versus Alabama Preview
Volume LXXIV
September 14, 2007The date with destiny is creeping slowly towards us. We’ve hashed and re-hashed this game in our minds. Fans are delving into the details unlike any other game in some time. Will it rain? What length cleats should Darren McFadden wear? Who will win the toss? And what color helmets will we don?
The last two weeks have taught us one thing. We don’t know much yet about this year’s iteration of the Razorbacks, nor do we have a grasp of how good this Crimson Tide team is.
While we’ve taken two weeks to enjoy our victory against a Troy team we should have beaten, Alabama has rolled over Western Carolina 52-6, then handled Vanderbilt 24-10, a score not a true indicator of Alabama’s control from the get-go.
Offensively this Crimson Tide team mimics ours in many ways. It features a quarterback who can be streaky and an offense that lends itself to a run-first attack. In the end the numbers balance pretty well, but given the option Alabama would rather pound the opposition into submission, sparingly using the pass in an attempt to break their foe’s will.
John Paul Wilson to date is 31-53 for 339 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. He epitomizes the safe pass quarterback, rarely throwing into double coverage and as a result makes few mistakes. He won’t get them beat, but he has also yet to be forced into having to use the passing game to win.
What has helped Wilson most of all is the emergence of running game. Terry Grant has taken the reins at RB, and the smallish back has snuck through inferior defenses for 134 and 173 yards respectively. At 5-10 and 188 pounds he’s not your prototypical SEC back. And as a freshman he will learn that hard hitting conference opponents have a knack for forcing dropped balls. There’s a great deal of hype reverberating through the Alabama hills about Grant, but talk of his being the next Darren McFadden is extremely premature. Grant will face his first quality defensive line Saturday, and if this Razorback defense has a strong suit under Reggie Herring it is stopping the run. Expect Grant’s numbers to fall off dramatically, and don’t be surprised to see him put the ball on the ground a time or two as our Auburn alum Tracy Rocker has the line at a fever pitch against a team he would love to beat.
When Wilson is forced to pass he has often utilized Tight End Nick Walker in Saban’s revamped offense. He was busy against Western Carolina, but shelved for the most part against Vandy. After looking at Arkansas’ weak spots against Troy he will likely be brought back into action for slant routes across the middle on 3rd downs. DJ Hall is their main receiver, with 7 catches on the young season. But the bread and butter of Alabama’s passing game is running back routes. Against Vanderbilt backs caught 6 of the 15 passes. For the most part Arkansas’ secondary will not be tested with the long ball, and that’s a good thing. But they must keep the play in front of them and hopefully will snag an interception or two in the flat.
On defense it appears that Alabama has returned to its bailiwick, an overpowering defense that keeps them in the game no matter the opponent. While they’ve not faced a strong running attack, there is evidence that they have the talent to compete this year in the SEC based solely on this side of the football.
Not surprisingly, Nick Saban has been working with the defense this week on how to stop Darren McFadden. In weeks leading up to a game I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more focus on one player by our opponent. Not even Matt Jones garnered this much attention. Alabama will likely game-plan to have one or two guys shadowing McFadden, but as often happens when teams do this, openings will be created for Felix Jones. Senior DB Simeon Castille is very probably the most talented at his position in the country, and linebacker Darren Mustin has become a force. I would expect the two of them to be chasing DMac all game long. Hopefully they see a shrinking number 5 as long runs are broken, but more than likely we’ll see many more 3 and 4 yard runs than the 8 yarders we’re used to.
This game could very well rest in the hands of Peyton Hillis. His blocking will be key. It is critical that he and Felix take some pressure off of McFadden. If they miss blocks or run with marginal effort our offense could turn ugly.
As much as I’d like to believe Casey Dick will one day pass like he did as a freshman, the hope fades with each game played. Our sophomoric passing game needs to step up with a new twist this week, or we’ll be facing a Crimson Tide team wholly in the box and fueled on the passion of a home crowd hoping for a return to glory. If we could complete 5 passes to a receiver it could be enough to open this game up to the run. Alabama has a solid secondary, it will be important to pull them off of the line as much as possible. They did not tackle well in Fayetteville last year, let’s hope this hasn’t changed.
I don’t expect the wildcat package to offer much help passing against this team, either. Practice reports from Alabama indicate they have spent a great deal of time working on defending this. And if our option handoffs out of the wildcat aren’t crisper than they were against Troy we will give a gift or two in a field position game.
It could very well be that this game hinges on kicking. Despite our sweet memories of an Alabama team that failed miserably at this in Fayetteville, they are not bad. Leigh Tiffin is kicking well this year, and whatever ailed him last September seems to have vanished. With 8 extra points and 4 field goals on the year he seems to have conquered his demons. His counterpart for the Razorbacks is an untested but talented Alex Tejada. Alex may be kicking 62 yarders in practice, but how he performs in a hostile stadium has yet to be determined. In a game where field position and 3 pointers could mean the victory, I like Alabama’s chances but certainly can’t say either team looks better just yet. Were I Houston Nutt, I would definitely be detouring through New Orleans in hopes of finding a voodoo doctor willing to cast a spell on Tiffin similar to last year’s.
All in all, when you compare the two teams they seem similarly matched. I have to give the edge to Arkansas, though, as every team that has lined up to stop our run has simply been unable to completely shut it down, despite our passing inefficiencies. And in this game, 10 points may just be enough.
Bacon out…
Bacon Bits - He Did it “His Way”
Bacon Bits – He Did It “His Way”
Volume LXX
August 23, 2007
I may be old fashioned, but I love to pop in a Frank Sinatra CD and listen to ole blue eyes belt out tunes that today’s generation would call boring and uninspiring. One of my favorites is the great standard “My Way”. In the end, Frank makes no apologies and has few regrets because he charted the course for his own life.
As we fast-forward to 2007, might we find Houston Nutt singing this tune? When this football season draws to a close, Nutt will either be standing atop a mountain or amidst the rubbish that is the result of him doing things “his way”.
Last year was obviously a painful year for Nutt. He didn’t want Malzahn on staff, and didn’t particularly want to scrap the running scheme he had grown so fond of and go to a spread offensive attack. Both fans and enemies of his coaching can agree that he was not enamored with the idea of Mitch Mustain going full bore in a no-huddle passing attack while Darren McFadden blocked for the freshman quarterback. Part of me agrees that this was a bad mix, but only because we tried to blend it with what was already in place.
The pressure to bring in Mustain, Malzahn, Williams et al must have been incredible. A state held its collective breath as the recruiting battle for the most heralded Arkansas player in a lifetime waged in Springdale. Thrown into this mix was offensive savant Gus Malzahn and a push from fans, advisors and Trustees (at least one) to do whatever it took to get him on staff.
All the while Nutt had to know the spread was antithetical to the style game he preferred, so much so that he had to slap himself to see if wasn’t in a nightmare every time he made a pitch to Mustain to join him at Arkansas. Despite hopes and dreams of Arkansas fans, Nutt had to secretly be glad to see the mass exodus in January and the return to football as he knows it.
So the awful taste of this forced offensive scheme has been spat from his mouth, and this season’s team has been purged of those players and coach who represented the change Nutt so passionately disliked. In their places Nutt has returned to his tried and true running game, including Heisman runner-up Darren McFadden and his sidekick Felix Jones, his prototypical hander-offer first, pass second quarterback in Casey (or Nathan) Dick, and what’s old is new again offensive coordinator David Lee.
But a word to the wise, Houston, be careful what you wish for. As the 2007 season dawns the realization is that you’ve now got exactly what you wanted. It may be incredibly successful, or it might fall on its face, but at least it is now set up the way you want it.
David Lee brings (again) to Arkansas his seasoned running attack. Maybe it has been refined through a stint in the NFL. I suspect we’ll see some new option wrinkles that might really work well with the cast we’ve got in the backfield. Nutt has always exclaimed that a quarterback doesn’t have to be perfect to win. It has always been more important for Nutt to have a respected leader calling the shots on the field. It’s obvious that he felt like Casey Dick was his man at the end of last year, and the circus that was Mitch Mustain is now cleared from the mechanism and we are set to go with the quarterback he started when it counted in the ’06 stretch drive.
I have gone on record predicting a 10-2 season for this Razorback team. It’s certainly that talented. After all, if you ask coach Nutt how this team stacks up to last year’s he’d tell you that offensively we’ve improved. And most of all he now is able to play his brand of football without any interference.
So Coach Nutt is now going to do it “his way”. Don’t hear me wrong. I hope we win every game. I want to see Darren McFadden lift the Sears Trophy and the Heisman Trophy in the same year. These are dreams harbored deep in the hearts of any true Razorback fan, and who coaches the team is immaterial to this desire.
In November we will be able to look back across 12 football games, and cast judgment on whether or not the season has been a good one.
Razorback Nation will lay this success or failure on the shoulders of one person - Coach Houston Dale Nutt. He has supported some of the boldest changes I’ve ever seen in college football. An offensive coordinator from a 10-2 team has taken a less than lateral move to Tulsa after he found out he would be demoted if he stayed. And a high school Parade All-American crossed the line in the sand to go to USC, along with his highly recruited teammate.
I am not lamenting that they are gone. I wish them well. But this is wholly Houston Nutt’s team now.
And Houston gets all the credit for what is about to happen. He asked for it.
Hey Houston, are you ready to take the credit?
Bacon out…
Hogs preview on Fox Sports Net today: 12:30 cst
Hogs preview on Fox Sports Net today, 8/16/07 at 12:30 cst
Astounding stat of the day…
Being an avid college football fan, I’m constantly scouring the wire for info about other teams in the greater college football world. Today I came across this:
“Entering 2007 the Trojans listed 10 scholarship tailbacks on their roster, 9 of which were ranked by Rivals.com as 4-stars or better.” FULL ARTICLE
It seems that USC is losing their 2nd leading rusher, Moody, to a transfer (injury problems, it seems). Beyond that news though, the fact that USC has 9 scholarship RB’s on their team is amazing….to top that off, they are all rated as a 4 or 5-star recruit (from High School). Pete Carrol is building a dynasty over there on the West coast…
Scout.com’s Team RB Rankings
Not surprisingly, the Hogs are #1… The question reamins: Can the Hogs QB play be good enough for us to be a threat down the field. Recent seasons suggest a resounding ‘NO’, and I don’t think there’s any reason to believe otherwise. We’ll run as we always do, but in the end if we have to pass to win, we’ll lose.
http://cfn.scout.com/2/665788.html
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