Razorback Blogs

The Razorbacks are here… well ok… at least they’re coming.

The piggies’ season opener against the Troy State Trojans was greeted with one of the most beautiful days the state could have gave it. The beauty became spotty after the kickoff.

We know we have a running game. This season we will again ride our success largely on lucky numbers 5, 22, & 25. Anyone could have expected that. We just want a little more. Maybe number 11 could become lucky? Not quite yet. Our passing game has yet to blossom, even against a not-so-sucky Troy State defense.

Our Defense held up decently well. Herring was able to piece together a workable group of linemen and ‘backers. I think we will be able to move forward and have a manageable defense. Special teams performance was fair. Running back a kickoff is always gonna get ya going, but we are lacking on kick-coverage fundamentals. It seems our punt return boys don’t want to fair catch. This would be OK, except that Troy’s punt coverage team didn’t understand kick-Catch Interference rules, making for some dangerous plays. Tejada can kick a field goal. Being able to count on “3″ is something the Hogs haven’t been able to do in years. His four field goals at 35, 23, 28 and 30 yards were the most from a Hog kicker since 2003. He missed a PAT later, but I will grace him on that in the first game because I think he will make our lives much better in the long run.

To hold up in the SEC we have got to make some improvements. Watching the Troy State game I saw a few things we must change to move forward:

• Any ‘ole pass! Broken record much? We still have a dire need to be able to consistently throw a 10 yard pass. Even a football god such as McFadden will have a hindered performance if eleven defenders have their eyes locked onto him from the word hut. We must pass. We need the opponent’s d-backs to line up and think.. “maybe I shouldn’t cheat up?” We need the linebackers to say… “I should stay right here for now” This would open our running game up. It would open our season up.
• Pass Rush Pressure. The void of Jamal Anderson has made itself known quickly. It seemed like Troy QB Haugabook would spend a lifetime in the pocket selecting receivers. A little QB pressure early in the game would have went a long way to stifle those Trojans. If we give an SEC QB and SEC receivers this much time we will lose by 30.
• D-Backs. D-Backs. D-Backs. Still room for improvement.With Troy’s rushing game abysmal early they went to the air and went their often with Haugabook’s 43 pass attempts (15 comp/204 yds). If Troy can make some breakaway big pass plays, we may be hurting.. our D-Backs have to play closer and know they can stay in there without pulling PI. A few Defensive PI calls kept Troy in the game longer that necessary.

Overall I am happy that we won decisively. Happy we have 5, 22, & 25. Happy that football is back in the Natural State. The Razorbacks are coming… and they’ll get here.

Tags: The Hog Source by Andy
No Comments »

I love college football. The palpable excitement in the crisp late summer air is one of life’s fine pleasures. The season always starts with such incredible optimism.

Before game 1 we can all be champions.. before that first game we can all go undefeated… there is such great hope for your team and what the season can bring. Sometimes you leave that game with those hopes intact. Sometimes, like for those boys in blue from Michigan, the first game is a crushing blow to that blooming hope for something great.

It is the pain, the passion, the glory and agony that is college football… and I love it.

Tags: The Hog Source by Andy
No Comments »

Alex Tejada is here, and kicking with style and grace..but I was a little sad that we may never see one of the best kickers arkansas has had again..so we must pay homage Jacob Skinner here for one last time..one of my favorite razorbacks ever to grace the FB field. Thanks for the memories Jacob!

thanks TipsterHog for the photos

Tags: The Hog Source by Scott
No Comments »

First of all, let me say this. KState should have won against Auburn. Simply put. Those guys rocked auburn all night and it fell apart for them at the end. Its truly a shame.

Tennessee fell to Cal. Congrats Cal, you have defeated a worthy SEC team.

Everyone is talking about John David Booty winning the heisman. Honestly, you could probably put Miss State’s QB in there and he still puts up huge numbers, would that mean he is entitled to the Heisman? NO WAY. The Heisman is supposed to be an award for an outstanding PLAYER, not an outstanding TEAM which in turn makes that player good. Which is why so many players from USC have won it in recent years. USC is the New York Yankee’s of College Football. They can afford to pay their players alot of money to come there in order to stack the deck against other teams. (”I think [collegiate] athletes should get paid,” Bush told ESPN.com recently. “Maybe not as much as NFL players, but they have to get something more than they get now.” - Reggie Bush April 2006 via ESPN ) However this doesnt always work out in the long run, but it has won them several National Titles, and 3 Heisman Trophies in the last 5 years, and 1 BCS Championship(without the BCS they probably wouldnt have won, or competed for a “championship” if there had been some type of playoff system). So do I think John David Booty should win the heisman?? No.

Tags: The Hog Source by Scott
No Comments »

Arkansas 46 Troy 26

First of all, i want to apologize to all of the Troy Trojan fans, sorry that you THOUGHT you could contain us, better luck with Florida next week.

I know this is Troy, and there are no bragging rights to be had from a win against them, but Dennis Dodd thanks for your “Expert” opinion on who was going to win this game. You sir are bald.

I think overall the game was decent. Our Special Teams were great, and dependable. Offense was good in terms of Rushing, but passing still need work. Our Defense gave up 2 TD’s in the 2nd quarter, but came out in the 2nd half(after a reaming i am certain by Reggie Herring at halftime) and we really stopped their offense. I am very disappointed at how many points we allowed. This caliber of team should have been held to a FG at most. Hopefully we will improve on this for Sept 15th game against Alabama.
Darren Mcfadden was all over the place, rushing for a TD, throwing for a TD, returning kicks, but I was much more impressed with how well Felix Jones played. He truly is a STUD. I think we have 2 Heisman candidates on our team. Alex Tejada was great..he accounted for 12 points with 4/4 FG’s. Like I said above, Casey Dick either needs to get his act together, or start helping out Nathan Emert and Nathan Dick to take over the starting spot. He just isnt a strong enough QB to play in the SEC at this point, if we cant do any better than this against a weak sun belt team. Michael Smith and Reggie Smith also need to work on their special team positions. We fumbled TWO punt returns. These small mistakes will kill us against a stronger team. With Marcus Monk out, I dont think it really affected us, dont get me wrong, I am ready for him to be back from injury. Crosby Tuck made his first catch as a Razorback a TD that was thrown from Darren Mcfadden. DJ Williams had a strong outing as well. Our WR’s would be even more outstanding if we had someone that could pass to them a little more accurately. I was a little disappointed we didnt see more ROJO(Robert Johnson) action in this game, I really was hoping to see him catch a few.

Here are breakdowns of our performers.

QB
Casey Dick: 10/18 Passing for 91 yards. 0 ints 0 TD’s.
Nathan Emert: 1/1 Passing for 7 yards. 0 ints 0 TD’s.
Darren Mcfadden: 1/1 Passing for 42 yards. 0 ints 1 TD.

Rushing
Darren Mcfadden: 25 carries for 169 yards, 1 Rushing TD.
Felix Jones: 12 carries for 103 yards, 1 Rushing TD. 1 kick return for TD.
Peyton Hillis: 4 carries for 19 yards.
Michael Smith: 7 Carries for 57 yards.
Nathan Emert: 1 Carry for -11 yards.

Receivers
Crosby Tuck: 1 reception for 42 yards and a TD.
Peyton Hillis: 6 receptions for 39 yards.
DJ Williams: 1 reception for 17 yards.
Felix Jones: 1 reception for 14 yards.
Darren Mcfadden: 1 reception for 12 yards.
Reggie Fish: 1 reception for 9 yards.
Carlton Salters: 1 reception for 7 yards.

Special Teams
Alex Tejada: 4/4 FG’s. Missed 1 PAT.
Jeremy Davis: 4 punts for 49.5 avg yards.

Defense
Matt Hewitt: 1 int, several more batted down passes. Great Job!

More Pictures of the game from SI.com

Tags: The Hog Source by Scott
No Comments »

Here are some quotes from the Troy message board during the game. Pretty humorous stuff!!

“SEC refs making sure Arky gonna win” If you guys would quit committing penalties, they will quit calling them.

“AS I was afraid of, we are getting screwed by the refs.” Nope, you guys are screwed because your Troy Fans.

“We’re going to get hammered all game long by these homer officials.” Not even your ref’s could stop us.

“I have a good feeling about this 2nd half. We slow down the run on the Heisman Backs and we keep our offense on the field.” There is no slowing down the run on the “Heisman Backs”. Its hard to keep your offense on the field when they arent good enough to convert 3rd downs..

“I do not understand why we are not going for the throat. East - West is not going to get it done.” Haha..are you serious? This is you going for the throat..its just not going to happen.

The sign of a team seeking an excuse for their inevitable loss. Sad. Troy, please note this. The only reason you have 17 points going into the second half is because our Defense is playing poorly, not because your Offense is playing well.

Tags: The Hog Source by Scott
No Comments »

Yes, I am getting updates on here late, but oh well.

So far we have had a MAJOR upset in the Michigan Appalachian State Game, however I am not upset. I was stoked to see Michigan go down, one less team to stand in the way to the razorback march into the Top 10. App State spoke pretty loudly for DII schools, or should i say Football Championship Subdivision. I bet Michigan will think twice before scheduling these guys again! What’s even better is, its not like they can say what you would normally say when losing a game to a reputable team, “Well we played them close”.

VA Tech mounted a good comeback against ECU. I was starting to feel sorry for them losing on a day when they made such a big deal about how important this game was.

SEC play picked up again today with Florida spanking WKY. 49-3 ouch.

Alabama is underway with WCU, they are up 14-0 right now, which i could do without. I dont want them to gain any confidence just because they have Nick Saban now.

Wisconsin was played pretty tight by Washington State for the first half, but Wisconsin struck hard in the second half, and came away with the win 42-21.

Auburn and KState are underway, and KState is up by a fg right now.

Arkansas and Troy are underway, and with the exception of our D giving troy a little hope, when they shouldnt have any. Our O is looking really good, but this is Troy so we cant brag that much. Casey Dick is 4/6 passing with 0 int’s so far. Felix Jones has 2 kick returns for 110 yards, including a 90 yard kick return for TD, and 40 yards rushing. Darren Mcfadden has 1 TD, and 70 yards rushing. Alex Tejada is 2/2 FG’s, and 2/2 PAT. Peyton Hillis, Reggie Fish, and Michael Smith are all looking good. DJ Williams has had 1 reception for 16 yards.

We need to start holding their offense tighter, they have scored 2 td’s, and thats 2 to many. However Matt Hewit just intercepted and pass.

More to come..

Tags: The Hog Source by Scott
No Comments »

Wow, 45-0 is a very deceiving score. Miss State’s D didnt have much to work with. They could have held LSU to a couple of field goals if it hadnt been for their Offense throw 6 interceptions, and fumbling once. Michael Henig looked really bad, but when your main back runs it 13 times, and only gets 29 yards from that, you dont have much of a choice but to throw it, and throw it he did. Henig was 11/28 passing with 120 yards, and as I have already mentioned 6 int’s. LSU’s defense definitely showed up to this game, but their O left alot to be desired. Honestly, Matt Flynn looked decent, but I was really impressed by Ryan Perrilloux the backup QB. Maybe they should start him against VT, because I dont think Hokies are going to be so mistake ridden.

Tags: The Hog Source by Scott
No Comments »

This Bama fan loves talking about the Razorbacks almost as much as i do. I guess there isn’t much to talk about when your team is so mediocre. Poor guy. He also loves the hog source so much, he talked about us and panties in the same sentence, great stuff. I guess when he thinks about Arkansas he just thinks about all the pain we have caused them in recent years; 2003(at home), 2004, 2006, and the beating they are going to take this year is going to really bring tears to his eyes, he will probably be forced to blog about how bad we are for a month straight. a shame.

Why dont you do a write up on how bad Bama was last year, and how they shouldnt be getting any media coverage this year because of just one guy. Seriously..you guys gave Mississippi State one of their 3 wins last year. You also lost to Auburn(who we beat 27-10), and Tennessee(who we beat 31-14), not to mention LSU and Florida manhandled you. So before you talk about ‘inner uncertainty’, reflect on your own team first.

Honestly, how are you guys going to feel when you paid so much for Saban, and you dont win any more games than you did last year?? Ouch.

“If we can just keep McFadden and Jones from running all over us”
Not going to happen.

“We should be able to win this game with just some decent, and not good or great, production from the Crimson Tide offense.”
Arent you guys used to just some decent production from the Crimson Tide offense? When exactly did you have good or great production?

“And if Darren McFadden gets hurt…”
He played hurt last year..and no one could stop him then either.

And in response to stevemedlin@hotmail.com (tidefanintn) “My favorite quote: “we have the front runner for Heisman, the best backfield in the country, and many other threats.” I guess saying, “we have Darren McFadden, Darren McFadden, and um, Darren McFadden” seemed a bit too redundant.”
Actually I was referring to Felix Jones, who was our backup back. He had more yards than both of your top 2 backs put together.

Thanks pelicanstatesports, but my response wasnt testy.

Tags: The Hog Source by Scott
No Comments »

So, one CBSSportsline analyst has picked Troy over the Razorbacks saturday(not only is he delusional, but also very very…bald.) . Lets stop and think for a minute. Didnt we go 7-1 in the SEC last year? Isnt the SEC the toughest conference in College Football? Correct me if i’m wrong, but isnt Troy in the sunbelt conference? There must be a reason for this.
Ok, I will give them the fact that they are Defending Sunbelt Conference Champions, but is that really a big deal? Who did you beat out for this so coveted title? Louisianna-Lafayette? North Texas? Florida International? Middle Tennessee State? So you beat a bunch of teams whose names describe the location of the school. I am not impressed.

Lets break it down this way..look at their schedule from last year. They played 3 teams that were even moderatly good. They lost to Florida State(who finished the season 3-5 in conference play, and 7-6 overall), lost to Georgia Tech(7-1 conf play, and 9-5 overall), and an embarrasing 56-0 shutout loss to Nebraska. So, who or what makes them think they could even remotely compete with an SEC team of our caliber? Not a chance.

Tags: The Hog Source by Scott
No Comments »