It Didn't Have to be This Way for Arkansas
My Alma mater, The University of Arkansas lost to Kentucky last week. It was another heartbreaking loss and we could have won the game. The kids played hard but got some bad breaks at the end. Also, Kentucky has a very good football team led by one of the most experienced quarterbacks in college football.
The really sad part, everyone in the stadium expected them to lose. You could feel the negative energy from the TV and the game announcers even commented on it. The problem is the fans think they need a new coach.
Houston Nutt was the SEC coach of the year in 2006 and almost led the Hogs to a BCS bowl game. Unfortunately, they ran into LSU, Florida and Wisconsin at the end of the season. There is no respect for how good these team were, there is only concern for the way Coach Nutt handled a cocky freshman QB and a high school coach in his first year at the college level.
So, instead of having two Heisman Trophy candidate running backs and a very healthy battle for the starting QB job this year, the Hog players not only have to play the other team but they have to battle the negative energy field from their turncoat fans.
Here is how the fans blew what might have been.
1. They decided that high school coach Gus Malzahn was the second coming. When Malzhan quit the team, fans thought Nutt ran him off for no reason. His lack of college experience was not cited and Nutt received no benefit of experience for how he dealt with Gus.
2. The fans believed a 17 year old high school student more than a head coach with 17 years of experience. Mitch Mustain is evidently a cocky, spoiled and brash loner that neither his fellow teammates nor the coaching staff thought very highly of. He was a sought after recruit that did not feel he should have to compete for the QB job. After being pulled from a game, his mood and his attitude worsened.
3. The fans have put players miscues right at the feet of Nutt. While not one to back down from responsibility, Nutt has explained player mistakes but fans hear only what they want to hear. Against KY, two players tried to block a field goal. This was not called by the bench but the players were hustling. Fumbles are credited to coaches and the list goes on. There is no realism in the fans who all think they are coaches.
4. While most of the Hogs fans forgave a Governor for years of personal misconduct and then for lying to a Grand Jury, they seem very hypocritical when it comes to their football coaches. And this is all for alleged activity. A very high profile, very distracting lawsuit was filed and summarily dismissed for lack of merit. But the damage was done. So instead of enjoying a 10 win season and coach of the year honors, Nutt had to spend time and energy explaining things that did not happen. Things that were started by fans are distracting the coach and the team. As with fumbles and missed assignments, the fans are now trying to blame their own idiotic ideas on the coach.
I hope Coach Nutt leaves before the end of the season. These fans will get what they deserve. A "my way or the highway" high school coach and players that don't understand there is no "i" in team.
I will still cheer for my Hogs like there is no tomorrow!
The really sad part, everyone in the stadium expected them to lose. You could feel the negative energy from the TV and the game announcers even commented on it. The problem is the fans think they need a new coach.
Houston Nutt was the SEC coach of the year in 2006 and almost led the Hogs to a BCS bowl game. Unfortunately, they ran into LSU, Florida and Wisconsin at the end of the season. There is no respect for how good these team were, there is only concern for the way Coach Nutt handled a cocky freshman QB and a high school coach in his first year at the college level.
So, instead of having two Heisman Trophy candidate running backs and a very healthy battle for the starting QB job this year, the Hog players not only have to play the other team but they have to battle the negative energy field from their turncoat fans.
Here is how the fans blew what might have been.
1. They decided that high school coach Gus Malzahn was the second coming. When Malzhan quit the team, fans thought Nutt ran him off for no reason. His lack of college experience was not cited and Nutt received no benefit of experience for how he dealt with Gus.
2. The fans believed a 17 year old high school student more than a head coach with 17 years of experience. Mitch Mustain is evidently a cocky, spoiled and brash loner that neither his fellow teammates nor the coaching staff thought very highly of. He was a sought after recruit that did not feel he should have to compete for the QB job. After being pulled from a game, his mood and his attitude worsened.
3. The fans have put players miscues right at the feet of Nutt. While not one to back down from responsibility, Nutt has explained player mistakes but fans hear only what they want to hear. Against KY, two players tried to block a field goal. This was not called by the bench but the players were hustling. Fumbles are credited to coaches and the list goes on. There is no realism in the fans who all think they are coaches.
4. While most of the Hogs fans forgave a Governor for years of personal misconduct and then for lying to a Grand Jury, they seem very hypocritical when it comes to their football coaches. And this is all for alleged activity. A very high profile, very distracting lawsuit was filed and summarily dismissed for lack of merit. But the damage was done. So instead of enjoying a 10 win season and coach of the year honors, Nutt had to spend time and energy explaining things that did not happen. Things that were started by fans are distracting the coach and the team. As with fumbles and missed assignments, the fans are now trying to blame their own idiotic ideas on the coach.
I hope Coach Nutt leaves before the end of the season. These fans will get what they deserve. A "my way or the highway" high school coach and players that don't understand there is no "i" in team.
I will still cheer for my Hogs like there is no tomorrow!
posted by Terry at 10:07 AM
31 Comments:
I disagree with most of your post... that is much better than what many others are going to write.
Negative energy from the TV. Are you for real? Nutt is a great coach? Please stay in Arizona and peddle houses. I will give Houston your name, he would be a great real estate agent. God knows he can't coach football!
I completely disagree with point #3. Please give me 3 times in the last 10 years where Houston Nutt has claimed repsonsibility for anything related to his team's performance (since they ARE Houston Nutt's Arkansas Razorbacks now...it's a RRS thing).
In my humble opinion, his lack of accountability is my #1 reason why I believe Arkansas would be better off with a new Razorback coach
Do us all a favor, shut the hell up and stay in AZ. Pick one of those teams to write about since you obviously have no idea about anything Razorback related. Stay on the nutt wagon and by all means ride it to a crappy bowl (hopefully we make it to one.) Blame it all on a 17 yr. old kid and the offensive coord. of the year. I'm sure it was all their fault. The coach bears no responsibility. I see why you moved away from arkansas, we probably ran you out.
"While not one to back down from responsibility, Nutt has explained player mistakes but fans hear only what they want to hear"????????
Please direct me to an interview where Nutt takes the blame for anything. He is very good at taking credit, but you are sadly mistaken if you believe he accepts responsibility when things go wrong.
You clealy don't know a blessed thing about what goes on day to day with the Razorback football program. Mitch Mustain is a very quiet young man who never complained or said anything negative about his coach or anoyone else connected to the Hog football program once he joined the team. He was harassed by Houston Nutt's wife and a group of her friends who repeatedly told him to transfer.
Today Mustain is living happily in LA where is accepted by his USC teammates as a normal student athlete.
Gus Malzahn left the Arkansas staff ONLY after learning that Nutt planned to replace him as offensive coordinator even though Arkansas had just completed its best offensive season in years. Malzahn to this day has never said one negative thing about Nutt or anyone else connnected to the program.
Basically you are an idiot who knows nothing about which you write.
Too bad there is no Internet police. If there were YOU WOULD BE UNDER ARREST FOR SPREADING BS.
I love the fact your blog has the word "reality" in it. You obviously have no grasp on the reality of the Razorback program. Problems stemming from last season weren't the first and last to occur under Houston Nutt. You have to ask yourself, why do things continue to happen? Houston Nutt is the center of every issue and until he is gone, more problems will continue to arise. Until dumbsh*ts like you realize that, you can stay in your alternate reality outside of Arkansas.
As an Arkansan living in AZ, I find it hard to believe that you cannot keep up with sports from your home state more than this. You are truly out of touch with reality. And by the way, when Mitch smokes ASU and UA for the next 3 years, man up and write how you were sooo wrong and uninformed.
raz96
Yup, the fans are the reason we have no two minute offense, no passing game, no punt returner, no QB development, no ability to convert 3rd downs, no ability to win more than the west championship...
If you must blame me for the lack of a passing game in 10 years, so be it. If you feel the urge to blame me for not developing a QB since stoerner, who was actually recruited and developed by someone other than nutt, so be it. If you must blame me for wasting precious timeouts on 2 point conversions, so be it. If you must place blame on me for a lack of a 2 minute drill in critical situations, ill accept full blame. Im sorry i didnt get out there and recruit better WR's and better QB's and im sorry i told our 5 star QB, who "oh by the way" is doing extremely well at USC under a real coach, that he needed to leave....so be it. If you feel that you must blame me for the situation at Arkansas, so be it. I will not be suprised, however, because nutt has been blaming everybody but the responsible party for the last 10 years....why would you be any different?
The fact that you use the words evidently when u were saying MM was spoiled, you prove that you do not know the situation. This is why you are selling houses, and not writing for a newspaper.
Go F yourself!!
Umm, You are quite possibly the most uninformed person on the planet...
"1. They decided that high school coach Gus Malzahn was the second coming. When Malzhan quit the team, fans thought Nutt ran him off for no reason."
There is plenty of reason to believe Nutt ran off Gus. Do some research on the topic, namely when contact with David Lee began and when Gus was informed he would only be co-OC after winning OC of the year by some publications. I find it interesting that you refer to Houston's 2006 SEC coach of the year, but yet you refer to Gus as "high school" and don't mention his NATIONAL regcognition.
"2. The fans believed a 17 year old high school student more than a head coach with 17 years of experience."
Mitch has been silent on the situation around his departure, so what exactly did he do or say that the fans are believing over a HC with 17 years experience......except for when he called Houston a dork. Most fans do believe that. Again you refer to Houston's 2006 SEC HC of the year award, but you don't recognize Mitch's 2006 HS player of the year award by multiple publications.
"3. The fans have put players miscues right at the feet of Nutt."
That is an opinion and I'm sure some fans of every team fall into this catagory. However, I feel a lot of fans have put poor coaching decisions/performance right at the feet of Nutt.
"4. While most of the Hogs fans forgave a Governor for years of personal misconduct and then for lying to a Grand Jury, they seem very hypocritical when it comes to their football coaches."
Hey, at least the Governor came clean about his ongoings with another woman. That's something Nutt has yet to do.
I know people that know Mitch very well and they all say what you said about him is garbage. In fact he is quite the opposite. Interestingly if he is such a pain why do the people at USC love him and his attitude.
Don't post thing about which you know nothing.
Which Nutt brother are you?
I'm dumber for having ever read that.
I, unlike the other posters on here know that you are joking. You are joking, right! Please tell me that you don't believe that crap you just said. Ah! I know you're just joking. right!
You sir are an idiot. Hooten could not coach his way out of a paper bag and this is coming from someone who used to support him. The last drive of the LSU game lost me. Even before that it was evident he had a double standard regarding MM. Where was the quick trigger for CD?
The problem is that JFB has never been able to stand having anyone coach at the U of A who might remotely do better than he ever did. In HDN he found someone who would kiss his butt and run to him and still let him control the football team. The Hogs will be paying the price for this for years.
Lastly, I don't ever recall hearing MM called cocky, arrogant, or anything else.
BTW I have been following the Razorbacks for longer than you have been alive and I've never forgiven the stupid ex gov or his wife.
You're either completely in the dark or completely stupid to say Mustain didn't believe he had to "compete for the job". Prior to last season, he said he didn't want to start unless the coaches knew he SHOULD BE STARTING. He said he wanted to either EARN playing time or be red-shirted, but NOT be just thrown in there due to his high-school success.
I remember it clearly because it was one of the first times I ever heard him say anything, and I though it was very mature for an 18 year-old.
As the comments in response to your posting indicate, you've found hogville.net.
The good thing is that most of these commnets in response to your entry PROVE YOU RIGHT BEYOND ALL DOUBT.
Arkansas fans are bad news. They've gone from blaming the ref for every loss to blaming their coach for literally everything.
I love your use of the word "almost" in reference to a BCS bowl at the first of your uninformed ramblings. We almost made a BCS bowl once in ten years. WOW, what an achievement. Put all of the "almost" we have had in the last ten years in one hand and horse droppings in the other and see which one fills up first.
Nutt records at Arkansas in 9+ seasons
68-46 straight up 4-16 vs top 10 teams
48-16 at home 13-26 vs top 25
18-23 away 3-7 vs BCS teams
2-7 Neutral 8-7 Off a bye
38-38 vs conference 14-19 off a loss
2-5 bowl record
so does the UofA not teach its grads to consider facts when writing something like this? stay in Arizona. please.
i hope you keep up with the market and technology better than you do the hogs. you should honestly pay a little more attention to a subject before you open your mouth about it. i feel dumber for wasting my time reading your crap.
Get the facts straight.
Gus was hired to come in and change the offense from boring and predictable to the spread. After he had a little success with new formations, pakcages and motion sets, which allowed Felix and Dmac to run free, houston got jealous and cut Gus off at the knees. As soon as Houston started calling plays he pulls out MM and we start losing. Why, cause we didn't have a two minute offense, we had stupid penalties and turnovers becuase Houston has never, never, never coached disciplined football into his teams.
Imagine if Gus was allowed to Implement the spread with Mitch, DMac, Felix, Peyton, Monk....we would actually be contending for the BCS.
But no, you have an egomaniac who wants all the credit for success but will never take the responsbility, now going back to his old budyy, David Lee to install a "pro style" offense and we're on track for the Liberty bowl.
That's why fans are pissed, because of the potential season and talent Nutt squandered because of his pride and ego.
You don't have any idea what your talking about w/ the Springdale issue. You've been misinformed b/ Nutt lied to them and probably arranged TP to send Mitch the e-mail.
Boo freakin' hoo.
Mitch Mustain, cocky? You have no clue about Razorback football!!
obviously, drugs are not illegal in arizona.
Sir, you are seriously misinformed. You know absoluely nothing about what has happened in Fayetteville.
Maybe you should find HDN and FB a love shack in Arizona. You could even rub some suntan lotion on Teresa Prewett!
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