Arkansas Razorbacks

[Mith242]

Razorbacks got back on track. Granted it was against Texas A&M and not an SEC opponent. That and it didn't look good early on. A&M jumped out to an early 10-0 lead and it looked like the same confused team that was playing Alabama. But then after some adjustments the Razorbacks really took over. But now we're back to the SEC. Who knew we'd be playing a 5-0 Auburn team. Not sure our defense will handle Malzahn's hurry up spread offense. I get the feeling we'll have to win in a shoot out. I didn't anticipate Malzahn turning Auburn around so quickly. At the beginning of the season I figured this would be a win for the Razorbacks. But this is probably going to be a pretty tough game. Somebody make sure to point this out to Frank Broyles. He claimed Malzahn's offense would never work in the SEC. Granted Auburn hasn't been seriously tested yet. But he also hasn't totally got Auburn over to his offense either.

[zman9810]

How about those Hogs?

Arkansas Razorbacks 44 - 17th ranked Auburn Tigers 23

Anyone else see where former Auburn coach and Arkansas native Tommy Tuberville said the Razorbacks where a lower tier SEC team and couldn't play defense? That was said after he watched the A&M game from Jerry Jone's suite at Cowboys Stadium. Wonder what he thinks now?

[Mith242]

How about those Hogs?

Arkansas Razorbacks 44 - 17th ranked Auburn Tigers 23

Anyone else see where former Auburn coach and Arkansas native Tommy Tuberville said the Razorbacks where a lower tier SEC team and couldn't play defense? That was said after he watched the A&M game from Jerry Jone's suite at Cowboys Stadium. Wonder what he thinks now?

Yeah I had heard about that right before I was going out of town. I had hoped to hear some more comments from him about the outcome. But on to yesterday's game. Part of me was happy that we played Florida a lot closer to what most people expected. But it's still hard to see us loss a game like that when we had some chances to pull out the big upset. I've seen some people being down on Tejada. Although to be honest I think even if we had made that last field goal, Florida was easily moving the ball down the field. It was pretty obvious they were simply setting themselves up for a go ahead field goal. Had we been up three I think they could have had chances to go for a go ahead touchdown. Overall you can see some improvements in the team. At least our offense handled it better than the Bama game. Although Mallet 's numbers weren't really too good. Granted we were facing a pretty good SEC defense. But there seemed to be a number of passes that were just off. The defensive line really seems to be making good progress. Taking the run away from Florida really gave them problems. This season their offense really seems to be working off the run. But our defensive secondary still needs some work. They still seem very susceptible to giving up big touchdown plays. But the hardest games now seem to be over with. Not to say we'll win the rest of the games. But LSU and Ole Miss haven't been looking as good as I thought they did at the beginning of the season. In particular Ole Miss. LSU seems to be having offense problems this season. Although you know they'll be looking to avenge those two losses we've handed them the past couple of seasons. But for that matter you can't really overlook anyone in the SEC. Miss St has been playing better this year than I anticipated. It's too bad we don't play Vanderbilt this year. They seem to be the only SEC team that's really looked pretty bad and below expectations from last year.

[Mith242]

Well the Razorbacks really needed last nights game. Granted what we really need is an SEC win. But after a rough stretch of SEC games the Razorbacks got a pretty easy win last night. Especially after last week's disappointing game. I thought we would have kept it closer against Ole Miss. Mallet's number one in the SEC with passing yards and last's nights game didn't hurt. We might not have been able to beat Houston Nutt's Ole Miss but Malzahn got a little revenge yesterday. After starting a little slow Auburn really came out and too it to them. I noticed Miss St beat Kentucky. Means we're now dead last in the SEC west now. Not sure if we'll be able to pull out a win against South Carolina or LSU. For that matter Miss St has looked a lot better this year than I would have thought. A win over Miss St might not be too easy either. But if only win one more SEC game this year. Looks like that means we tie Miss St for the SEC west bottom. I had really hoped we'd have been a bit more in the middle.

[zman9810]

Well the Razorbacks really needed last nights game. Granted what we really need is an SEC win. But after a rough stretch of SEC games the Razorbacks got a pretty easy win last night. Especially after last week's disappointing game. I thought we would have kept it closer against Ole Miss. Mallet's number one in the SEC with passing yards and last's nights game didn't hurt. We might not have been able to beat Houston Nutt's Ole Miss but Malzahn got a little revenge yesterday. After starting a little slow Auburn really came out and too it to them. I noticed Miss St beat Kentucky. Means we're now dead last in the SEC west now. Not sure if we'll be able to pull out a win against South Carolina or LSU. For that matter Miss St has looked a lot better this year than I would have thought. A win over Miss St might not be too easy either. But if only win one more SEC game this year. Looks like that means we tie Miss St for the SEC west bottom. I had really hoped we'd have been a bit more in the middle.

Yeah, that was exactly what the Hogs needed. Hopefully the Florida game disappointment was completely washed away- I think that game had a lot to do with the Ole Miss defeat. College ball is so dependent on the emotional aspect that the game the week before has a big hangover affect. With the schedule the Hogs have left it shouldn't be hard to get to a bowl this year. With the way we've had LSU's number recently and 3 of 4 games at home it's possible we could win out- wouldn't that be great?!!!!

[Mith242]

Yeah, that was exactly what the Hogs needed. Hopefully the Florida game disappointment was completely washed away- I think that game had a lot to do with the Ole Miss defeat. College ball is so dependent on the emotional aspect that the game the week before has a big hangover affect. With the schedule the Hogs have left it shouldn't be hard to get to a bowl this year. With the way we've had LSU's number recently and 3 of 4 games at home it's possible we could win out- wouldn't that be great?!!!!

It would be great if we won out. But I think that's going to be pretty hard. I guess I'm not ready to get my hopes up like that considering I had some higher expectations at the beginning of the season.

[Mith242]

Razorbacks got a big win yesterday. We certainly should be bowl bound now. If we can't beat Troy next week we don't deserve to be in a bowl anyway. But I also have hopes for a victory over Miss St as well. I think most predictions I've seen have us going to the Liberty Bowl. But I think the Independence Bowl and PapaJohns.com Bowl are also in the mix depending on how many games we win and how everything else plays out. Of course it would be great to win out and perhaps build things up for next season.

[zman9810]

Razorbacks got a big win yesterday. We certainly should be bowl bound now. If we can't beat Troy next week we don't deserve to be in a bowl anyway. But I also have hopes for a victory over Miss St as well. I think most predictions I've seen have us going to the Liberty Bowl. But I think the Independence Bowl and PapaJohns.com Bowl are also in the mix depending on how many games we win and how everything else plays out. Of course it would be great to win out and perhaps build things up for next season.

Great game! and against a quality opponent. I read where LSU is being looked at for the Cotton Bowl so if we win out and beat them we should be considered for it. That would be great- two games in the new Cowboys Stadium in it's first season.

[Mith242]

Great game! and against a quality opponent. I read where LSU is being looked at for the Cotton Bowl so if we win out and beat them we should be considered for it. That would be great- two games in the new Cowboys Stadium in it's first season.

The bowl system can be somewhat complicated. Many of the bowls are ties into certain conferences. Many of them tend to pick by the teams position in the conference's standings. Although if a bowl thinks a certain team will bring more fans they very well could pick a different 'lower' team in the standings. I haven't seen all the different scenarios. Especially for one if we win out. Another win over LSU would certainly help. But LSU is a good team and I imagine they're getting frustrated that they haven't beaten us in a few years. So I'm not going to get my hopes up on that game just yet. But with this team you never know. Our team can be very explosive but it can also make a lot of big mistakes as well.

[Mith242]

Funny how the polls work. Granted I know at this point Razorback fans shouldn't really be paying that much attention to the polls. But it's sorta funny how Auburn seems to be really moving up. They've jumped into one of the major polls at 25 and are just outside the top 25 in one of the other major polls. They've basically one game up on us. Yet the Razorbacks don't even have one single vote in either poll. I'm not necessarily saying we should be right behind Auburn in the rankings. But it's odd how Auburn seems to be getting quite a bit of respect yet we don't even have a single vote. I know we've been pretty inconsistent during the season but then again so has Auburn. Also odd considering how we were a few *cough* questionable calls away from possibly beating the top ranked team in the country. But anyway in the end I guess it doesn't really mean much whether we have not votes in the polls or a few votes. We look to be bowl bound which is an improvement over last season and that's what really matters.

[zman9810]

Since the Hogs didn't win at Florida they won't get any respect this year but they have put themselves in the minds of all the media and coaches for the rest of this year and next year. If the Hogs could win out they should have a chance at a good bowl and the Cotton would love them. Hers's a pic that I would love to see taken when Razorback Stadium is full and rocking. http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z289/zman9810/DSCN2109.jpg\

[Mith242]

I might need to reassess my evaluation of Troy. It's sounding like they're a lot better than I had anticipated. Now I don't think they're going to win the game. But this might not be the cakewalk some of us predicted. They've got a pretty good record. They're the best team in the Sunbelt. There's also been some controversy about they're coach. Some are claiming earlier this year he predicted they'd beat the Razorbacks. Whether it's true or not, Petrino is making sure he's using it a bulletin board material to help motivate the team. A little extra boost so that we don't take Troy too lightly. Although with the focus also on being bowl eligible you'd hope our team wouldn't be overlooking them.

[Mith242]

With the off season problems and the players suspensions I've had a bit of a hard time getting into the basketball mood. Especially with the football season still going on. But the basketball season did start last night. Even with the number of player suspensions the Razorbacks had no problems at all beating down Alcorn St 68-130. Rotnei Clarke hit an SEC record 13 three point shots and ended up with 51 point just himself. Sounds like the estimated crowd was about 7,700. Maybe Clarke's performance will help get people more excited about the basketball program. Hopefully Clarke will have a stand out season and help provide some leadership on the team.

[Mith242]

Luckily the Hogs weren't going to be overlooking Troy. They had a pretty impressive showing offensively. Although Mallet did end up with an interception that ended his streak. He was starting to get close to one of Stoerner's records. But he did break one of the others for most passing yards in a season. And we still have a couple more games to go. I believe Mallet also had the most passing yards this past weekend in all the games played. I forgot the Miss St game is in Little Rock not down in Mississippi. You can't overlook them but you'd have to think we should have a good shot at getting a win there. I'm still not sure what to think about the LSU game. LSU really hasn't looked real great much of the year, especially on offense. They have a tendency of winning some 'ugly' games near the end. I'm hearing the Cotton Bowl being mentioned a bit more as a possible bowl for us. But I think we'd also have to win out for that. Nothing against the Liberty or Independence Bowls, but the Cotton Bowl would be a nice step up.

[Mith242]

Real shame how the LSU game ended. Of course it didn't help we took so long to get our offense going. Would have been really great for the Hogs to get to the Cotton Bowl. There had been some hope that maybe we'd still have a chance. With Ole miss losing, looks like LSU moved up and sometimes bowls don't pick the same team twice. Ole Miss went to the Cotton Bowl last year. But all the rumors I'm hearing is that Ole Miss is getting an invite to the Cotton Bowl and that we've already accepted an invite to the Liberty Bowl. If that's true then we'll play the Conference USA champion, looks like that will most likely be Houston. That could be a pretty wild high scoring game between those two offenses. I don't think either team is known for it's defense.

[nwa_479]

Well, it looks like we're going to be playing East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl. East Carolina beat Houston 38-32.

[Mith242]

Well, it looks like we're going to be playing East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl. East Carolina beat Houston 38-32.

Yeah I saw that. Overall I like our chances. I guess Houston was the top ranked offense. Last year East Carolina also beat Tulsa the top offense last year. But those offenses obviously wasn't playing in the SEC. I think our offense will do pretty well. It wasn't like they really shut down Houston's offense. Houston still picked up a lot of passing yards. It was more the turnovers that ended up hurting them. Although our defense has been a problem, I think a bad SEC defense can still cause East Carolina some problems. Of course we can't just go out there and expect we'll win the game because it's just a 'Conference USA' team. But I think we'd have to play a pretty bad game and it would be a big upset if the Hogs don't win.

[Mith242]

The Razorbacks finally lost offensive coordinator Paul Petrino. His name has been thrown around lately. Although he ended up as an OC again, not head coach. At first I wondered why he left here just to be a CO somewhere else, in this case Illinois. I certainly wouldn't say leaving the SEC is a promotion. But apparently he'll be able to call his own plays at Illinois. Here Bobby Petrino still calls the plays. Guess we'll find out in the upcoming weeks who will be taking over. I'm also curious if we'll be hearing if we'll be sticking with the same defensive coordinator. Willie Robinson wasn't Petrino's first choice. Maybe he'll give him another year but so far we've really been lacking in defense the last couple of years. You have to think that eventually someone else will get a shot at the job if there isn't much improvement.

[Mith242]

Didn't take long to announce the replacement to Paul Petrino at Offensive Coordinator. Garrick McGee the QB coach will replace him. Which then we'll have to wait and see who comes in at the QB coach position. I keep hearing more and more about Mallet leaving early for the draft just after a year as QB. It would be a real shame for us to lose him that quickly. But if he can go early in the first round of the NFL Draft it would be hard to blame him. I think one more year would be really great for him to develop some more. He'd be a serious Heisman candidate and I think he could easily improve his draft rating. Possibly even moving himself up to the very top of the draft with one more year. Course he could also get injured and hurt his draft chances like Bradford did at OU this season as well. Overall people seem to think if Mallet can go in the top half of the first round he'll probably go. If projections show him coming in around the bottom half of the first round there's a better chance he'll stick around another year. Nobody seems to expect him to stick around as a 5th year senior. Which honestly it would be a huge shock if he did stay around for his full eligibility. One more season like this year or even a little improvement like he'd probably have and he'd probably be have a good shot at being a top five pick.

[zman9810]

Didn't take long to announce the replacement to Paul Petrino at Offensive Coordinator. Garrick McGee the QB coach will replace him. Which then we'll have to wait and see who comes in at the QB coach position. I keep hearing more and more about Mallet leaving early for the draft just after a year as QB. It would be a real shame for us to lose him that quickly. But if he can go early in the first round of the NFL Draft it would be hard to blame him. I think one more year would be really great for him to develop some more. He'd be a serious Heisman candidate and I think he could easily improve his draft rating. Possibly even moving himself up to the very top of the draft with one more year. Course he could also get injured and hurt his draft chances like Bradford did at OU this season as well. Overall people seem to think if Mallet can go in the top half of the first round he'll probably go. If projections show him coming in around the bottom half of the first round there's a better chance he'll stick around another year. Nobody seems to expect him to stick around as a 5th year senior. Which honestly it would be a huge shock if he did stay around for his full eligibility. One more season like this year or even a little improvement like he'd probably have and he'd probably be have a good shot at being a top five pick.

Mallet certainly has the arm but I don't think he has the experience or maturity as a QB to be a high draft pick this year. This is only his first full year as a college QB and he has been erratic at times. His legal incident earlier this year would hurt his chances also. If the NFL had a farm system like baseball I could see it- a team could develop him like they wanted but college is the NFL's farm system. Another year at Arkansas would give him time to learn how to throw touch passes and move around the backfield better. What happened to Bradford was out of the ordinary- he came back from the first injury too soon. I think you are right- give Mallet another year and he could be a top five pick easily.

[Mith242]

I guess we'll just have to see about NFL teams going after Mallet. But I keep seeing ESPN guys drooling over him and really hyping him up. Enough to make you more nervous about the possibility of him leaving after this year.

Looks like there could be more of those rumors of Arkansas joining the Big 12. Apparently the Big 10 is looking into expanding and one of the schools being mentioned is Missouri or Iowa St. Of course leaving an opening in the Big 12. Personally I don't know about Missouri being a good fit for the Big 10. But it's being mentioned a lot anyway. But anyway an opening in the Big 12 would of course get people speculating about Arkansas moving over. But as good of a fit as it might seem I still just can't see Arkansas leaving the SEC.

[Mith242]

I recently say some stats on how much assistant coaches/coordinators make in the SEC. I was surprised to see how much DC Willy Robinson makes. He's the third highest paid DC in the SEC and if you included OCs as well he'd be ranked fourth overall. He's really got to improve things to justify that kind of money. Most of the other top highly paid assistant coaches seemed to do well this past season. I don't want to make it seem that I'm picking on Robinson. But assuming he's around for another year, he's got to show he's worth what he's getting paid. A third season should be enough time to show some improvement. Maybe the defense just really stands out because of how well the offense has improved.

[zman9810]

I recently say some stats on how much assistant coaches/coordinators make in the SEC. I was surprised to see how much DC Willy Robinson makes. He's the third highest paid DC in the SEC and if you included OCs as well he'd be ranked fourth overall. He's really got to improve things to justify that kind of money. Most of the other top highly paid assistant coaches seemed to do well this past season. I don't want to make it seem that I'm picking on Robinson. But assuming he's around for another year, he's got to show he's worth what he's getting paid. A third season should be enough time to show some improvement. Maybe the defense just really stands out because of how well the offense has improved.

I always got the impression that to win games this season we would have to have high scoring games to beat whoever we played because our defense was suspect. That will be the case at the Liberty Bowl, also. East Carolina will score points on us and we better be able to score more than they do. I don't know about Robinson's salary- I guess that has a lot to do with Coach Petrino's assessment of him.

[Mith242]

Well the Razorbacks got the win at the Liberty Bowl, but it certainly wasn't pretty. The offense pretty much struggled most of the game. This was the same East Carolina team that gave up something like 575 yards of passing in their previous game. I know the cold temps certainly didn't help. But I was still disappointed that the offense struggled so much. We actually managed to win the game despite not converting a single third down conversion. I think we were 0-13 on third downs. We gave East Carolina a number of opportunities to win the game. Luckily for us, the cold windy weather seemed to really give their kicker a hard time and he missed four of his field goal attempts. It was nice to see Tejada pick up the win. He's had some bad luck himself in recent games.

Now I guess we have to see if Mallet comes back or leaves early for the draft. I keep hearing different things from ESPN analysts. Some really think he's leaving. Some say they think he'll be back. After seeing last night's game, it certainly seems like he really could use another year working with Petrino. But if an NFL team was willing to pick him up early as a work in progress, it would be hard to fault him.

[zman9810]

Well the Razorbacks got the win at the Liberty Bowl, but it certainly wasn't pretty. The offense pretty much struggled most of the game. This was the same East Carolina team that gave up something like 575 yards of passing in their previous game. I know the cold temps certainly didn't help. But I was still disappointed that the offense struggled so much. We actually managed to win the game despite not converting a single third down conversion. I think we were 0-13 on third downs. We gave East Carolina a number of opportunities to win the game. Luckily for us, the cold windy weather seemed to really give their kicker a hard time and he missed four of his field goal attempts. It was nice to see Tejada pick up the win. He's had some bad luck himself in recent games.

Now I guess we have to see if Mallet comes back or leaves early for the draft. I keep hearing different things from ESPN analysts. Some really think he's leaving. Some say they think he'll be back. After seeing last night's game, it certainly seems like he really could use another year working with Petrino. But if an NFL team was willing to pick him up early as a work in progress, it would be hard to fault him.

I know they say any win is good but this one almost felt like a loss- very poor showing for a SEC team against a minor conference opponent. NO way is Mallett ready for the NFL- I like him and am thrilled he's at Arkansas but some of his throws last night were terrible. What was up with the clock management at the end of the game? We got the ball back and three incomplete passes later gave them another chance to kick a wining field goal. Tejada must have felt like finally it someone else's turn to be the goat. Tough game but Yea! we did win and by next year that's all we'll remember hopefully. Man, it was cold!!!!!