FAYETTEVILLE -- Three former Arkansas Razorbacks quarterbacks who catapulted from obscurity to fifth-year senior stardom and eventual UA Sports Hall of Honor inductions wish they'd had Brandon Allen's experience entering their fifth years.
On the other hand, nowadays Allen as well as most of today's college quarterbacks are abused on social media, message boards and sports talk radio.
"I can't imagine" were the unanimously prefaced sentiment expressed by Freddie Marshall, Frank Broyles' national championship quarterback in 1964, Scott Bull, the quarterback on Broyles' final Southwest Conference/Cotton Bowl championship team of 1975, and Kevin Scanlon, the quarterback for Lou Holtz's lone SWC championship in 1979.
They couldn't imagine the constant critiquing emboldened by social media's anonymity that sometimes turns into nonstop nastiness from one game's end into the next game's kickoff.
Arkansas' starting quarterbacks lived life in a fishbowl back then too, but nothing like the social media/talk radio fishbowl of today.
"I can't see how it would not be completely distracting," Marshall said. "You would just have to turn it off, and that is probably what Brandon does extremely well because's he's focused. If they had it back then, I wouldn't have had a cell phone."
All three admire Allen's poise when it comes to handling the Twitter world that they never experienced. All three hope Allen shares the type of success they enjoyed as fifth-year seniors. All three believe he can, especially considering Allen has started 24 games already.
"Brandon has more playing experience than Freddie, Scott and I probably had put together," Scanlon said.
It's not just the game experience, but all the practices, the meetings, the injuries overcome and redshirting that added up more than equal to the opportunities thrust upon Marshall, Bull and Scanlon in their fifth year.
"It's hard to tell in the middle of it any difference," Bull said. "But looking back on it being quite a bit older, you would expect that extra year had to give you some maturity."
And finality.
"You definitely know it's your last year," Bull said. "You are always going to give it your best, but there is something about the finality of the last year. There is no chance for another redshirt. If you get hurt, you are not going to come back for one more year."
The finality brings urgency and all the dues paid bring confidence, not just within the fifth-year quarterback but from the players and coaches around him, Scanlon said.
As the fifth-year senior starter in 1979, Scanlon said Holtz asked him for input that Holtz never asked whenever Scanlon played in 1978 as Ron Calcagni's backup.
Your tangible abilities may not be all that improved, but the intangibles enhancing your abilities improve considerably, all three said.
"Experience got me by," Marshall said. "It certainly wasn't my talent."
All say Allen has the talent -- "a very strong arm," Marshall said -- and certainly the experience for a fruitful fifth year.
"Brandon is poised to have great season," they unanimously opined.
Sports on 09/05/2015