WholeHogSports
EXTRA POINTS : Enjoy watching Hogs practice while you can
Posted on Wednesday, April 2, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/63758/
To football coaches, the Internet is more enemy than friend.
Gone are the days of fans relying on news and TV reporters to give the latest news detailing a player’s progress or his injury the next morning.
Yep. Today, anyone with a laptop, Internet connection and the ability to type can “ report ” the latest Razorback going-ons in literally a matter of minutes.
It’s good for those craving information, but sometimes the line separating rabid fandom and objectivity is crossed, blurred and obliterated.
Fans belittle players for performances in practice on message boards.
The smallest detail, the slightest limp in a player’s step is assumed to be something gargantuan.
Quickly the views on a topic posted by an anonymous, faceless user skyrocket.
Server loads buckle.
And by the end of the night, a player’s mystique can be ruined all because of one fan’s opinion.
Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino realizes it, and that’s why Razorback fans should probably take advantage of this spring’s open practice sessions that start Thursday and conclude April 26.
Judging by Petrino’s words Monday, the guess here is that the only time you may be able to see the football Hogs in person after April will be with a ticket to one of the team’s home games at Razorback Stadium or War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Yes, in case you haven’t heard, all practices and scrimmages will be open to the public this spring. As long as the Hogs are not working inside the Walker Pavilion because of inclement weather, thousands of fans could come on down Razorback Road and watch the Razorbacks scrap and learn Petrino’s new offensive system.
But don’t expect that in August. Much more is at stake when coach es are implementing a gameplan in the fall than when coaches are frantically trying to install a new system to a new team in the spring
As most of us know, Petrino isn’t necessarily the most open guy with the media.
Just ask former Louisville beat reporter Pat Forde, who broke the news several years ago that the then-Cardinals coach had a secret meeting with Auburn officials to discuss a possible job offer to replace Tommy Tuberville.
All that aside, one thing is certain: Petrino is professional, extremely intelligent and steadfastly in control of everything going on around him, his team and his program. That much was shown Monday during a question-andanswer session with the media.
“ If I could, I would have everything open all the time, ” Petrino said. “ But unfortunately somebody invented the Internet, and that’s the thing [that ] really has shut down practices.
“ You can’t have — after you practice — someone going online and saying such and such got injured today, looks like he might be out. ”
The same goes for reporters spotting such an injury and reporting it after an open practice session. Whether it’s fair or not, that’s up to discussion.
Listen, I don’t like closed prac- tices and neither do the Arkansas beat reporters trying to get a scoop. But we, in a sense, understand why Petrino and dozens of other coaches across the nation are closing practice field gates and draping black tarps along peek holes.
The stakes are too high for Petrino and the other football coaches. Spygate at New England has shown that, and with Nick Saban at Alabama, Les Miles at LSU, Steve Spurrier in South Carolina, Urban Meyer at Florida, Mark Richt at Georgia and Houston Nutt at Ole Miss, every edge will be needed for Petrino’s Pigs in the nation’s only conference with a VIP list of coaches.
And Petrino realizes something else — information can be extremely detrimental to a coach or player’s mindset. That is apparent at Arkansas, where everyone’s eyes are on the Hogs and not on another school or professional team.
One just has to look at Petrino’s predecessor, Houston Nutt, his forced ouster, cell phone record revelations thanks to the Freedom of Information Act and the blue-chip transfers to Southern California.
Over the last year, in a room full of perfectly lined dominoes, the dominoes never naturally fell. Nutt’s departure was nothing ordinary or smooth.
Instead, those dominoes were crushed by an Internet monolith carrying FOI requests, rumors, innuendo, venom and thousands of mouse-clicking fans.
Some of the revelations and gumption by fans, arguably, might have never happened 15 years ago in an age without the Internet.
Coaches across the nation could learn a thing or two from the Arkansas soap opera.
As for the new head Hog at Arkansas, he’s more worried about his players.
“ Or in another respect, people get online and say, ‘ This receiver looked terrible today. He dropped five balls. I don’t see how he’ll ever play for Arkansas, ’” Petrino said. “ Unfortunately, our players get on there and read that, and it certainly does affect some guys different ways. If there wasn’t that aspect of it, I’d have practices open all the time. ”
For now, though, enjoy the openness of spring.
Brandon Marcello is a sports writer for the Northwest Arkansas Times and regularly updates The Slophouse, a blog covering the Razorbacks at www. wholehogsports. com.