WholeHogSports
HOG CALLS : Petrino has first meeting with Hog lettermen
Posted on Monday, April 28, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/64623/
At their annual spring reunion lettermen’s breakfast Saturday at the A-Club, former Razorback football players received messages of change from Arkansas’ new head football coach and new athletic director.
The vice chancellorathletic director, Jeff Long, exacted change like a New York toll booth. Barack Obama on the stump likely didn’t outnumber Long references to change. Naturally, Long professed “ tremendous respect” for his retired predecessor, athletic director emeritus Frank Broyles. A wise course lest Long’s first lettermen’s breakfast became his last. Everybody in the room knew Broyles including the oldest grads prior to 1958. Every attending letterman from 1958 on either had played for him (Broyles coached the Hogs from 1958-76 ) or attended the UA during Broyles ’ 1973-2007 AD tenure.
“ Those are shoes I can’t possibly fill, ” Long said. “ There will be different shoes I will be wearing and taking us in a different direction because I can’t possibly duplicate what Coach Broyles has done here. For many years there wasn’t much change here and that was very good. And that’s how we arrived at such a strong program today. But in every period of life in an organization and an athletic program there comes a time for change and we are in it now. And I am excited about leading it. ”
Aside from combining the men’s and women’s athletics departments that became effective Jan. 1, Long was not specific about what these changes will be other than he’s bringing in “ new faces, ” to make them.
He did not elaborate why changes are required or require new faces.
By contrast, new head football coach Bobby Petrino never mentioned “ change. ” Yet Webster’s Dictionary couldn’t define change more clearly.
Administrative jobs, even with such an obvious change from Broyles to Long, are intangibly subtle compared to contrasts accompanying changing head football coaches.
This change from the motivational, rah-rah good, old boy Little Rock native Houston Nutt to Petrino’s little warmth and all business is slap-in-the-face apparent. And for now near unanimously fan endorsed.
A Razorback spring game record 40, 200 turned out to watch the Red-Whte game last Saturday night.
Nutt had the whole state in the palm of his hand, too when he debuted in 1998 with a 9-3 SEC West co-championship season.
However after 10 years and controversies, even beating national champion LSU in his final game, couldn’t prevent Nutt leaving a Razorback house divided for Ole Miss. Now Nutt enjoys that spring honeymoon first-year coaches generally receive.
Certainly Petrino honeymoons here, particularly with his promise to pass and a Louisville past to back it up.
“ Does, ” Petrino asked the old grads, “ everybody out there want to see us throw the ball a little bit ?”
Loud applause.
To his credit, Petrino didn’t throw the run under the bus to please those with just a passing fancy.
“ We need to be able to run the football, ” Petrino said. “ We need to be able to throw the ball when we want to. We need to be able to run the ball when we want to. ”
Petrino comes with a history of innovation and imagination.
Yet schemes came last in his offensive and defensive priorities. Hard work, fundamentals and lots of hitting in practice, enough to make hitting as routine “ as tying your shoe, ” Petrino explained, are essentials.
Interestingly, Petrino mentioned no individual Razorback.
It was all about the team, “ your team, ” he said to the old grads.
While certainly businesslike, Petrino had his audience chuckling a couple of times while introducing his staff.
Of returning running backs coach Tim Horton, who only hours later would see 2007 Razorback running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones go to Oakland and Dallas in the NFL draft’s first round, Petrino quipped, “ We’ll really find out how good a coach he is this year. ”
He mentioned being at Utah State coaching against Arkansas defensive line coach Bobby Allen when Allen was the defensive coordinator at Boise State.
“ At Boise State they have blue Astro Turf, ” Petrino said, “ which basically to me is Communism. ”
He good-naturedly gigged his linebackers coach, Reggie Johnson, who coached under Petrino at Louisville after being a Louisville player when Petrino was a Louisville assistant.
“ I don’t know if you’ve seen the commercial they have with Bret Farvre, ” Petrino said, “ where he’s making a last-second throw for a touchdown to win a game. You see this linebacker up in the air and watching the ball go over his head for a touchdown — well — that’s our linebackers coach. ”
Not rivaling Jay Leno, perhaps, but enough for a smile as alums pass the time before it’s passing time.
Nate Allen covers the Razorbacks for the Northwest Arkansas Times.