If he was within earshot, Albert Einstein would probably have scoffed at Bobby Petrino's explanation. Here's the scene: Wide receiver London Crawford had dropped three passes in the Razorbacks' Red-White spring game. Some of the tosses should have been caught. Crawford's confidence, it seemed, was waning. Petrino, seeing the problem, did what Einstein and some other coaches wouldn't have - try the same thing again. " I've always felt like that you've got to come back to a guy if he fumbles the ball, or when he doesn't make a catch, " Petrino said. " You show them you'll come right back to them. " Best known for his crazy hair and the theory of relativity, Einstein's definition of insanity would have been the first thought to pop in his huge noggin. Almost assuredly, Petrino's explanation of his play-calling philosophy would have baited rolling eyes and perhaps a lecture from the genius cyclist. The reason ? Insanity, Einstein once explained, is " doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. " With all due respect to Mr. Einstein and vast his accomplishments for the scientific community, his thought-provoking studies and reasoning don't carry a lot of weight on the gridiron. Obviously, there is a method to Petrino's so-called madness. The Head Hog's repetitious philosophy, which followed him from Louisville, Ky., to Atlanta to Fayetteville, has always resulted in success. The numbers don't lie.

His Louisville teams led the nation in total offense twice (once as an offensive coordinator in 1998 ) and placed in the top 5 three other seasons. At Auburn in 2002 as its offensive coordinator, Petrino's guidance and play-calling allowed the Tigers to lead the SEC in third-down conversions. In a game in which home-field advantage means more than we care to let on, confidence and emotion can weigh heavily on a player. Confidence can make or break a game. And so, in the spring finale, Petrino went back to his roots and to Crawford, despite the drops. " He told me all along from the beginning of spring that, ' If you drop a ball, I'm coming right back to you, " Crawford said. " 'Don't get down. I'm coming right back to you. Just make the next play and make it a big play. ' " The volatile Razorback finished the night with 8 catches for 82 yards and 1 touchdown. One catch, a one-handed grab that wowed the more than 40, 000 in attendance, was one of the better catches you'll ever see on the college level. Perhaps a dose of Petrino's philosophy is just what the wary Razorback needs. Crawford's struggles have both been chronicled and ridiculed. His baffling fumble - with a defender nowhere near him - after a 19-yard reception against Alabama last season particularly sticks out. The drop, as catastrophic as it seemed at the time, prompted Houston Nutt to stay away from Crawford for the remainder of the game if not the rest of the season.

Chances are, even with the most dynamic running duo in Arkansas history at his disposal in Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, Petrino would have gone back to the speedy receiver for a play or two.

That's not a knock against Nutt, but simply put, it is a difference in philosophy between him and Petrino.

For Petrino and his offensive coordinator and brother, Paul, repetition is tried, true and a staple of every team they've coached together. The belief stems from their father, Bob Sr., who coached 28 years at Carroll College in Montana, Bobby Petrino said.

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The reasoning for the continued good results is simple - a team's success is built off a collective confidence.

" I think anything you do as a skill player - whether it's shooting the basketball, throwing the football, catching the football - 90 percent of it is confidence, " Paul Petrino said. " If you can feed them and do things good, do things good, and then they know if they do make a mistake that you're still going to go back to them, then their confidence stays a lot higher. "

It doesn't take an Einstein to realize that.

Brandon Marcello is a sports writer for the North west Arkansas Times and regularly updates The Slop house, a blog covering the Razorbacks at www.whole hogsports.com.