For some similar reasons, this 2008 edition of the now twice-routed Razorbacks seems Arkansas’ most inept football since 1990.

Veteran Hog fans will recall 1990 was the 3-8 start to the illfated Jack Crowe era.

Now first off we’re not comparing Bobby Petrino to Jack Crowe.

Crowe, Arkansas’ head coach for two years and one game, was an utterly unproven head coach, the offensive coordinator hastily elevated by athletic director Frank Broyles because Hatfield during the height of January recruiting leaped at the Clemson job hastily vacated by Danny Ford.

Current coach Petrino is a proven commodity. His four years head coaching Louisville to a 41-9 record and an Orange Bowl triumph had him sought by Auburn among others and did lead him to an NFL head coaching job at Atlanta before he decided college coaching and the vacant Arkansas job was for him. Knowing his track record and design for explosively balanced offenses, bet on Bobby turning Arkansas around. Just don’t bet on massive headway until he’s established a couple of recruiting classes. Because though dissimilar in experience, Crowe and Petrino took their first turns at the Hog helm under remarkably similar circumstances. In Ken Hatfield and Houston Nutt, Crowe and Petrino each succeeded successful coaches not deemed sufficiently successful nor offensively entertaining by a vocal segment of Razorback fans. At 55-17-1 from 1984-89, Hatfield posted the highest career winning percentage of any Razorback coach. But a segment of fans deemed his offense too boring and run-ori ented. And he was so at odds with then athletic director Broyles that recruiting became increasingly difficult. Hatfield eyed other jobs, and other recruiters could hint to Arkansas recruits the Arkansas coach recruiting them wouldn’t stay at Arkansas. Combine the recruiting lag with heavy senior graduation from a 1989 SWC championship team plus the departure of 1990 seniorto-be running back Barry Foster for the NFL the day Crowe was hired, and you’ve got the makings of a 3-8 team.

Like this current Arkansas team, trampled 52-10 and 49-14 by Texas and Alabama and no Rock of Gibraltar even against Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe, the 1990 Hogs had a porous defense. Arkansas allowed 1990 opposing offenses to turn more yards than Century 21. Alabama and Texas kept the yards turning the last two weeks. Arkansas’ own 1990 offense was Dalmatian spotty. Offensively those 1990 Hogs, with quarterback Quinn Grovey and wideout Derek Russell overcoming to make plays, could flash promise between the 20 s but often bogged down in the red zone. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it. These 2008 Hogs habitually bog down after running back Michael Smith or quarterback Casey Dick and tight end D. J. Williams combine to advance them in scoring range. And about those comparative circumstances following Nutt to following Hatfield ?

At 75-48, Nutt’s 10 Arkansas years don’t rival Hatfield’s six-year winning percentage, but Nutt coached Arkansas not at the SWC’s probation-racked end, but in the SEC, annually the best league in the land.

Nutt’s last Arkansas team in 2007 went 8-5 loaded with seniors who had helped them go 10-4 and win the SEC West in 2006.

Those seniors on both sides of the ball didn’t return for 2008.

Neither did two great running backs turned pro early: Two-time Doak Walker Award winner Darren McFadden and two-time All-American Felix Jones.

Add all that to the negative vibes of anti-Nutt banners in the air, and pre-banner years of fan discontent leading Nutt to be linked to other jobs and rumors that he might be axed, and you can see how the recruiting decline manifests to the Hogs current struggles.

Fans have every right to grumble, but their program can pay long-term consequences if the grumbling consistently makes the word “ embattled’ part of the head coach’s first name.

One plus for Arkansas, Petrino’s job seems way too secure for him to be embattled by anything other than the formidable task of improving the Hogs.

Nate Allen covers the Razorbacks for the Northwest Arkansas Times.