WholeHogSports
HOG CALLS : Hogs’ rebuilding project will take time
Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/69643/
These weren’t excuses — just reality what Arkansas was up against these last two games, lopsided losses at home to Alabama and last Saturday at Texas.
“ The first thing we need to understand, ” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said Monday, “ is the last two football teams we played are very good football teams. ”
Just look at the polls. After rolling Arkansas, 49-14, two Saturdays ago in the SEC opener in Fayetteville, Alabama’s Crimson Tide rolled Georgia, 41-30, in Athens, Ga.
“ You see what Alabama did at Georgia the other night, ” Petrino said, “ up 31-0. ”
Georgia ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls. Another preseason heavyweight, Clemson opened No. 9 and got rolled out of the Top 10 by the Tide.
Now the Tide ranks No. 2 in the country behind Oklahoma.
Meanwhile 4-0 Texas checks in at No. 5 after whipping the Razorbacks, 52-10, last Saturday in Austin.
The September slaughters are over, but an All-SEC October hardly seems much of a letup for Arkansas’ firstyear coach and his undermanned Razorbacks.
Florida’s Gators ranked 12 th now, but fourth just a week ago, arrive at Fayetteville for Saturday’s 11: 30 a. m. Raycom televised game in a foul mood. The Gators were upset, 31-30 at their “ Swamp ” by Ole Miss.
Then comes Auburn on Oct. 11 in Auburn, Ala., for a 4 p. m. game that will be available on pay-per-view TV.
Auburn, ranked 13 th and a Top 10 team when the season commenced, doesn’t approach those others for offensive octane, but may be better defensively than all of them.
After that, Kentucky, Oct. 18 in Lexington and Ole Miss, Oct. 25 in Fayetteville.
Kentucky and Ole Miss are a step down in talent from this Alabama through Auburn, four-game gauntlet but both are good enough to be among those also getting votes in the Top 25.
Obviously Ole Miss sports enough on any given day talent to beat Florida at Florida. The Rebels will come storming into Fayetteville with all the motivation former 10-year Arkansas coach Houston Nutt can muster.
And we forget the Louisville loathing that Kentucky will bring to its Arkansas game from Petrino’s four years coaching Kentucky archrival Louisville.
So what can Petrino do about all this upon inheriting a defense that, against Alabama and Texas, was proven young, small and slow nor stellar in narrow escapes over underdogs Western Illinois and Louisiana at Monroe ?
What can he do about an offense overwhelmed by Texas and running into two more big, fast defenses ?
Just keep coaching and recruiting and know what you did to build Louisville can work here.
It’s just going to take longer to build it given the talent level and experience on hand and the competition it faces.
“ We can’t panic, ” Petrino said. “ We have got to make sure we stick to our beliefs, we stick to our fundamentals in how we are going to build this program and just keep grinding and working hard. I think our players will do that. Certainly we will have to see more improvement. ”
From everywhere.
These Hogs’ maladies multiply across the ball.
The offense can’t establish a running game because the defense falls behind so fast the offense has to pass.
Conversely, the offense’s turnovers dig the defense into field position holes or even directly add to the deficit. In fact, Arkansas opposition has scored 21 points the past two games on touchdown returns of interceptions.
At least the special teams, sometimes bumbling around like Keystone Cops versus Western Illinois and ULM, stepped up to the competition against Alabama and Texas.
“ We held our own on special teams, ” Petrino said.
As for the offense and defense, well it must have seemed to come a lot quicker at Louisville opening with nine wins his debut year of 2003. But Louisville, Petrino asserts, wasn’t playing in the SEC or nonconference at Texas.
“ We struggled, ” Petrino said. “ We made assignment errors, we did things that we didn’t do right. We weren’t playing the second and third place or the first and second place teams in the country at that time, which helped a little bit. We had this little quarterback who could make up for other mistakes on the field because he could take off and scramble around, but I’m not sure he would’ve done that against the defensive fronts and the linebackers we played the other day either. It’s a process, it takes time. ”
Nate Allen covers the Razorbacks for the Northwest Arkansas Times.