Arkansas vs. Utah State

[heathwaldrop]

I'm miffed. In case you missed it the company line all week long (filtered down through, at the very least, Chuck Barrett's "Sports Rap" before any coaches stated it publicly...which tells me that Barrett IS acting as a mouthpiece for the Hill after all) was "We've got to get back to establishing the run," "We have to run it with authority," "We need to be more physical on the O-line."

What??? Were these people watching the same game that I was watching? Do they REALLY think the reason that USC beat them was because they failed to be "physical" enough on the offensive line? Are you freaking kidding me???

The offensive problem was DROPPED BALLS, either dropped passes or fumbles...wasn't that obvious? It's not as though they had trouble running the football; Felix Jones just kept killing them by fumbling!

So mid-week we hear a very audibly uncomfortable Gus Malzahn saying "Uh...well, you know we uh...may run it more this week."

And tonight they start out under center and on the first three series, I am quite convinced, Malzahn was NOT calling the plays. What happens? More turnovers and no scoring until they start passing the football. Sure! They are it all up and down the field on Utah State--Arkansas never has had trouble running the football under Houston Nutt. Arkansas has had trouble SCORING and has had trouble WINNING, but not running. What good is it if you pile up 300 rushing yards and don't win?

Actually EVERYTHING seems to be disjointed an out of synch tonight, all the way down to Mike Nail's play-by-play, which has been nowhere near as good as last week. I've got a feeling that after last week's loss there was an implosion on the coaching staff behind closed doors and Nutt took back at least partial control of the offense. Which is why we started hearing all of this nonsense about not being "physical" enough and saw them come out running off-tackle on the first three series.

LET MALZAHN WORK. LET HIM DO WHAT HE WAS HIRED TO DO. WE TRIED IT YOUR WAY AND IT DIDN'T WORK.

[Outlaw85]

Well the Hogs get the win and roll up almost 500 total yards but didn't score but 20 pionts. It just doesn't add up. I kinda want to agree with Heath that Nutt still has control of the play calling. I want to think positive about this but it's hard. Makes me wonder if Nutt is afraid to let Gus go. Afraid Frank may like Gus better maybe?

[heathwaldrop]

I think that Gus had free reign against USC and the staff tried to pin the loss on him. I really think it comes back to Reggie Herring...Herring probably demanded that the offense control the football longer to keep his team off of the field longer.

The deal is, the Hogs would have kept it longer without fumbles. This nonsense about the line of scrimmage had nothing to do with it and I don't know how anybody could have gotten that impression.

So tonight his defense gets plenty of rest and still performs like crap. What's the deal???

The public made way too big of a deal out of that USC loss. Really, did anybody with a brain in his or her head believe that Arkansas was going to win that football game? I'd been saying for months--and this was before Dick and McFadden even were hurt--that if Arkansas could keep it within three touchdowns that I would be happy. They played to a standstill through almost three quarters and it would have been closer without the turnovers. Turnovers would not have been as much of a factor with a healthy starting QB and RB.

There's too much drama going up on the Hill right now and that really concerns me. I think that the talent and favorable schedule are going to end up not being capitalized upon. I also have concerns at this point that one of the coaches might end up making an early exit. Alex Wood would seem the most likely candidate. I hope that doesn't happen.

[Mr. C]

Eh, the defense played good enough for the shutout tonight, but it most likely won't be good enough for SEC play if they play like they did this afternoon. The offense is the bigger problem to me. We scored 20 points against them...20. I hate it when teams run up the score, but that's what the 35 point rule is for lol. Do you guys agree that if Houston Nutt doesn't 'lead' his team to at least 7 wins this year, he may be looking for a new job? I know many many fans are already calling for a new head coach, and someone will have to be the scapegoat if it's not Nutt, in the event of ending the season without a bowl game or something.

[heathwaldrop]

It just depends on how things unfold. Seven wins may be enough and may not be enough. I doubt it will be based just on wins but more or less the overall state of the program at the end of the season. If it ended right now I think he'd be gone.

Defense pitched a shutout tonight but got lucky doing it. Gave up a ton of yards. My point in saying that was that my theory is that Herring is the main reason why Nutt wrested control of the offense back from Malzahn, with the excuse that his defense was staying on the field too long. But tonight his defense was not on the field too long and stunk it up. So he got his wish by derailing Malzahn's system yet his D actually played much WORSE this week.

BTW, no 35-point rule in college. It was adopted in Arkansas high-school ball only beginning in 2002. I can remember teams like Junction City's and Shiloh Christian's putting up 80 points on some teams in the late '90s.

[Outlaw85]

Arkansas outgained Utah St. 464-253. Not a huge amount of yards given up but more than should have.