Razorback Football 2006: An Arkansas Tragedy

[Nathan Shumaker]

Coming off the disastrous 2005 football season, Houston Nutt's position as Razorback Head Coach was tenuous at best.  After two successive losing years heaped on top of perpetual mediocrity in Southeastern Conference play, the Arkansas football team was at its modern nadir.  Despite being a prideful man who tightly controlled the offensive reigns for his entire career as Head Coach, Nutt had little choice when Athletic Director Frank Broyles "suggested" that he tap Gus Malzahn as Offensive Coordinator.

Many eyebrows were raised across the college football scene with Malzahn's hire to the lofty position of OC.  Having just led the Springdale Bulldogs, a high school about 15 minutes away from Razorback Stadium, to an undefeated season, a national ranking and a state championship, Gus Malzahn is an Arkansas high school football coaching legend and is widely respected nationwide for his high scoring and efficient offensive schemes.  However, Malzahn had no real college coaching experience when Nutt brought him onboard.

It was easy to take Nutt's move skeptically since recruiting the "Springdale 5" was crucial to Nutt's chances at remaining at Arkansas. 

Two of the Springdale 5 had already verbally committed to Florida.  Urban Meyer's Gators deployed a spread offensive that was a natural fit for receivers Ben Cleveland and Damian Williams who were accustomed to Malzahn's similar schemes at Springdale.  Furthermore, quarterback Mitch Mustain, the most decorated player in the history of Arkansas high school football, had just backed out of his commitment to Arkansas after Nutt sacked Roy Witke, the quarterback coach who had originally recruited Mustain.

Losing Mustain, the home-grown Gatorade and Parade Magazine National Player of the Year, as well as three others from the Springdale 5 would have been a public relations fiasco for Nutt.  After the misery of the 2005 Razorback football season, Nutt simply could not afford such a setback.

Prior to Malzahn's hire, it appeared that only receiver Andrew Norman would be donning the Razorback cardinal the upcoming fall.  However, with Malzahn now at his side, Nutt achieved a coup when a desperate last minute recruiting push landed four of the vaunted Springdale handful.  All four of these Springdale players played key roles in Malzahn's high flying, Hurry-Up-No-Huddle (HUNH) spread offense. 

In a matter of a few short weeks, the Razorback following went from the depths of despair to giddy optimism.  After years of stagnant passing and a woefully predictable offense, Razorback fans saw Malzahn and the new recruits as just the medicine to get Arkansas's offense back on its feet.

For the months leading up to the 2006 season opening contest against the University of Southern California, the media pumped up the promise of Gus Malzahn's pass happy, unpredictable offense.  The point starved Razorback fans enthusiastically ate up all of the hype.

But, mystifyingly to many fans, Malzahn's offense was MIA in the USC game aside from two tantalizing drives.  While the first drive ended in a Felix Jones' fumble, the Razorbacks had USC "on its heels" according to Southern Cal's coach, Pete Carroll.  From that point until USC turned the contest into a rout in the second half, the Arkansas spectators saw a return of what Razorback fans have derisively labeled over the years as "Nuttball." 

Nuttball is characterized by off-tackle running plays on first and second down with third down split evenly between draw plays and short passes. 

Apparently out of desperation, Houston Nutt benched his starting quarterback, Robert Johnson, and burned Mitch Mustain's chances at a redshirt season by sending the youngster in to salvage fan interest.  In a dazzlingly smooth and efficient performance, the young man promptly marched the Hog football team to a touchdown on his first series.  More importantly to many, the Razorbacks returned to Malzahn's style of play.  But it would only last a series.

For the rest of the season, it became clear that Nutt was putting Malzahn on a short leash.  While Malzahn called most of the plays, the playbook was Nutt's, focusing on a running heavy scheme all too familiar to Arkansas Football fans. 

Moreover, Nutt could be seen on the sideline overruling Malzahn during critical plays of several games.

With his job on the line, it appeared that Nutt did not want to let go of the offense despite his declarations to the contrary leading up to the season.

Fans felt betrayed.  As Internet message boards reflected, many fans were outraged.  "Nutt lied to us," was the common sentiment.

But, after wins against Vanderbilt and Alabama that were both gifts of Divine generosity, something unexpected began happening.  Even though Gus Malzahn was limited to half an offensive playbook, he began to confound his opponents with unpredictable play calling designed to laterally stretch out the defense, opening holes for Arkansas' loaded backfield of Felix Jones, Peyton Hillis and the phenomenal sophomore tailback Darren McFadden.

Gus Malzahn has demonstrated that he knows how to fully utilize an offensive team's strengths.  For players, this has the benefit of boosting their stats to gaudy numbers.  Only the year before, Malzahn coached Mitch Mustain to both the Gatorade and Parade Magazine National Player of the Year awards.  With his 2006 coaching debut in the college ranks, Malzahn crafted an offense that propelled Darren McFadden to a Doak Walker award and a second place finish for the Heisman Trophy.

With Malzahn's help and consistent defensive play, as the season progressed Arkansas became stronger and stronger, until, at 10-1, the Razorbacks had only LSU and Florida between them and a possible National Championship berth.

But all was not roses.

Soon after spring football practice opened, rumors began to emerge from the "Hill" that Nutt resented Gus Malzahn.  Nutt resented having to hire an Offensive Coordinator and that resentment was made more acute because that coach was a "golden boy" hired straight out of the high school 15 miles down the road.

When Nutt spoke of his new Offensive Coordinator, bitterness sometimes seemed just below the surface.  "Mal-a-zahn" and "high school coach" were unflattering monikers that Nutt publicly pressed on Malzahn.  These utterances lent credence to rumors that Nutt was indeed harboring bitterness towards his new OC. 

Heated arguments with Nutt on the Arkansas sideline also showed that, while Nutt might fight with him, Malzahn would not wilt under these unfavorable conditions.

But even as the Arkansas Football team gained momentum on the field of play, the cancer within the program grew.

After the Southern Cal game, Houston Nutt named Mitch Mustain as the new starter and the heralded freshman responded by leading the Razorbacks to seven straight victories.  The freshman's heroics during this time included tossing the dramatic winning pass to Ben Cleveland in overtime against Alabama.  Mustain's play during the monumental Auburn upset merited a national freshman of the week nod.

However, when Mustain threw an interception on his first pass in the South Carolina game, Nutt immediately pulled the freshman in favor of last year's starter, sophomore Casey Dick.  Remarking afterwards that he had a "quick trigger" for yanking quarterbacks, Nutt's surprising decision seemed to pan out as Dick performed well in place of Mustain.  After the game, Nutt named Dick the new starter.

But an unseemly undercurrent tainted the quarterback change.  Year of the Dog, an upcoming book about Springdale's eventful 2005 championship season, contained Mustain quotes that portrayed Nutt in a mildly unfavorable light.  These quotes began making the rounds in the tight circles of Arkansas football around the time of Nutt's "quick trigger."  Almost immediately murmurs began to circulate that Nutt pulled Mustain out of retribution for his YotD remarks.  Nutt's ire was so extreme, the rumors maintained, that Mustain would never see the football field again this year.

Skeptics of these rumors took a wait-and-see approach until Arkansas lost the close and pivotal regular season ending game with LSU.  In that contest, Casey Dick lived a quarterback's nightmare, missing receivers badly, throwing a game losing interception and finishing 3-17 for a mere 29 yards.  Arkansas fans waited breathlessly during that contest for Nutt to mercifully bench Dick in favor of Mustain, but it never happened.  Dick's showing was so abysmal that national commentators speculated that Mustain must have been secretly injured, forcing Nutt to stay with Dick.  This speculation proved incorrect.

For many Razorback fans, the LSU game was proof positive that Nutt was willing to sacrifice a potential National Championship bid in a personal, petty vendetta against a teenager.

Yet Mustain, despite rumors, did see the field again before the year ended.  During the SEC Championship game, Mitch Mustain, last year's high school all-everything quarterback with a bazooka arm, was sent in for one play and one play only: a quarterback sneak.  Arkansas would eventually lose a tight game to Florida and the reasons were clear: wretched quarterbacking combined with baffling offensive play calling during crucial downs that bore the hallmarks of Nuttball.

Mustain's quarterback sneak appeared to add insult to injury and only made Nutt's alleged vendetta ever more credible, vicious and petty. 

And while Arkansas has emerged victorious in ten games and is headed to a very good bowl berth, the Razorback faithful is left shaking its collective head over the two games lost to colossal personal foible. 

Yes, as hard as it is to believe, it appears that Houston Nutt was willing to undermine his team's chances at a National Championship because a 17-year-old called him a "dork" last year.  Such behavior can only be characterized as pathological and tragic.

It is then no surprise that, during what should be a quiet time between the SEC championship loss and the upcoming Capital One Bowl, the poison that has been brewing inside the Razorback team has begun to percolate to the surface.

Many Razorback fans felt betrayed earlier in the season when it became clear that Houston Nutt never had any intention of giving Gus Malzahn total control of the Hog offense.  The immediate reappearance of Nuttball in the USC game was "bait-and-switch" they lamented.  However, as wins mounted, fans unaware of the program's festering dark secrets forgave Nutt and appreciated Malzahn's remarkable innovation within the tight constraints imposed upon him.  Of course, Darren McFadden electrified fans with his record setting season.

But what about the Springdale players who came to Arkansas under the belief that Nutt would institute Gus' complex passing strategies?  How did they feel when it became obvious that Nutt never intended to give Malzahn's HUNH spread offense a fair shake?

While Norman committed to Arkansas before Malzahn's hire, Williams and Cleveland were penciled in as Florida Gators, a pass friendly team that defeated Arkansas in the SEC Championship game and who will be playing Ohio State for the National Championship in a few weeks.  Mitch Mustain was leaning heavily towards Notre Dame, a team whose quarterback just finished third in the Heisman race, one spot behind McFadden.

These three players came to Arkansas because they trusted Nutt when they were led to believe that the Razorbacks would have a different offensive look this year.  All three players have skills that, if honed in the right team setting, could propel them to lucrative professional careers. 

But these young players and self professed Christians suffered more than potential damage to their professional football career ambitions; they suffered betrayal at the hands of a millionaire who exploited them to save his own skin.

Their alarmed parents took their concerns about the direction of the Hog offense to Arkansas AD Frank Broyles.  These parents did not want to believe what they witnessed this season: that Houston Nutt deliberately lied to their sons in order preserve his job.  But Broyles provided the parents with little sympathy.  Instead, Arkansas media went on the warpath attacking the concerned parents and the three Springdale players. 

Media with close ties with the U of A football program originally focused on Mitch Mustain and his mother, claiming that a disgruntled Mustain and his overbearing mother went to Broyles to complain about playing time.  This didn't last long, however, as meeting specifics leaked to Internet message boards, implicating the media for conducting a smear campaign.

Soon after the media broadened its attacks to include Cleveland, Williams and their parents, talented receiver Damian Williams announced that he was leaving the Razorback football team.

Spinning under full damage control mode, complicit media are now trying furiously to convince Arkansas' famously loyal fans that Houston Nutt's deception is simply standard operating procedure for college coaches. 

The problem for the University of Arkansas Athletic Department and its media allies is that honesty is still seen as a virtue throughout this conservative Southern state.  Arkansans expect that their highest paid state employee will uphold the Christian ideals that still ring true throughout the "Land of Opportunity." 

Arkansas is a small state and the Springdale 5 are like adopted sons for many proud Arkansas families.  For anyone to deceive and abuse these young and trusting men is unpardonable.

While the media attacks against the Springdale players have broadened to the national stage, the attacks appear to be ineffective at turning Arkansas fan sentiment against them.  In a recent poll conducted by a local television station, around 60% of the nearly 3,000 respondents believe that "the problem is Houston Nutt" when asked about the issue with the Razorback offense that led to Williams' departure.

The bitter irony to this saga is that the people most abused by Nutt almost certainly saved his job.  It is highly unlikely that the Razorbacks would have experienced this year's successes without the significant contributions of Mustain, Cleveland, Williams and, of course, Malzahn.

This time last year Houston Nutt was hanging by the skin of his teeth to his Arkansas head coaching position.  Now, Nutt is preparing his team for a trip to Orlando to play Wisconsin in the prestigious Capital One Bowl.  Yet the Razorbacks might be in worse shape now then ever before.  If the meltdowns continue on the Hill, if Mustain and others follow Williams to greener pastures, Nutt may never be able to convince another blue chip quarterback or receiver to trust him.  And if Malzahn gets fed up and leaves to another program... well, that would be Razorback football Armageddon.

[DEVICEHIGH]

wow

[pioneerbasketball]

I'm seeing lines.

[Ugly Uncle]

Okay...the first person to post on this thread that actually read all of that...could you please PM me and let me know what was said. 

[sickboy1138]

Who's your publisher?

[Nap]

Who is this guy?  Not a bad start, his second post.  What was his first post... War & Peace? 

Seriously, I enjoyed reading it.  Yes, I read it.  It basically states everything we already know about the season, but makes for a great review anyway.  I hope this doesn't get deleted because I can see a lot of thought went into it.

[rlamb]

A fantastic, truthful, hard hitting, factual, Howard Cossell type tell it like it is
POST!!!!   1000+ Karma for you!!

[10thPlanet]

tells it like it is.

[NuttinItUp]

booyah booyah

Ok, so I didn't actually read that entire long ass post, but I feel it might have something meaningful to offer.

[ste4236]

Who is this guy?  Not a bad start, his second post.  What was his first post... War & Peace? 

it was actually a nice essay on euthanasia.
Also a good read

[riccoar]

Boils down to:  Houston could benefit from these books.







Quote by Nathan Shumaker:
"Nuttball is characterized by off-tackle running plays on first and second down with third down split evenly between draw plays and short passes."


I don't think I have ever seen Nutt's offense put more plain than that.  Good post.

[riccoar]

Hell, on second thought, this should be stickied.

[A.K.A.]

Wall of Text - 1,000pts
Me - Dead!




Not a bad read.

[TomasPistola]

I can't read that much stuff this late/early....WOW

[PigSue-E]

Nice post.  Houston is a f##$ nutt.

[A_True_Hog_Jedi]

So what is Nutt's master plan anyway?  Ride DMac for another season, then tell Gus to fire up the HUNH and hope it works, but if it doesn't blame it on Gus and throw him under the bus!  Yeah, seem par for the course for HDN.

[A_True_Hog_Jedi]

Oh, by the way great post! I don't think anyone needs to blame these kids or their parents. They did what they thought was best for them and I can't blame them for it.

[baitshop]

Certainly no opinion, rumor, or innuendo in this novel........

[PigSue-E]

If it had been one parent or sets of parents acting up you could claim spoiled parent syndrome.  But Broyles and nutt actually had 3 sets of parents on their ass.  There IS a problem here that is being hushed for the time being.

[TuffyRuff]

Bravo.

Bravo!

[artyhog]

This guy is the king of the Darkside.

Looks like he made a long article from multiple posts on Hogville.

You can really see which side of the fence he is on.

[Buster Hog]

Nathan-  Great post!  Your post should go down in history as a complete assessment of the past football season.

[d1nonlyhogfan]

Complete, succinct, and all-around very good analysis of this season. This is worthy of being published on a national stage.

[chshog]

Well said Mr. Shumaker.

[Maddhog]

I read every word of it.  It's awesome.

I have to salute you, Nathan.

[RedRiverHog]

Did everyone not know all this??

[MissPiggy2]

I read every word of this masterpiece!  What a summary......and you mirror my thoughts on the year exactly!  Well-said........

[Hog6]

A fantastic, truthful, hard hitting, factual, Howard Cossell type tell it like it is
POST!!!!   1000+ Karma for you!!

Baloney.  Too many "facts" used in this diatribe without supporting evidence.  This is an opinion piece, plain and simple.  Who granted you the degrees necessary to render this evaluation: "pathological" ?  How many hours did you spend in direct observation of your subject? You wasted a lot of time on this but it is not impressive because of the hate and pure supposition sprinkled throughout.  A waste of space.  OK mods, why are you allowing this tripe to remain, I thought hsv decided that we would move on as of today?

[HognotinMemphis]

If it's not about Nutt, Nutt will make it about Nutt. Nutt has to be the featured playa.

[HoginIllinois]

Well, I read it all and it really tells it like it is.

Good Job.

[Puerco Diablo]

That is nothing but REVISIONIST HISTORY.  How is that whole post nothing more than "counter spin" to the "spin" that so many on this board complain about.  No matter what side your on, all spin is BS.

[H-O-double g]

Nice post Nathan!

[southavenhog]

This person has way to much free time!  And GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!  one person transfered

[1stwordswerewoopig]

I read all of it because I kept thinking that he might make a point that hasn't been made a thousand times already.

I was wrong so if you're trying to decide whether or not to read all of it or not, move on to the next thread.

This is "been there, done that."

P.S. However, he does have a nice writing style.  He must have had some good teachers.

[hogwash]

This guy is the king of the Darkside.

Looks like he made a long article from multiple posts on Hogville.

You can really see which side of the fence he is on.

I agree with you this season is far from a tragedy... last time I checked 10-3 was a winning seasonto say the least.   I didn't get past the title of this post before i disagreed so why even read the rest?

[spudhog]

was like reading one of those "sports reporters" shows final comments. 

[staffhog]

This could be the outline for his next book. 

[CDubyaP]

Mr. Shumaker, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

P.S. Just kidding...it wasn't bad.

[cmakrzrbak]

Truthiness.

[Puerco Diablo]

Truthiness.

Perfect

[RedSatinHog]

I normally get very bored when trying to read something of that length, but for me, that was probably the most riveting post I've seen on this board yet.

[HogDodging]

Two thumbs up.
It is worth the time to read it.
People that don't like what it said are afraid of the truth.

[hogoh]

I LOL'd at the original post.

Dale has driven people insane.

[Biggus Piggus]

Two thumbs up.
It is worth the time to read it.
People that don't like what it said are afraid of the truth.

I don't fear crap.  This is melodrama.

[Jaison Black]

WOW!

A new day indeed.

This guy here puts on his 20.00 Darth Vader helmet from Wal-Mart and proceeds to take everything negative he has read here and make a 1,000 word essay of it.

Then it gets stickied.

Amazing.

[Biggus Piggus]

I did not sticky it.  Somebody among the admins apparently wants it to be party line.  I am not going along with it.  But I won't unsticky it.  That would be picking a fight.   But let it be known, the top post in this thread is merely a rehash of the story as told and mistold on this board by many different parties, some of them of less than dubious distinction.  It is not authoritative.  But it makes some people feel better.  That's sick.

[clew]

I think that the essay will satisfy 66.8% of the people on this board, upset 22.7%, and confuse the rest.  Oh, and 86.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot...

chris

[WestMemphisHogFan]

A fantastic, truthful, hard hitting, factual, Howard Cossell type tell it like it is
POST!!!!   1000+ Karma for you!!

Baloney.  Too many "facts" used in this diatribe without supporting evidence.  This is an opinion piece, plain and simple.  Who granted you the degrees necessary to render this evaluation: "pathological" ?  How many hours did you spend in direct observation of your subject? You wasted a lot of time on this but it is not impressive because of the hate and pure supposition sprinkled throughout.  A waste of space.  OK mods, why are you allowing this tripe to remain, I thought hsv decided that we would move on as of today?

I had the exact same thoughts.  I see it as a MASSIVE stirring of the proverbial pot. The day after we were told to calm it down and start focusing on the bowl, and this is posted? I read every word, and though a lot, if not most, was true, I just question...why? We have hashed this same stuff out over and over again.  We have a bowl game coming up in a little over two weeks, a New Years Day bowl.  A VERY good bowl at that. We had two RB's go over 1000 yards rushing, one of them was the heisman trophy runner-up.  We have a WR who will be over 1000 after this game. We have the OC of the year, the SEC coach of the year. We won 10 games, with the possibility of winning 11, which has happened only a few times in Razorback history. We had a LOT of good things that happned this past year in football. It wasn't all bad guys.  I would love to be 13-0 right now.  But we're not. But we are 10-3, and looking forward to be a big bowl game.

[Jaison Black]

I did not sticky it.  Somebody among the admins apparently wants it to be party line.  I am not going along with it.  But I won't unsticky it.  That would be picking a fight.

I wasn't coming at you about the sticky Biggus. I didn't figure you did it. After reading your posts the past few weeks, i have a new perspective on you.

[WestMemphisHogFan]

I read all of it because I kept thinking that he might make a point that hasn't been made a thousand times already.

I was wrong so if you're trying to decide whether or not to read all of it or not, move on to the next thread.

This is "been there, done that."

P.S. However, he does have a nice writing style.  He must have had some good teachers.

AMEN AND AMEN.  Same ole same ole...