Wally Hall really does tell it like it is - things Hogs fans do not want to..

[jkstock04]

hear, discuss, or admit.

In his column today, he points out that the U of A football program is mediocre or slightly worse than mediocre. Since 1990, Arkansas is 92-125 in conference football games. That is a 42% win percentage. And think of all the income the head coaches have been paid by the U of A and the RF over that time. Wish I could get paid for under and non-performance, then be paid triple my annual salary to leave.

Most of the type of fans who frequent boards like this do not want to hear this kind of stat. In fact, they want it out of sight and therefore out of mind. They are forward looking...always optimistic and rarely realistic. The type of fans who before every season in August predict the Hogs will win 9, 10 or more games even when everything you could consider points to having to get lucky breaks to win 6 games. (see this past season for most recent example of this. FYI, both Lanny and I predicted 6-6 among a lunch group back in August. No one else in the group of 7 or 8 picked the Hogs to win less than 7).

I suggested recently on Hogville that there should be a change in the way universities compensate and structure the contracts of coaches. My thoughts were roundly rejected because it is not the way things are now and most of you cannot envision change. Wally writes about the new AD suggesting the same thing i did: No more crazy buyouts when you do not do your job. Losing consistently becoming grounds to fire a coach "for cause". Greatest example we have of that is fresh at Arkansas...Bret Bielema. He ended up being paid about $3 million per conference win over 5 seasons. How is that even possible? I chalk it up to the funds used being "monopoly money" for universities. Until boosters stop giving so much to universities for a game and tv money continues to pour in, it probably will not change much, if any. Programs have so much money to pay coaches it is as if money is falling out of their collective pockets. They could use $100 bills to start fires and $50's as toilet paper. It's play money. Nice while it lasts I guess.

Wally also notes that 4 of the last 5 permanent head coaches at Arkansas have been fired. Zero conference championships since the 1989 season. He states in plain english that Arkansas is not the same desirable destination for coaches that it was before 1990. Again, something 90% of hogville patrons do not want to admit, discuss or hear about. Wally writes: "Losing football games and firing coaches do not make a school attractive nationwide." Of course that is a true statement. And Arkansas has fired all of its head coaches in the past 25+ years and lost a lot of games...58% of its conference games lost.

As for young Tuohy joining Morris' staff in some capacity (not sure what "football operations" means), that is a bit of a head scratcher. He never played a down of football in high school or college, if ever in his life. He goes to SMU to get a graduate degree and walks on to the football team, becoming the place holder for PATs and FGs for his 1 year there. Odd stuff. Apparently, Morris likes him. Ok. I know his parents like him being involved in athletic-related work so there you go. Maybe he will end up a head football coach someday making $4 million a year with a $20 million buyout and he can reflect on his season of holding for kicks.

I enjoy his column much more nowadays. I do not know if it is me or him. Is he improving due to his directness about various topics regarding U of A athletics? He seems to care less about what the U of A may think given what he writes about and how we words it.

Pretty good post. Here's a clue....just my .02 cents but next time we get a coach who can win at the rate of Petrino (or even Houston Nutt for that matter) don't fire him to fall in love with a guy and proclaim him a savior of everything football wonderful....only to win 11 conference games in 5 years. Complete garbage and waste of 6 straight years for the football program is what we have gotten.

My personal opinion is that these contracts should be built more so in the direction win more games = more money. Lose more games = less pay. No doubt there is compensation for the winning side (bowl games, championships) but you never hear anything about penalties for not winning. At a school like Arkansas especially, coaches cannot be lazy like Bielema. There has to be some sort of incentive to win...if a contract is drawn out to where it's basically a guaranteed $25 million plus vacation no matter what happens on the field where is the incentive or motivation to win? The guys first year we won 0 conference games and in the press conference on loss number 8 he was commenting that he was glad we lost the game. That right there tells you zero incentive to win.

The stats SEC W/L wise the past wasted 6 years have added to and made much worse our conference rep. We were once a firm middle of the pack SEC football program...not any more.

The good news is we are on a complete clean slate with a new AD and coach. May be tough but to me it is now a legit possibility with new leadership and a new culture for our program to claw its way back to middle of the pack respectable level we experienced with the Nutt and Petrino years.

[bphi11ips]

Do what?!?

I've written a lot about the TCU crowd. If you weren't there many agreed with me that the crowd was late and flat. Half the students left at halftime. Some blamed the heat, but the end result was a flat team feeding off of a flat crowd, and that set the tone for the season.

If students and fans are going to wait until Arkansas starts winning again to pack DWRRS and scream for 4 quarters, they may have to wait a long time.

[Dark Helmet Hog]

nm

hit wrong quote

oops!

[Science Fiction Greg]

Yes to the John White disaster.

As for the all-time SEC record, I don't think there's anyone that doesn't know what that record was, so I can't see a point in harping on it.  Some people like wallowing around in the pig @#$% and others prefer trying to climb up out of the sty and clean themselves off.  I know which one I prefer.

[Dwight_K_Shrute]

I've written a lot about the TCU crowd. If you weren't there many agreed with me that the crowd was late and flat. Half the students left at halftime. Some blamed the heat, but the end result was a flat team feeding off of a flat crowd, and that set the tone for the season.

If students and fans are going to wait until Arkansas starts winning again to pack DWRRS and scream for 4 quarters, they may have to wait a long time.

I'm not sure if the team fed off the crowd or the crowd fed off the team.  That first half was enough to lull anyone to sleep. 

Most of the time I would agree that fans need to do a better job and not wait and be bandwagoners, especially if we want to claim to be great fans, but.....

The way the 2016 ended with two blown leads in almost identical fashion it was on the coaches and team to come out and make a statement the first real game of the year.  If they would have played and coached like they gave a damn and were ready to compete the fans would have quickly followed suit.  I can't blame the fans on bailing on Bielema.  It wasn't like the first couple of years where the team was leaving it all out on the field and just coming up short.  They were coming out flat and unprepared each week.  Then each post game we were promised they would get better  you would not see that type of performance again etc, and yet we did.  You as a coach or team have to give fans at least some glimmer of hope.  From Bert we got none.

[Rudy Baylor]

If students and fans are going to wait until Arkansas starts winning again to pack DWRRS and scream for 4 quarters, they may have to wait a long time.

a caller to Bo recently made that statement, and was shouted down

[bphi11ips]

I'm not sure if the team fed off the crowd or the crowd fed off the team.  That first half was enough to lull anyone to sleep. 

Most of the time I would agree that fans need to do a better job and not wait and be bandwagoners, especially if we want to claim to be great fans, but.....

The way the 2016 ended with two blown leads in almost identical fashion it was on the coaches and team to come out and make a statement the first real game of the year.  If they would have played and coached like they gave a damn and were ready to compete the fans would have quickly followed suit.  I can't blame the fans on bailing on Bielema.  It wasn't like the first couple of years where the team was leaving it all out on the field and just coming up short.  They were coming out flat and unprepared each week.  Then each post game we were promised they would get better  you would not see that type of performance again etc, and yet we did.  You as a coach or team have to give fans at least some glimmer of hope.  From Bert we got none.

I get it about the end of 2016, but that is an excuse just like the heat. The point is that a team feeds off a great crowd, and ours was bad that day.

[Dwight_K_Shrute]

I get it about the end of 2016, but that is an excuse just like the heat. The point is that a team feeds off a great crowd, and ours was bad that day.

Well I could flip it and say, blaming a poor performance on the crowd is just an excuse.  Like I said sometimes the team needs to give the fans a reason to give a damn.

[rhames]

I get it about the end of 2016, but that is an excuse just like the heat. The point is that a team feeds off a great crowd, and ours was bad that day.

No. Our team just sucked this year. Blame the fans if it gives you solice but the team quit on Bielema last year and never gave a crap after that.  Why should the fans?

[GoHogs1091]

One more thing: Wally's column today was about Arkansas football but the same can be said of the basketball program since about 1997. 20 or 21 years of mediocrity at best. We are now at a full generation+ of average or below average performance in both major sports. Average conference record in football is below .500 over past 27 seasons and same for basketball over past 20 seasons.

At some point, we can hope a young version of another  Eddie Sutton or Lou Holtz or Nolan Richardson comes our way. Until then, I don't know how any rational fan can expect Arkansas football to be anything other than what it has been for the last half of my 55 years. I like what i see in Morris but have no idea if he can improve on the conference record. Heck, I'll be fairly pleased if he can just repeat what Nutt did in his decade as head coach...42-38 in SEC, given the awful last 6 seasons we just experienced. Makes Nutt years look like fantasy.

We could have hired Venables in 2007 and 2012.  Instead we chose to hire a NFL failure (Robert Petrino) and instead we chose to hire someone with a sham, mirage record in the mediocre Little 10 Conference (Bielema).  Those type of bad hiring decisions is what occurs when a low I.Q. person/persons is conducting the coaching search.

Not hiring Venables may be another missing out on a Jimmy Johnson type of a situation.

[gawntrail]

hear, discuss, or admit.

In his column today, he points out that the U of A football program is mediocre or slightly worse than mediocre. Since 1990, Arkansas is 92-125 in conference football games. That is a 42% win percentage. And think of all the income the head coaches have been paid by the U of A and the RF over that time. Wish I could get paid for under and non-performance, then be paid triple my annual salary to leave.

Most of the type of fans who frequent boards like this do not want to hear this kind of stat. In fact, they want it out of sight and therefore out of mind. They are forward looking...always optimistic and rarely realistic. The type of fans who before every season in August predict the Hogs will win 9, 10 or more games even when everything you could consider points to having to get lucky breaks to win 6 games. (see this past season for most recent example of this. FYI, both Lanny and I predicted 6-6 among a lunch group back in August. No one else in the group of 7 or 8 picked the Hogs to win less than 7).

I suggested recently on Hogville that there should be a change in the way universities compensate and structure the contracts of coaches. My thoughts were roundly rejected because it is not the way things are now and most of you cannot envision change. Wally writes about the new AD suggesting the same thing i did: No more crazy buyouts when you do not do your job. Losing consistently becoming grounds to fire a coach "for cause". Greatest example we have of that is fresh at Arkansas...Bret Bielema. He ended up being paid about $3 million per conference win over 5 seasons. How is that even possible? I chalk it up to the funds used being "monopoly money" for universities. Until boosters stop giving so much to universities for a game and tv money continues to pour in, it probably will not change much, if any. Programs have so much money to pay coaches it is as if money is falling out of their collective pockets. They could use $100 bills to start fires and $50's as toilet paper. It's play money. Nice while it lasts I guess.

Wally also notes that 4 of the last 5 permanent head coaches at Arkansas have been fired. Zero conference championships since the 1989 season. He states in plain english that Arkansas is not the same desirable destination for coaches that it was before 1990. Again, something 90% of hogville patrons do not want to admit, discuss or hear about. Wally writes: "Losing football games and firing coaches do not make a school attractive nationwide." Of course that is a true statement. And Arkansas has fired all of its head coaches in the past 25+ years and lost a lot of games...58% of its conference games lost.

As for young Tuohy joining Morris' staff in some capacity (not sure what "football operations" means), that is a bit of a head scratcher. He never played a down of football in high school or college, if ever in his life. He goes to SMU to get a graduate degree and walks on to the football team, becoming the place holder for PATs and FGs for his 1 year there. Odd stuff. Apparently, Morris likes him. Ok. I know his parents like him being involved in athletic-related work so there you go. Maybe he will end up a head football coach someday making $4 million a year with a $20 million buyout and he can reflect on his season of holding for kicks.

I enjoy his column much more nowadays. I do not know if it is me or him. Is he improving due to his directness about various topics regarding U of A athletics? He seems to care less about what the U of A may think given what he writes about and how we words it.

Did not read. Waiting for the movie.

[Cinco de Hogo]

Yep

All on Jeff Long.  He should have been fired the same afternoon he fired Petrino.

Well in truth some told you he should have never been hired in the first place.  There is a difference in hiring a reach that's has potential and a seemly sure thing that is completely wrong for your program. 

And besides Long had no better resume than Morris does, no take that back he actually had a worse resume than Morris without the potential.  Yes I know one an AD and one is a football coach but I'm trying to make a point.  Sometimes it can be just wrong and some will know it and some won't.  But ha, it's been pointed out that no one every knows for sure, someone just ends up with bragging rights.

[yraciv]

Toohy Jr. did play two years of high school football. He was a punter & holder,  so Wally needs to brush up on his research.

[Cinco de Hogo]

We could have hired Venables in 2007 and 2012.  Instead we chose to hire a NFL failure (Robert Petrino) and instead we chose to hire someone with a sham, mirage record in the mediocre Little 10 Conference (Bielema).  Those type of bad hiring decisions is what occurs when a low I.Q. person/persons is conducting the coaching search.

Not hiring Venables may be another missing out on a Jimmy Johnson type of a situation.

Well that's a freaking reach since to this day Ven has yet to coach a single games as a head coach.

[seasonhog]

Nutt was mediocre and yet he won at least nine games four out of his ten years.  We know what Petrino did.  Bielema was simply undressed by Arkansas.  He was awful.  He was the
worst coach we could have hired.

One coach that gave us double wins & we fired him.

.......this coaches change....some coaches that might have reach double wins were said to have to much baggage.....maybe we need to quit worrying about baggage...

We hired a coach that won 17 games in 3 season...........the last coach we had won 3 rose bowl.....and was not worth 3 cents at AR

U of A decision on coaches is like a Chinese fire drill. 

We can only hope that Morris can get the job done.....if not then save your posts....you can use them  in about 5 years.   

[Cinco de Hogo]

Yes to the John White disaster.

As for the all-time SEC record, I don't think there's anyone that doesn't know what that record was, so I can't see a point in harping on it.  Some people like wallowing around in the pig @#$% and others prefer trying to climb up out of the sty and clean themselves off.  I know which one I prefer.

Well if you climbed out of anything you haven't been watching because by definition you are still in it and more to the point your still on Hogville.

[bphi11ips]

No. Our team just sucked this year. Blame the fans if it gives you solice but the team quit on Bielema last year and never gave a crap after that.  Why should the fans?

TCU was a winnable football game. How much difference did the home crowd mean to Auburn against Georgia and Alabama?

[Mike Irwin]

Everyone in the thread so far has overlooked the root cause of the athletic woes since joining the SEC. John White.

White nearly destroyed all things athletic at the UofA. He forced Broyles into a search committee that resulted in Nutt when Tuberville was the guy. Instituted the infamous "D" rule that ruined several JC transfers and hampered recruiting against the rest of the SEC. In basketball, we could have had Self after Nolan left if not for White. My God, the list just goes on and on with all things White did to harm the University. The worst thing lingered up until this year, his greatest prize. He brought us Jeff Long. In true White fashion, Long did exactly what he was hired to do.

To be fair White didn't start screwing things up until the late 97 when he came up with the committee that hired Nutt instead of Tuberville. That was five years into Arkansas' SEC membership.

However, 10 years after he was removed as Chancellor, the damage White did continues to plague this school. For Arkansas' opponents he is the gift that keeps on giving. Hopefully, now that the AD he helped hire is gone, White's negative influence has ended.

[GoHogs1091]

Well that's a freaking reach since to this day Ven has yet to coach a single games as a head coach.

He was an Associate Head Coach for some years at OU.

A person can either coach or a person can't coach.

He has 2 NC rings and in 22 seasons the team he has coached for has won 10+ games 18 times.

It is apparent Venables can coach.

[rhames]

TCU was a winnable football game. How much difference did the home crowd mean to Auburn against Georgia and Alabama?

Well auburn was a 10 win team and arkansas was lucky to beat coastal Carolina so I'm not sure I see the correlation.


If only the fans cheered louder we could have won the west!!!!

[Cinco de Hogo]

TCU was a winnable football game. How much difference did the home crowd mean to Auburn against Georgia and Alabama?

I was at the TCU game, the crowd had nothing to do with the outcome of the game.  It's was a bad football day for the teams a crowd alike.  However one team overcame.

[Rudy Baylor]

Did not read. Waiting for the movie.

[bphi11ips]

Well auburn was a 10 win team and arkansas was lucky to beat coastal Carolina so I'm not sure I see the correlation.


If only the fans cheered louder we could have won the west!!!!

Nonsense.

[rhames]

Nonsense.

Haha. What you're saying, yeah. That's the nonsense.


TCU let arkansas hang around and the hogs didn't know what to do. We played like crap.


For you to blame the fans is laughable.

[GuvHog]

We could have hired Venables in 2007 and 2012.  Instead we chose to hire a NFL failure (Robert Petrino) and instead we chose to hire someone with a sham, mirage record in the mediocre Little 10 Conference (Bielema).  Those type of bad hiring decisions is what occurs when a low I.Q. person/persons is conducting the coaching search.

Not hiring Venables may be another missing out on a Jimmy Johnson type of a situation.

Petrino was the right hire. The fans knew it and were ultra excited by it. That was evident at the local Razorback Club meetings that spring before he'd ever coached a gam as head Hog. Bobby Proved them right.

The problem was and always had been, Jeff Long. Hiring him was a mistake of EPIC proportions.

[Rudy Baylor]

He was an Associate Head Coach for some years at OU.

so each April, he hired the guys who planted the new Bermuda grass and sprinkled the sand?

[Rudy Baylor]

For you to blame the fans is laughable.

correct

somehow folks "on high" still get away with this

[bphi11ips]

Haha. What you're saying, yeah. That's the nonsense.


TCU let arkansas hang around and the hogs didn't know what to do. We played like crap.


For you to blame the fans is laughable.

I don't blame the fans for the loss. I do blame them for the atmosphere before the game outside the stadium and during the game itself. Were you there?  Have you ever seen the fans make a huge difference in an Arkansas football game?  I have and many others have as well.

I blame the fans for not being outside the stadium to welcome the team. I blame the fans for not being in the stands when the team ran through the A. I blame the students for leaving at halftime.

We're not talking about FAMU here. We're not talking about a game where we went in 3-5. We're talking about an intersectional matchup against a ranked old rival on network television in the second game of the year. Under the circumstances, the crowd was pitiful. It was embarassing.

What many here are saying is that the fans will support the team when it wins. If they can't fill the stadium for a game like TCU under the TCU circumstances, they don't deserve a winner.   

[rhames]

I don't blame the fans for the loss. I do blame them for the atmosphere before the game outside the stadium and during the game itself. Were you there?  Have you ever seen the fans make a huge difference in an Arkansas football game?  I have and many others have as well.

I blame the fans for not being outside the stadium to welcome the team. I blame the fans for not being in the stands when the team ran through the A. I blame the students for leaving at halftime.

We're not talking about FAMU here. We're not talking about a game where we went in 3-5. We're talking about an intersectional matchup against a ranked old rival on network television in the second game of the year. Under the circumstances, the crowd was pitiful. It was embarassing.

What many here are saying is that the fans will support the team when it wins. If they can't fill the stadium for a game like TCU under the TCU circumstances, they don't deserve a winner.   

Wasn't TCU a sell out?


You also get the award for posting a lot of words not not really saying anything.

[redeye]

While I still think Wally is a hack and a shill, he has been more open and direct in his criticism of the UofA. Good in the long run if the ADG quits being Pravda but just makes him look like more of an ass. Where was this the last 40 years?

I think this happens when the people he's shilling for are upset.  It sounds like a war is brewing.

Championship teams typically spend a lot of money on coaches.  I don't think our problem is with how much we spend, but with how it's being used.

[Cinco de Hogo]

I don't blame the fans for the loss. I do blame them for the atmosphere before the game outside the stadium and during the game itself. Were you there?  Have you ever seen the fans make a huge difference in an Arkansas football game?  I have and many others have as well.

I blame the fans for not being outside the stadium to welcome the team. I blame the fans for not being in the stands when the team ran through the A. I blame the students for leaving at halftime.

We're not talking about FAMU here. We're not talking about a game where we went in 3-5. We're talking about an intersectional matchup against a ranked old rival on network television in the second game of the year. Under the circumstances, the crowd was pitiful. It was embarassing.

What many here are saying is that the fans will support the team when it wins. If they can't fill the stadium for a game like TCU under the TCU circumstances, they don't deserve a winner.

Which came first at TCU fans or winning because I remember when we put as many in their stadium as they did.  TCU and SMU loved their home games vs the Hogs.  Was always one of their big paydays.  Do you get it?

[rhames]

I actually remember it being loud because of the new construction.



The team came out flat and it was apparent we were in for the same ole same ole.



It goes both ways. Can't expect the fans to do their part when the team and coaches don't seem to even want to do theirs



None of this matters really.

[hogcards]

I don't blame the fans for the loss. I do blame them for the atmosphere before the game outside the stadium and during the game itself. Were you there?  Have you ever seen the fans make a huge difference in an Arkansas football game?  I have and many others have as well.

I blame the fans for not being outside the stadium to welcome the team. I blame the fans for not being in the stands when the team ran through the A. I blame the students for leaving at halftime.

We're not talking about FAMU here. We're not talking about a game where we went in 3-5. We're talking about an intersectional matchup against a ranked old rival on network television in the second game of the year. Under the circumstances, the crowd was pitiful. It was embarassing.

What many here are saying is that the fans will support the team when it wins. If they can't fill the stadium for a game like TCU under the TCU circumstances, they don't deserve a winner.

Bielema created that atmosphere.

[bphi11ips]

Bielema created that atmosphere.

In the second game of the season when Arkansas was 1-0 with a fifth year senior QB?

[NotSoFastMyFriend]

Conference titles by coach:

Danny Ford - 0
Houston Nutt - 0
Bobby Petrino - 0
Bret Bielema - 0

[bphi11ips]

Wasn't TCU a sell out?


You also get the award for posting a lot of words not not really saying anything.

Announced attendance was 73,668. I was there. The stadium was never full. Many here explained why the crowd was late. There were problems with concessions. It was hot. Students always leave at halftime. There was no internet access in the stadium. (True. I couldn't even send a text.).

There were lots of excuses, but no one disputed that the crowd was late and flat or that half the students left at halftime.

Arkansas's fans are going to have to be much better than they were in 2017 if they expect to attract the best recruits and compete in the SEC. I'm not saying Bielema doesn't deserve some blame for that. But it's still an excuse. Arkansas quit in the Belk Bowl so that excuses a lukewarm showing for a big game to start 2017. That's a problem in my opinion if Arkansas is going to be great again.

[hoglady]

Everyone in the thread so far has overlooked the root cause of the athletic woes since joining the SEC. John White.

White nearly destroyed all things athletic at the UofA. He forced Broyles into a search committee that resulted in Nutt when Tuberville was the guy. Instituted the infamous "D" rule that ruined several JC transfers and hampered recruiting against the rest of the SEC. In basketball, we could have had Self after Nolan left if not for White. My God, the list just goes on and on with all things White did to harm the University. The worst thing lingered up until this year, his greatest prize. He brought us Jeff Long. In true White fashion, Long did exactly what he was hired to do.

I don't hate too many people - but I really hate John White.
Might as well add in his part in the destruction of the women's basketball program when he and Bev Lewis decided we didn't need Gary Blair.

[hogcards]

In the second game of the season when Arkansas was 1-0 with a fifth year senior QB?

Yes

Everyone knew he'd underperformed and choke away games again. It was already his m.o.

[Cinco de Hogo]

I don't hate too many people - but I really hate John White.
Might as well add in his part in the destruction of the women's basketball program when he and Bev Lewis decided we didn't need Gary Blair.

The thing is some(body) hired White and for the most part those people have been making the top decisions concerning the U and the athletic program for a long time.  The mistakes they keep making were being made from the time Frank Broyles retired as a football coach.  You could make a very long list of them and while hindsight is 20/20 you really don't expect to look back and see a list that long.

[Cinco de Hogo]

No.  By definition.  Every place he's been.

Organization killer who always beings shame.

Give us a list of that shame and exactly how he is to blame.  The Ditch is the only one I can even give you credit for.

[kaiserhog]

The problem has been the Crowe/Kines/Ford years and the Smith/Bielema years.

[GuvHog]

No.  By definition.  Every place he's been.

Organization killer who always beings shame.

Petrino was the right hire and he proved it. He would have continued to prove it had Jeff Long not been the blithering idiot that he was.

[rude1]

Yes the contracts are gettting out of hand with the buyouts, but JL & UofA stooped to a whole new level of stupidity. It is one thing to feel you have to give a coach a big buy out to get him to come, it is quite another to chain yourself to a football you have already under contract with a 15 million dollar buyout after he goes 7-6, compiling a overall record of 10-15 & 2-14 in conference.

As I said at the time, DUMBEST contract ever!!!!! Where was the checks and balances? Where was someone with some testicular fortitude to stand up and tell King Jeff that was insane and they couldn't go along with it? Instead all hailed to the great King Jeff who was being nationally praised for firing the winning football coach and replacing him with the fat man, then giving him an undeserved raise, extension, and hefty buyout in case anyone had any ideas of getting rid of his coach, while everyone just rubber stamped whatever the King wanted, because after all he was the one with the brains.

[bphi11ips]

Yes

Everyone knew he'd underperformed and choke away games again. It was already his m.o.

And they let the players know that's the way they felt, too, right?  And that's okay? 

A pumped crowd could have sent an entirely different message to the team and could have made a difference in the game. Instead, a flat crowd and a flat team fed off of each other and that continued during a season where 3 games were dead winners, 3 were almost surely losers, and 6 could have gone either way.

Players want to play in front of the best crowds. It's hard enough to get kids and their families to travel long distances to play football. Arkansas will have the stadium to impress recruits, but it needs to be packed and loud on a regular basis.

[rhames]

And they let the players know that's the way they felt, too, right?  And that's okay? 

A pumped crowd could have sent an entirely different message to the team and could have made a difference in the game. Instead, a flat crowd and a flat team fed off of each other and that continued during a season where 3 games were dead winners, 3 were almost surely losers, and 6 could have gone either way.

Players want to play in front of the best crowds. It's hard enough to get kids and their families to travel long distances to play football. Arkansas will have the stadium to impress recruits, but it needs to be packed and loud on a regular basis.

You can post all the words you want but you're still wrong.


For 4 seasons fans gave Bielema the benefit of the doubt. They showed up, as they also did for the TCU game, in strides and cheered hard. I could list all the games while Bielema was here when the crowd showed up, even if it didn't have to


This was a year  coming off a season where they crapped the bed the last 2 games and put out some really embarrassing performances.



This was Bret's product to sell to the fans and he took a big dump. The blame is his and his alone

It's crazy for you to blame the fans for being tired of that circus.




Even though your point is wrong because they showed up to the TCU game and watched the razorbacks look like crap.

[26.2Hog]

The problem has been the Crowe/Kines/Ford years and the Smith/Bielema years.

For sure, except I always thought Danny Ford actually did a lot of rebuilding by recruiting the talent needed to compete at the top of the SEC.

Unfortunately, John White handcuffed Broyles with his committee ("because that's the way we hired faculty at Georgia Tech"), and all that talent was turned over to a flim-flamming counterfeiter.

[redeye]

Give us a list of that shame and exactly how he is to blame.  The Ditch is the only one I can even give you credit for.

You're wasting your time.  Zeke hated Petrino before his motorcycle crash and always rooted against him as our head coach.

[HognotinMemphis]

Yeah, only thing missing was hitting up Tommy and Joe for lunch, lots of new info in today's column for 2010.

Yeah, you already know it all so never need to hear it again from a newspaper writer. He writes his column for you and your exclusive set so he is just wasting his time.

[ricepig]

Yeah, you already know it all so never need to hear it again from a newspaper writer. He writes his column for you and your exclusive set so he is just wasting his time.

I'm glad you've come around to understanding this, it will make future discussions simpler.

[(notOM)Rebel123]

Yeah, you already know it all so never need to hear it again from a newspaper writer. He writes his column for you and your exclusive set so he is just wasting his time.

Sorry, but in this case, yes. It was a waste of time.