Our Team Wanted to be Great, but, We Lost the Off Season .....

[Sir Oinksalot]

It's as clear as the nose on your face ...


...you saw them come back with winning drives against La. T and TCU... and you saw them compete and show an undefeatable beating heart in the fourth...SO was so proud.

Great thing aheads right ... But then all of a sudden, we gave up the fourth to atm, and it appeared we shyd away from contact against Bama and then, when faced with an opponent away, we just appeared to want to be at home or in our dorm room playing video games ...


All these signs point to a lost team ....a team that was lost early on, last spring, last summer, last Fall even ?

What happened ?

[Sir Oinksalot]

SO will answer this, and it was answered by a seldom poster ......

Do you think Hollywood might have gone first to Nick Saban, then Malzahn,
then Sumlin...? Do you think Burp was their last choice ..?

They found a mark, someone who has all the money they could ever dream of, but wait,
you haven't done Hollywood ...

This is Our guy, and one of the main reasons we lost the off-season ...

The Most Important Time of Year ...

[hawgfan4life]

Well Shakespeare, we got beat by a better team with superior athletes versus A$M, Bama, and Auburn.  Better teams tend to win more than they lose against inferior talent.  Against Auburn, we were completely spent from the two previous weeks and 3 of the 5 previous games being against solid teams and having to fight the entire game to win.  Auburn was fresh, energized, and highly motivated after an open week.  Auburn was reeling on offense after the first three weeks but their defense was very good in losses to A&M and Clemson.  Their offense used two cupcakes and an open week to get better.  It all peaked for them in a home game against Arkansas.  We have seen this happen with teams coming into Bud Walton a little flat and Arkansas lighting them up from the start and never letting up.  Same thing.  Arkansas has issues and none of that is an excuse to say it is acceptable.  Crying and griping won't change the past, but continuing to fight and get better affects the future.  Much better to make improvements and try to do to Florida what Auburn did to us.  I guarantee we see a much different team against Florida.  Whether it can beat them, I don't know.  Will play better though.

[RME]

Nm

[greasy_corner]

I think you may have used up all of the ellipses in the universe.

[jgphillips3]

56-3.  No matter how good Auburn is, that's inexcusable.  However, I'm confident Bielema will make the coaching moves necessary to address it.  If he doesn't, well..I'm just not going to think about it.  FWIW, I thought we would go 8-4 this year and that is still possible.  I just never believed we would look so bad in so many ways and be dominated like a FCS team by Auburn.  We didn't even compete.  That's what makes it so bad.

[Oklahawg]

Naw, not it at all.

We were destined to be a 5-3 team right now. The combo of wins/losses and details were unknown but that seemed about right. 7-5 was about "par" if we were paying attention last year. Slow build. Too many wanted to buy in to the hype (I certainly did) and began interpreting anything favorable as a sign the "corner was turned." In the meantime, the team was expending huge amounts of emotional energy getting to 5-2...and landed back at 5-3 when there was nothing left in the tank when we needed it after a first-play gut shot at Aubbie.

[phadedhawg]

I'm not sure the team is lost but I do think we lost the off season.  We went big in recruiting and made it known publicly that we were doing so and we failed big.  I admire the staff for aiming high but they missed the mark. 

The players we needed to beat A&M and Bama and bah..I guess Auburn all signed with other schools. 

Our roster is a 6-6 to 8-4 (at best) roster.  I didn't think we were ever a 56-3 roster.  That game is Robb Smith's resume.  He will always be known for that game.  There's no coming back from it.  I can't blame Smith 100%.  Our offensive line made it so we couldn't sustain drives and we put a lot of pressure on the defense.  But even if the offense struggled...they didn't give up all 56 of them points.  Smith did that.

The only question is will CBB pull the trigger during our bye week or will we wait until end of season. 

[phadedhawg]

I would suggest the bye week.  It would help the fans to know the coaching staff has standards/expectations.  If we shrug off a blowout to one of the mid tier SEC teams it sets a dangerous impression with recruits, fans, and most importantly, players.

[hogginbama]

I'm not sure the team is lost but I do think we lost the off season.  We went big in recruiting and made it known publicly that we were doing so and we failed big.  I admire the staff for aiming high but they missed the mark. 

The players we needed to beat A&M and Bama and bah..I guess Auburn all signed with other schools. 

Our roster is a 6-6 to 8-4 (at best) roster.  I didn't think we were ever a 56-3 roster.  That game is Robb Smith's resume.  He will always be known for that game.  There's no coming back from it.  I can't blame Smith 100%.  Our offensive line made it so we couldn't sustain drives and we put a lot of pressure on the defense.  But even if the offense struggled...they didn't give up all 56 of them points.  Smith did that.

The only question is will CBB pull the trigger during our bye week or will we wait until end of season. 

How did we "go big" in recruiting when all the experts in here tell us the coaching staff only shoots for the low-ranked players to develop?

[Sir Oinksalot]

He's talking about the biggest belly flop in Arkansas recruiting history year before last when we had all the high flying girls in on the biggest weekend in our recruiting history and half of them came to try and turn our best recruits to Texas ...