Wally Hall's Column 10/21/05

[riccoar]

Like it is


Nutt has brought some criticism on himself



Wally Hall



Houston Nutt will be criticized if he starts Alex Mortensen against Georgia. He will be criticized if he pulls the redshirt off true freshman Casey Dick. He will be criticized if he doesn't start Robert Johnson. He will be criticized if he wins 42-10 in a shocker. And some of the criticism, in my opinion, is his own fault. When you close practices and become so secretive no one knows what you are doing, the fans lose trust. When they lose trust they become angry and eventually apathetic. Razorbacks fans are speeding toward apathy at this point. The Razorbacks football team is not as good as expected or deserved. And there are no answers coming that satisfy fans' need to know. Not from the coaches and not from the reporters who until this season were allowed to give eyeball reports each day. So Nutt is going to be criticized by those fans who feel they have been alienated, and then the problem will grow. If Nutt has a weak area, it is how thin-skinned he can be sometimes. He takes criticism personally.
   Nutt has to reach the point where he understands critical remarks are aimed at his coaching, not him as a person or man.
   He's an outstanding individual, but the football team he is responsible for is just not very good right now.
   A large group of fans are justifiably disappointed in the season that they believed would end in a bowl.
   It might have been Shreveport, but that would have shown marked improvement over last season, when the Razorbacks went 5-6.
   The Independence Bowl is not what the average fan wants, but it has improved in the past decade and Shreveport is a fun city to visit (see Superior Grill).
   A new quarterback may be what the Razorbacks need right now.
   It is my opinion Johnson has not been the same since the Southern California game when he took a fierce beating.
   Maybe that hurt his confidence, or maybe his back is still bothering him and he's not telling anyone, but he hasn't made the same quick decisions and plays he did before USC and during the first half of that game.
   Mortensen is not as athletic and a bit on the mechanical side, but if he does start don't be surprised if you see the competitive side of Johnson go back into full swing.
   As far as pulling the redshirt off Dick or any other true freshman, it may be time.
   Sure it seems desperate, but that's better than doing it out of pure panic.
   With Mitch Mustain committed to Arkansas next season, why not play the freshman from Allen, Texas?
   Look what freshmen Felix Jones and Darren McFadden have done for this team.
   By the way, McFadden is the second-youngest football player on the entire team. He turned 18 on Aug. 27. (Elston Forte turns 18 next Friday.)
   If the Razorbacks need Dick or Marcus Shavers to play, then so be it.
   Just like moving Jeremy Harrell and Fred Bledsoe to the offensive line will help the team, it will help the players, too.
   Harrell was recruited by most schools for the offensive line and Bledsoe is a gifted athlete who at 6-3, 320 pounds has the ability to play in the NFL. This move may give him the motivation he has been needing.
   All of these players mentioned today could help make this a little bit better football team, and that is much needed.
   In a way this is like Matt Jones' freshman season when he was the only quarterback on campus to not play against UNLV.
   He sat out the first three games entirely and when the Hogs were 1-2, he started seeing action and they finished 6-3.
   That's not to say another true freshman has that type of ability and is going to turn the season around, but then we don't know because we haven't been allowed to see him practice.

[WilsonHog]

The tide continues to turn.............

[kremlinhog]

wow, trying to sell the bowl in shreveport as something that is improving
sorry but the baselline its is improving from is poor, as he did say though fans dont aspire to this bowl, imo should not even be called a bowl

[hoggystyle78]

I'm just glad to see Wally bow up a little bit and let it be known that people are starting to realize that there's a little bit more than 5% of the fan base upset with the state of our FB program. Maybe the media will start to complain a little more?

[LA HAWG]

I am no fan of Wally but I can say that Superior Grill in Shreveport is a great place to eat mexican food. 

[qwillis]

Something that I've never understood is the lack of confidence that this coaching staff has displayed in it's players. I guess during the year Herring felt that by berating his defense publicly would turn the tide..but when you are a new defensive coordinator and you are inheriting players you have to play with the cards you are dealt with. Yea..no one should score 70 on us, but no quarterback from Vanderbilt should win a game in a 2 minute drill.....And this quarterback issue...Nutt needs to stop....If I were a  quarterback being recruited to Arkansas...I would be thinking to myself, will they have confidence in me if it's my first year taking on 100% of the snaps and I have a crumbling offensive line? That's why I don't blame Damian for leaving the state...I think he peaked at what is happening to Marcus Monk and saw how his talent might just be wasted and that the smashmouth running that got us 8-5 records is no longer a factor....and personally...8-5 is not going to get you good recruits all the time...it's time to do something different...Real coaches don't wait until near the end of the season to start thinkin' they should have switched the quarterback..go with one guy..stick with him..stand by him..and get him some throws...and stop running a one wide-receiver set...who are you fooling...everyone knows you are going to throw to Monk...the coaches have yet to show that they believe in all of their players and think this contributes greatly to the performance on the field. Going two-deep on the depth chart won't win games all the time....with a team like this fresh legs are always needed....

[Nutt_Hate_Me]

Is the end near when Wally vacates your rectum?

"Houston it's just getting too tight up in here even for an elf like me, and Bo never shuts up"

[dirty stanchez]

The tide is starting to turn.

The headline of the article says it all about the changing attitudes towards the ole Nutt coach.

[Jim Harris]

There is nothing quite like the one-sentence-is-one-entire-paragraph writing technique. I just love it.

[Biggus Piggus]

There is nothing quite like the one-sentence-is-one-entire-paragraph writing technique. I just love it.

I laugh.

[Biggus Piggus]

I "beleive" you.

drake, did Wally once work for a paper with 8-pica columns or something?  Might explain it.

[jabohog]

And this quarterback issue...Nutt needs to stop....If I were a quarterback being recruited to Arkansas...I would be thinking to myself, will they have confidence in me if it's my first year taking on 100% of the snaps and I have a crumbling offensive line? That's why I don't blame Damian for leaving the state...I think he peaked at what is happening to Marcus Monk and saw how his talent might just be wasted and that the smashmouth running that got us 8-5 records is no longer a factor....and personally...8-5 is not going to get you good recruits all the time...it's time to do something different...Real coaches don't wait until near the end of the season to start thinkin' they should have switched the quarterback..

I think the QB issue is Nutt setting the stage fire Wittke. Allot of us said that he didn't need to play a musical chairs QB at the start of the season and Nutt didn't do that. But the ship is sinking and as Mr. Irwin said, read between the lines. It's CYOA time!!!!!!

[Jim Harris]

There is nothing quite like the one-sentence-is-one-entire-paragraph writing technique. I just love it.

DRAKE...That has ALWAYS stuck in my craw.  Father Tribou would use Wally Hall's columns as an example of bad writing and by correcting all of the pot holes, would show us - his high school English classes, how NOT to write an essay.  If little Wally had taken an English class at LR Catholic and/or Hendrix College...he would have never made it this far.  He would still be wading through the sea of red ink...correcting his stack of unacceptable work!

He worked briefly for Orville, who suggested he go join the Air Force.

[Jim Harris]

I "beleive" you.

drake, did Wally once work for a paper with 8-pica columns or something? Might explain it.

I'm sure he did.

[Hot Springs Hogs]

If there was any doubt that Houston was too thinskined to coach in the SEC, this erases it.  If he wants to close practice, that's fine and that's his right.  If he wants to wait up until game time to announce his starter, that's his right.  But this business about not saying who the quarterback is until the very last minute is bush league.  Sure, the guy who will start the game against Georgia knows who will be starting, but it looks so tacky when Thursday rolls around that you're not going to say who he is.  And besides, given what Arkansas has done offensively, this year, it's hard to believe they'll do something radical (i.e. run the wishbone Saturday). Teams don't change offenses in a week and it's not like Georgia's coaches are staying up late wondering who the quarterback is and what type of offense they'll lrun. Houston, you're act is getting old and besides, when Wally Hall starting coming down on you, that's when you know the end is near.  Wally has always kissed up to Houston and he kissed up to Nolan up until the bitter end.