My Response to Wally's Article Today...

[Stamford Hog]

 Wally,

I read your column today and felt the need to respond.  Living in Connecticut, I usually read the online version of the ADG and your column daily to keep up with the Hogs.  I know you are a Houston Nutt supporter, and as your write an editorial column, that is certainly your prerogative.  However, as with all issues, there is a glass is half full and glass is half empty argument based on your view point.  I would like to offer my perspective in what I hope is a logical and thought provoking manner.

Let me make this perfectly clear .
Houston Nutt has been the right coach for the University of Arkansas , and he deserves a chance to put the ship back on course .
A course that was lost when the NCAA investigated the Razorbacks football program for three long years .    Why is Alabama currently ranked #7 while they experienced much more significant consequences on an NCAA investigation?  It seems to be our "crutch" but yet hasn't crippled them to near the same extent.
Sure , the debate will continue among the masses whether Nutt should be the head coach . No one likes losing , but how many times are we going to hear "Houston is a good man , but ..."
But what ?
Does anyone really think it's his play-calling that isn't up to par ?    Yes, I do.  Perhaps you haven't witnessed a number of third and longs and seen the shotgun draw run the past five seasons.  How about the five yard out routes?  Why don't we ever use the part of the filed between the hash marks in our passing game?  How about the tight end that before each season we seem to reaffirm that we will find this year.  Why was the Alabama defense quoted in your paper as saying "once you've seen their first five plays, you know everything they are going to run the rest of the day"?  I would call that predictable.
This is the same coach who threw out of his end zone on first down Saturday [/b] .    I did not watch the game, was that the play we gave up the safety on?
Who calls for passes to be thrown by the tailback or even a wide receiver .    [/b]
Who beat Texas in Austin and in the Cotton Bowl .  [/b]  Both great wins, but what about the equally embarrassing losses.  How about at Ole Miss or at Kentucky in 1999?  UNLV in the Las Vegas Bowl or even the victory over UNLV in Little Rock?  Kentucky in Fayetteville in 2002?  Vanderbilt in Fayetteville in 2005?
[i]Who came within one fumble of beating Tennessee the year it won the national championship . [/i]   Why was it that the best team in Houston's eight years was his first season?  Could it be that the positives that Houston brings to the table was exactly what that team needed, the motivating and believing?  Yet eight recruiting classes later he has not been able to field a team that could match up to Danny Ford's leftovers?
[i]A coach can only call plays for the personnel on hand .[/i]    See my point above regarding recruiting above. 
Which is why the team is in a slump .
Everyone was warned when Nutt didn't go to Nebraska that the Razorbacks were going to be rebuilding for the next two seasons .    What about mentioning the negative impact that job shopping the last two years has created, both with recruits and the fans.  Don't think that recruits don't look at Houston's flirtations with Nebraska and LSU and think, "if he thinks LSU and Nebraska are better programs, then do I want to go to a second class program at Arkansas?"  Plus, you better believe other coaches will be using the negative recruiting angle of Houston is always job shopping, you don't know if he will stay at Arkansas.  He has become the Coach Fran of the 2000s without ever making of move.  Not to mention that a tremendous amount of his support base eroded with those moves, which is why I believe you see so much negative backlash against him this season.
That is not an excuse . It is a fact , and this is that second season .
[i]Last year , the cloud of the NCAA was removed for the first time since 2000 , and the recruiting class showed it .   
There is no need to name all who had to jump into an on-the-job training mode , but Marcus Harrison , Marcus Monk and Peyton Hillis are two-year starters .   
None of them had the benefit of redshirting .
Jonathan Luigs is a redshirt freshman starting at right guard ( or center if needed ) .
Freddie Fairchild , Darren McFadden and Felix Jones are true freshmen who are starters ( McFadden and Jones are 1 and 1 A in my program ) .
Seeing considerable action are true freshmen Marcus Shavers , Reggie Fish and Elston Forte .
Redshirt freshmen Cedric Logan and Zach Snider are being counted on more each game .
Other sophomores who are contributing and didn't get to redshirt include Jamaal Anderson , Weston Dacus and Michael Grant .
There are others , too , and though that proves the Razorbacks are truly young , that excuse isn't going to be offered here even though the facts are simple : 12 players starting or being counted on in the regular rotation are still teenagers .[/i]    Just curious, why state the excuse if you are not offering it??
[i]What it proves is that the NCAA cloud cast a shadow over the university and hurt Nutt's recruiting even though he arrived on campus long after the violations .   
Lost scholarships and negative recruiting by other schools ( recruits were told the Razorbacks' games would not be televised ) took their toll .[/i]    Again, I can not allow Houston to get a three year pass because of the impacts of the NCAA investigation.  The scholarship reduction should not have had a major impact, our last two or three signees are usually project players anyway.  I do not remember seeing Houston tell a four star recruit, "sorry son, we only have 23 scholarships to give out this year."  Now, the argument about the negative recruiting is valid, however I only remember that directly impacting the two juco defensive linemen that signed with Tennessee and Texas A&M.  They would both have completed their eligibility by now (neither had a major impact on college football I might add). 
If you believe that other recruiters used the lack of television as a negative recruiting spin, how do you think our recruiting this year will be?  So far we have been the midnight horror movie on Fox SportsNet and will have two appearances on regional broadcast, then the LSU finally.  I would care to guess the LSU game will look like last years game and we can only hope recruits don't tune in to CBS to watch.  Our play on the field and the lack of interest in such by the networks has been the only real punishment predicted by other coaches during the NCAA investigation.  I am sure the Phil Fulmers and Urban Meyers of the world will be more than eager to use the no television tactic again this year.
What the Razorbacks football program is , is a work in progress . The same thing that is going on in Bud Walton under Stan Heath's watch. [/b]   I would disagree totally with this comment.  Stan Heath is rebuilding a program, they have improved every year since his arrival.  Meanwhile Houston saw his best results the first two years of his term and has since struggled to get back to the same point.  Stan Heath continues to sign top ranked recruiting classes while Houston's are middle of the road classes (usually 7th or 8th in SEC and 25th to 30th in the country).  By the way, why is it that Houston's teams rarely sniff the top 25 while his recruiting classes (even during the NCAA investigation) always are on the bubble of cracking the polls.
Some wise coach once philosophized that you ain't got no zoo without no animals .
Nutt is getting better players , but it doesn't happen overnight , especially in Arkansas .
When Butch Davis spoke to the Little Rock Touchdown Club a few weeks ago , he revealed a startling fact . His last year as head coach of the Miami Hurricanes , there were 75 Division-I players each year in Dade County alone .
Typically , the entire state of Arkansas will turn out eight to 12 Division-I players a year , which is why there are more starters from Texas on the Razorbacks team than from Arkansas . [/b]   You fail to mention the Cedric Houstons, Brett Smiths, Roshawn Fellows, Greg Jones, DeAngelo Williams, Slick Shelleys, Bartley Webbs, Ben Clevelands and Damian Williams of the state.  With the state only producing 8 to 12 recruits each year, why is it acceptable to lose these high caliber individuals to other SEC teams??
Texas is the No . 1 state in the country for producing D-I recruits .    And over the last few years, we have been out recruited by Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Dennis Franchione, Nick Saban and even Mike Leach and possibly Gary Patterson.  I think it is no surprise that our "down years" are directly related to the times when Texas, Oklahoma, LSU and Tennessee are competing for national titles.  Four of our six border states are competing for national titles and we are competing for Independence and Music City Bowls.  Even the years when we beat almighty Texas, we did not see meaningful recruiting victories in the Lone Star State.  We beat Texas for Lawrence Richardson, but after completing his eligibility, I don't know that Texas didn't really win that recruiting battle by losing it.
It is simple , folks . The NCAA investigation hurt , and since Nutt was not involved in the violations , he deserves a chance to get the program on course and on target .
Anyway, Wally, that is my rebuttal.  Just the opinion of a Razorback fan who thinks Houston has had enough chances and its time for some new life.  His act has grown stale and apathy has set in, with me at least.  Luckily, I now live in the Northeast, so I am enjoying my fall doing outdoor activities before the winter sets in instead of agonizing through another tough Razorback season.

Of course the indepth response I received from Wally was more excuses "Alabama went on probation two years before Arkansas and was off two years earlier."

[PintailKiller]

Excellent post!!  Bravo!

[tophawg19]

good post . well thought out and written . wally is an idiot and a nutt butt kisser .

[Biggus Piggus]

Who the crap advertises a two-year rebuilding period?  I should add that to my list.

[whatsshakinbacon]

Wally loves to go against the masses - he thinks he's the newspaper's equivalent of a shock jock.

While I don't know it for a fact, I feel 99.9% sure he reads this and other message boards - some of his material in the past has come directly from stuff on here that I doubt is being passed around on the street.

The worst part is he loves to know he's important enough to warrant a rebuttal of this measure, in fact it's exactly what he hoped for.

You have an excellent post and are right on with pretty much everything I was thinking when I read his trash this morning.  But we'll never change him.

Bacon out...

[Rocky&Boarwinkle]

What the problem is, is that you are using logic and well thought out responses.  I don't think Wally knows any kind of logic but pretzel.  I quit reading Wally for the very points you made on here today:  He is an apologist who cannot convey an intelligent thought.  I could name 5 people who post here on a regular basis that could write a much better column than Wally.

[SultanofSwine]

BP, reading between the lines he said that to tell us that his check cashers don't mind him stinkin up the joint for two more years. In other words phuck off hog fans we don't care if we suck. That is exactly why they will not get another red cent of my money until a change is made.

Can we get Johnny Tyson to round up enough eggs to egg all of Lindsey's apartments for Haloween? If he can't get eggs, dead chickens will do.

[whatsshakinbacon]

BP, reading between the lines he said that to tell us that his check cashers don't mind him stinkin up the joint for two more years. In other words phuck off hog fans we don't care if we suck. That is exactly why they will not get another red cent of my money until a change is made.

Can we get Johnny Tyson to round up enough eggs to egg all of Lindsey's apartments for Haloween? If he can't get eggs, dead chickens will do.

Yeah, let's get RoJo to throw them for us!!  oh wait...on second thought...

Bacon out...

[cityhog]

I live in NYC Stamford Hog.  Hey, UConn is on their way up in football.  Maybe we can become Husky fans.  I agree w/ you 100%.  Sadly, I think we have him for another year...maybe 2, no matter how dismal the record.  the horror..the horror