What an unhappy place

[Biggus Piggus]

Fayetteville was an unhappy place tonight. Some fans are resigned to the team not being very good. Some are giving up. In one big donor lot, a fan was selling her season tickets for $1. My own dad is questioning his own annual giving, which he has kept up for 35 years.

The people who insist Nutt has to stay, even they eventually have to see the risk in it. Look what happened at Syracuse. Their coach was on the bubble for years, and it drained their program of talent. They may be down for half a decade. They may be down for the count.

If Arkansas does nothing to save itself, the fundraising will wither, and the whole mess will collapse into a Title IX black hole. If football cannot carry the budget, our whole athletic department will unravel.

This will happen if we keep throwing Houston Nutt out there expecting something new to happen.

What magic did you expect to see tonight? Did you see it? Did you know we were dead at 10-6? If you did not, you were not paying attention.

Nutt does not recognize the risk of wasted chances. He refuses to see the truth, how he cuts himself off from any chance of success. He keeps choosing the direction that leads to defeat and does not even see it. As a coach, he is done, no matter how many more games Lindsey gives him.

Go ahead, big fat smirking Jim Lindsey. Keep wheeling Broyles out there, propping him up. Wipe his drool before anyone sees. You have you boy Nutt. And you will steer the program to ruin. You cannot run away now.

Auburn will go on and show itself to be about as ordinary as Vanderbilt was. Just as USC did not turn out to be the greatest team ever, far from it. Luckiest maybe. Fortunate to have an SEC opponent as incompetently coached as Arkansas is.

I don't know about all of you. To me Arkansas football has turned into a completely unsatisfying experience.

Did you see Fred Bledsoe out there tonight? I guess Nutt won out on that one. What a maggot. He can't let anyone do his job, no.

[3kgthog]

Abso freakin lutely.  I couldn't agree more.  We are sooooooooo screwed and we can't do a thing about it. 

[mikeirwin]

Biggus I've never seen a football team so affected by the bad play of one player.
I'm telling you if you put a decent QB on this team Arkansas kicks Auburn's butt.
That defense was worn out by halftime. Too many 3 and outs by the offense with RJ bouncing the ball off the ground. There were two Arkansas possessions that said it all.
In the first quarter Johnson mixed in some nice passes with Mc Fadden and Jones running it. They got into the red zone and Johnson mysteriously double pumped the ball and it flew out of his hand. It should have been 10-0 at that point.
In the 4th quarter after he had thrown the ball up for grabs after almost getting sacked, RJ came back in and suddenly he was a different guy. He mixed in some passes. McFadden did the rest and they zipped down the field like it was no big deal.
Johnson is NOT getting better. He's getting WORSE.
How can HDN not see that ?

[ArkansasI]

And there you have it.  It is amazing that we worry so much about Butch.  It is imperative that the Unversity show its players and fans that we will at least search for an answer.  Finding the right man is multiple choice.  HDN is not a possible answer.

I am sure that HDN is sorry it hasn't worked out. . .  Who isn't?  As you infer - this is not personal - it is business and the experiment has failed.  We must do our best to contain the damage before there is nothing salvageable.  The costs can only increase.

[GrizzledHogFan]

RJ is horrible.  Mortensen is bad, from what I've seen.  I would say burn Casey's red shirt, but at this point it would be a waste.

[Biggus Piggus]

When I see how RJ plays when he is let loose, not forced to throw into the flat on third and 20, I wonder how Nutt could Jones another QB?

I see in RJ a talented kid who is being choked to death. He is a mess.

This team might have won three more games if it had a QB. The answer is not Mustain. The question is why give Nutt a chance to Frank up one more Arkansas QB?

[hogwildinhouston]

This team might have won three more games if it had a QB. The answer is not Mustain. The question is why give Nutt a chance to frick up one more Arkansas QB?

My god, there has never been a more dead on summation of where we are than this.

[forrest city joe]

Its   not  working.  something  has  to  be  done  to  save  this  program.my  fear is  it   will  be  more  of  the  same  as  long  as  nutt  is  here. Biggust  is  right,  the hole we  are  digging   may  killed  the  program  for  years  if  the  bleeding  does  not  stop  now.

[Oliverhogman]

I will tell you how bad it is.  3 of the football recruits even left the game early.

[forrest city joe]

 That  is  not  good  news. when  recruites  start  leaving  you  are  in  trouble.

[Boared]

I will tell you how bad it is. 3 of the football recruits even left the game early.

any idea as to which ones they were?

[Niels Boar]

Nutt does not recognize the risk of wasted chances. He refuses to see the truth, how he cuts himself off from any chance of success.

Inspired by the HBO series Rome, I picked up a biography of Julius Caesar.  During the Civil War Pompey had Caesar on the ropes at Dyrrhachium but delayed pressing his advantage.  Caesar admitted that he would have been finished if his opponent knew how to conquer.  Nutt instantly came to mind.  The historian's comment that Pompey was brought down by an exaggerated view of his own abilities also fits Nutt.

[Biggus Piggus]

No way Arkansas can rebuild its talent level with a perpetually lame duck coach.

[bigred7987]

shoot me now

[sleeping midget]

It is sad to see the talent wasted and the games given away. I set in front of the auburn cheerleaders. I had fun letting them know when it was 10 - 6, that they had nothing to worry about. I told them I wished our coach was at lsu, and not here.

It was awful to here them cheer and laugh while the 2nd half unfolded. To have the fans behind me ( maybe 4,500 )  become loader the 65,000 in the rest of the stadium.

To see mistake after mistake kill drives and let auburn move the ball at will from the start of the 3rd qtr on. To look up at the score board w/ hardly any time in left in the 3rd qtr and see we have 83 yards of passing for the game.

If it was not for P. H, D. M, and F. J, this offense would not gain 100 yards total for the game. We are a pathetic excuse for a Div. 1 - A college football team. We my not ever see the glory days of Razorback football again.

We need to stop the bleeding. We need to

FIRE HDN!!!

Y'all wake my short sleeping self up when HN is no longer slopping the hogs.  This season is worse than any nightmare I have had.

[MCPeePants]

RJ is horrible. Mortensen is bad, from what I've seen. I would say burn Casey's red shirt, but at this point it would be a waste.

They might as well just move Cedric Washington back to QB. He can't really catch and he can't really be much worse as a QB than RJ. 

[MCPeePants]

I forgot to mention the best part of some of the recruits statements about this game. One recruit in particular was asked if he wanted his media guide that he left on the ground and he said, "Yeah, like I want to remember this."

Are you serious? Wow.

[TulsaHogFan]

I forgot to mention the best part of some of the recruits statements about this game. One recruit in particular was asked if he wanted his media guide that he left on the ground and he said, "Yeah, like I want to remember this."

I don't know about you, but that speaks VOLUMES.

THAT needs to be front page on JFB's desk tomorrow morning.  Seriously.  I need someone to make sure that the men running the show realize what is going on in the stands.  This is ridiculous.

[HogInMemphis]

This is all too painful.  I feel like we are all screaming into a vacuum, or we are the subjects of a maniacal episode of the Twilight Zone...where we see al the problems, but the world around us has all been drugged with high levels of lithium and prozac. 

Biggus, your post just helped summerize the mood that everyone felt on the Hill tonight.  Did you see all the fans heading TO the game at 5 PM?  It looked like the Batan Death March...all silently walking toward the stadium with glassy, lost expressions...it was truly weird.  Personally, I feel so low and hopeless right now.

This is what it seems like. The folks who can take action either say all is well or say nothing at all. They are either crazy or they are not speaking the truth. I have a difficult time believing competitors like Broyles, Dicus, and Lindsey are happy with Nutt's performance. I just cannot believe it. How much longer will they put up with it?

[PorcineSublime]

RJ is horrible. Mortensen is bad, from what I've seen. I would say burn Casey's red shirt, but at this point it would be a waste.

They might as well just move Cedric Washington back to QB. He can't really catch and he can't really be much worse as a QB than RJ. 

As Biggus stated earlier, RJ is now part of the problem but he didn't have to be. He has enough talent to be a servicable QB. He has just gotten no development in his three years here, and now he has no confidence and has no idea what to do about it. One can only hope that MM is such cocky SOB that HDN and no one else can get in his head. I would hate to see him screwed up by a lack of direction. We have not developed a QB since Stoerner and at this point I doubt we will do any better with Mitch, maybe he will be another Matt and just have enough talent to overcome his coaching.

[forrest city joe]

           The   key  thing  in  this  thread  is  what  Biggus  said, we  cant  afford another  year  with  a  lame  duck  coach.  after  this  pitiful  season  recruiting will not  be  good  no  matter  what  otis  and  wally  says.  other coaches  will  use  this  against  arkansas. cant  lindsey  and  broyles  see  this  or  do  they  just  not  care  anymore?

[Biggus Piggus]

It does not matter what opposing coaches use against us in recruiting.  We have a coach who is obviously on his last leg, and it will be especially reinforced when he fires most of his coaching staff in December.  We are headed the same way Syracuse went, afraid to make the big change and ruining the program because we did not act decisively.  It will drain the program of talent.