1998 Arkansas vs. Kentucky in WMS

[GorillaJMonsoon]

Just watched the replay last night.  One thing that struck me was the balanced play calling.  Seriously, we threw the ball a lot.  Chukwuma even threw a halfback pass to Stoerner which he caught but couldn't quite outrun the DE for the score.  I had forgotten that play.  I also think I saw Clint jogging on Dickson street yesterday after work.  Man I hope Nutt opens it up a bit this year. 

[dana caldwell]

that's what has been so amazing to me in nutt's (De-)evolution of play-calling.

he actually seemed quite good at it for a season or two.

i don't buy the "well, we had stoerner and anthony lucas" bit. there have been plenty of playmakers in the past six or seven seasons to at least show some semblance of the offensive creativity of the first two seasons.

are nutt's natural tendencies what he did at murray state and in his first two seasons at arkansas or are they the boring draw/dives, 8-yard outs of the last six seasons?

i find it all very, very strange.

[idochog]

Dont forget the 1st two years were Stoerner under 4 yrs of coaching by Joe Ferguson and teaching him how to read defenses and audible.

[hogsanity]

We had alot more than Clint and Lucas.  We also had Davenport at TE, Hill and Chukwuma at RB.  An EXCELLENT OL did not hurt either.

He calls plays to the talent he has.  The problem, at it ends up at the feet of the HC, has been the players recruited.  Tons of RBS, good run blocking OLmen, no deep threat WR no pass catching TE's.  What the reason for this is, I dont know.

[hogmary]

The talent he had was recruited by Danny Ford.  It is interesting that Nutt has never had "his kind" of qb since Stoerner finished.  I found the game with 8 minutes left.  Unfortunately, I missed that awesome interception by David Barrett, one of my all-time favorite Hogs.  I noticed they never replayed that pass interference penalty on him near the end of the game...I would like to have seen it over.  I remember thinking at the time that Barrett arrived with the ball. 

[GorillaJMonsoon]

Dont forget the 1st two years were Stoerner under 4 yrs of coaching by Joe Ferguson and teaching him how to read defenses and audible.

I did see a number of audibles by Stoerner that went for no gain.  Thats what got me thinking about the playcalling. I recorded the game on DVR and also got last years MissSt. game. 

[rzrbaxfan]

I noticed that too...re-watched it a few weeks ago along with the Bama game that year.

Try this...watch a game from the 2002-2003 seasons (both 9 win years) and see if you can detect the wheels about to come off.  Not just with conservative playcalling, but with false starts, personal fouls, turnovers, wasted time outs, etc.  I re-watched Bama from 03 when we won in 2 ot's and was really shocked this was the same team that beat #6 Texas just two weeks ago.  We were really sloppy at times even if we were able to find 9 w's both years.

[Richard_white]

We had alot more than Clint and Lucas.  We also had Davenport at TE, Hill and Chukwuma at RB.  An EXCELLENT OL did not hurt either.

He calls plays to the talent he has.  The problem, at it ends up at the feet of the HC, has been the players recruited.  Tons of RBS, good run blocking OLmen, no deep threat WR no pass catching TE's.  What the reason for this is, I dont know.

Shouldn't he been recruiting pass blocking lineman, QB's and WR's for a passing attack?

[HognotinMemphis]

Just watched the replay last night.  One thing that struck me was the balanced play calling.  Seriously, we threw the ball a lot.  Chukwuma even threw a halfback pass to Stoerner which he caught but couldn't quite outrun the DE for the score.  I had forgotten that play.  I also think I saw Clint jogging on Dickson street yesterday after work.  Man I hope Nutt opens it up a bit this year. 

That was because he had the benefit of another coaching staff's recruiting. Once he had a team full of his own recruits, the talent was not evenly distributed thanks to disorganized recruiting headed up by a 24 yr old. Thus, his teams sucked and he's got a losing SEC record over his 8 years at U of A to show for it.

[GuvHog]

I noticed that too...re-watched it a few weeks ago along with the Bama game that year.

Try this...watch a game from the 2002-2003 seasons (both 9 win years) and see if you can detect the wheels about to come off.  Not just with conservative playcalling, but with false starts, personal fouls, turnovers, wasted time outs, etc.  I re-watched Bama from 03 when we won in 2 ot's and was really shocked this was the same team that beat #6 Texas just two weeks ago.  We were really sloppy at times even if we were able to find 9 w's both years.

It Doesn't matter HOW The Hogs got the wins, What Matters is they WON!
H. Nutt had 3 Nine win seasons  and 1 Eight Win season in his first five years,
and Some Refuse to give him the credit he Deserves.

[MrSpook1352]

I noticed that too...re-watched it a few weeks ago along with the Bama game that year.

Try this...watch a game from the 2002-2003 seasons (both 9 win years) and see if you can detect the wheels about to come off.  Not just with conservative playcalling, but with false starts, personal fouls, turnovers, wasted time outs, etc.  I re-watched Bama from 03 when we won in 2 ot's and was really shocked this was the same team that beat #6 Texas just two weeks ago.  We were really sloppy at times even if we were able to find 9 w's both years.

It Doesn't matter HOW The Hogs got the wins, What Matters is they WON!
H. Nutt had 3 Nine win seasons  and 1 Eight Win season in his first five years,
and Some Refuse to give him the credit he Deserves.

Some don't give him credit.  But some (like me) do.  He did have some pretty decent years, but he's got two problems.  His bad years have been pretty bad, and he's never been able to take us from a good year to a great year.  He's got a chance - he needs to make it this time.

[Richard_white]

I noticed that too...re-watched it a few weeks ago along with the Bama game that year.

Try this...watch a game from the 2002-2003 seasons (both 9 win years) and see if you can detect the wheels about to come off.  Not just with conservative playcalling, but with false starts, personal fouls, turnovers, wasted time outs, etc.  I re-watched Bama from 03 when we won in 2 ot's and was really shocked this was the same team that beat #6 Texas just two weeks ago.  We were really sloppy at times even if we were able to find 9 w's both years.

It Doesn't matter HOW The Hogs got the wins, What Matters is they WON!
H. Nutt had 3 Nine win seasons  and 1 Eight Win season in his first five years,
and Some Refuse to give him the credit he Deserves.

I believe one of the reasons why fans wanted Hatfield out was because of the wishbone.  They wanted more passing.  When a fan starts yelling pass that should mean something.

[rzrbaxfan]

It Doesn't matter HOW The Hogs got the wins, What Matters is they WON! H. Nutt had 3 Nine win seasons  and 1 Eight Win season in his first five years, and Some Refuse to give him the credit he Deserves.

Of those 18 wins in 02 & 03

6 w's against who?? South Fla, Troy St, LA-Laf, Tulsa, N Texas, New Mexico St

That leaves 12 wins:

6 conference wins v SC(2) & Miss St(2) & Bama & Kentucky who would not finish the season above .500

I'll give him quality wins v LSU, Aub, Texas...and I'll stretch for Boise & Mizzou & a Manning led Ole Miss.

Also embarassing losses to LSU, GA, Kentucky, Bama and Minnesota.

Humm, break down two of those 9 win seasons, and consider that EVERY TEAM IN THE WEST EXCEPT US HAS HAD A 10+ WIN SEASON SINCE 98.....all of the sudden, it doesn't look that hot.  I'll give credit where credit is due, but the truth is, Nutt is good for 1 maybe 2 quality wins a year, and the rest is being crappy non-conference teams and the underbelly of the SEC.  Nutt cannot compete with the elite of the SEC.

[silvertip]

We had alot more than Clint and Lucas.  We also had Davenport at TE, Hill and Chukwuma at RB.  An EXCELLENT OL did not hurt either.

He calls plays to the talent he has.  The problem, at it ends up at the feet of the HC, has been the players recruited.  Tons of RBS, good run blocking OLmen, no deep threat WR no pass catching TE's.  What the reason for this is, I dont know.

Aside from the obvious facts that '98 & '99 involved Joe Ferguson & Ford's players, you have the coaching staff that HDN brought, most of whom's D-1 experience was ONE YEAR at Boise.

And then, I think that the conversion over to the run dominance was largely a result of Markuson's inability to coach pass blocking at the SEC level. They can brag all they want about not allowing sacks. But that was a matter of (1) Matt Jones freaky scrambling, and (2) the short out passes & passes to RBs in the flat, that were a result of poor pass protection. The passing game became a hostage to the lack of pass blocking.

[silvertip]

I noticed that too...re-watched it a few weeks ago along with the Bama game that year.

Try this...watch a game from the 2002-2003 seasons (both 9 win years) and see if you can detect the wheels about to come off.  Not just with conservative playcalling, but with false starts, personal fouls, turnovers, wasted time outs, etc.  I re-watched Bama from 03 when we won in 2 ot's and was really shocked this was the same team that beat #6 Texas just two weeks ago.  We were really sloppy at times even if we were able to find 9 w's both years.

It Doesn't matter HOW The Hogs got the wins, What Matters is they WON!
H. Nutt had 3 Nine win seasons  and 1 Eight Win season in his first five years,
and Some Refuse to give him the credit he Deserves.

With all due respect, GUV, I notice that you argue strongly in defense of your religion and strongly in defense of HDN. Do you think there might be a connection there?

Put another way, could you support a coach with HDN's recent mediocre record, if said coach was not such a Fine Christian Gentleman--as the huggers constantly remind us.

[Chief Mac]

Dont forget the 1st two years were Stoerner under 4 yrs of coaching by Joe Ferguson and teaching him how to read defenses and audible.

Can't believe I'm going to do this but......Not discounting Joe's coaching ability but Nutt had Mike Cherry at Murray St after he transfered from here.  Cherry put up some great numbers and Nutt's offense was well balanced. 

As Dana said, it is very, very strange that we've been in the type of offense we have been in for the last six years.

WPS

Chris

[hogmary]

As far as the wheels coming off...after we went to Tennessee with an 8-0 record, the record for the next 6 games (including Tennessee and going into the next season), was 2-4.  I saw the wheels beginning to wobble then and felt uncomfortable with the way things seemed to be going.
If we hadn't gotten our revenge on Tennessee in 99 and beaten Texas in the Cotton Bowl, I don't think that HDN would still be here.  He has lived on the two Texas and one Tennessee victories for far longer than he should be able to.  Matt Jones, in spite of HDN, also contributed to his still being here.  The NCAA just gave him an excuse for his below par performance as a coach.

[rzrbaxfan]

As far as the wheels coming off...after we went to Tennessee with an 8-0 record, the record for the next 6 games (including Tennessee and going into the next season), was 2-4.  I saw the wheels beginning to wobble then and felt uncomfortable with the way things seemed to be going.
If we hadn't gotten our revenge on Tennessee in 99 and beaten Texas in the Cotton Bowl, I don't think that HDN would still be here.  He has lived on the two Texas and one Tennessee victories for far longer than he should be able to.  Matt Jones, in spite of HDN, also contributed to his still being here.  The NCAA just gave him an excuse for his below par performance as a coach

Agreed.  The warning signs have been there for a while.  You say he's lived off of 2 Texas wins & Tennesse for a while, throw in LSU in 2002...and that gives him 4 program defining wins in 8 years.  We might be able to scratch around and find another win that had some sort of national or conference implications, but thats not enough to show for an 8 year career.  Please, Gus & Reggie, save us!

[Chappeee]

I loved David Barrett's interception