Let me pose a question for the board (THE TWO YEAR PASS QUESTION)

[John Futrall]

For those that have "switched" on your opinion of HDN, let me ask a question.

I ask this with all sincerity, as I'm just curious to hear why people are thinking the way they do:

When HDN turned down Nebraska (after 2003 season...correct me if I'm wrong about this), and had his press conference, he mentioned that there would be 2 or 3 "lean years" as he continues to build the UA football program.  Those may not have been his exact words, but I think it was something to that effect.

If people accepted that statement then (and maybe I'm wrong into thinking that people DID accept that statement) why are we not giving him those 2-3 seasons to build this program, and instead after a season and 1/4, looking for his head on a platter?

I'm VERY frustrated at our team right now (especially the coaching and the defense), but on the other hand, weren't we somewhat "warned" about this, to a certain degree???  The loss to Vandy was unacceptable, yes, but still......

Any feedback is greatly appreciated...

GO HAWGS!

[ThisTeetsTaken]

For those that have "switched" on your opinion of HDN, let me ask a question.

I ask this with all sincerity, as I'm just curious to hear why people are thinking the way they do:

When HDN turned down Nebraska (after 2003 season...correct me if I'm wrong about this), and had his press conference, he mentioned that there would be 2 or 3 "lean years" as he continues to build the UA football program. Those may not have been his exact words, but I think it was something to that effect.

If people accepted that statement then (and maybe I'm wrong into thinking that people DID accept that statement) why are we not giving him those 2-3 seasons to build this program, and instead after a season and 1/4, looking for his head on a platter?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated...

GO HAWGS!

I was praying that he would get on that damn plane and get the hell outta here!  NOBODY in coaching these days gets a free pass  except of course, coaches from Vanderbilt,Harvard,Yale, and you get the picture.

[DanTheHogFan]

I appreciate your sentiments.  I remember that being implied then, and at the beginning of this season as well.  But it is an emotional state in Hog-nation right now, and tempers and bruised egos and pride are all hurting.  This will be all better when the wins start coming in.  I think this was foreseen by the staff and FBroyles...thus the one year extension of Nutt's contract.


We are all frustrated, but GOOD NEWS... it can only get better.  HA HA

[HawgWild]

I'm not sure that JFB caught my opinion or even cared to, but it makes no difference at this point. I want Nutt to succeed, because when he is doing welll it means that my HOGS are doing well. When he is sucking it generally means bad things for my HOGS and right now Nutt is sucking hard. I personally believe that after 8 years of hdn we should not be in a rebuilding year. No excuse is good enough at this point of the season.

[PintailKiller]

Why after 7 years are we rebuilding?  Nutt does a poor job of making players better when they leave vs when they got there.  You should never be rebuilding that deep into a regime.  You should reload and maybe go 6-5 or 7-4, not get beat by Vandy and have 70 hung on you on national TV.

[B Ray]

For those that have "switched" on your opinion of HDN, let me ask a question.

I ask this with all sincerity, as I'm just curious to hear why people are thinking the way they do:

When HDN turned down Nebraska (after 2003 season...correct me if I'm wrong about this), and had his press conference, he mentioned that there would be 2 or 3 "lean years" as he continues to build the UA football program.  Those may not have been his exact words, but I think it was something to that effect.

If people accepted that statement then (and maybe I'm wrong into thinking that people DID accept that statement) why are we not giving him those 2-3 seasons to build this program, and instead after a season and 1/4, looking for his head on a platter?

I'm VERY frustrated at our team right now (especially the coaching and the defense), but on the other hand, weren't we somewhat "warned" about this, to a certain degree??? The loss to Vandy was unacceptable, yes, but still......

Any feedback is greatly appreciated...

GO HAWGS!

That tells me that he wasn't expecting any player at the UA to excel in his regime.... Maybe he should have recruited better...and if he wasn't expecting anything any better, he should have recruited the JUCO way to fill in the gaps.

[Biggus Piggus]

I thought HDN should have been fired after the 2003 season, because it was readily evident the Razorbacks were in trouble due to poor recruiting.  Plus the whole George Pugh fiasco was fresh in mind.

He managed to turn the Nebraska thing into a small momentum boost, but recruiting continued to meander.  At least 2004-05 brought in some star power, unlike 2002-03, but the addressing of needs was not very good as usual.  And the string of not recruiting any pass rushers continued.  Our big hope was a bad, bad apple who went to juco never to be heard from again.

Entering this year, my feeling was Nutt's job should be safe assuming he could bring in a really good recruiting class to go with the previous two OK ones.  A coaching change at such a time would be risky.  Well, I don't know how he recruits through this mess now.  Losing to Vanderbilt at home followed by bending over and taking 70 at USC.  Probably followed by more ugliness.

Coaching staff situation has all the hallmarks of a Kay Stephenson situation all over again.  It's as though Nutt's cronies are letting Herring hang himself and maybe even actively working to undermine his standing.  Just like Danny Ford, unhappy that Broyles foisted Stephenson on him, sat back and let chaos ensue, then took his buyout and went to the farm.

Nutt's yes men don't believe in the least that they will be out of a job.  After all, they have Jim Lindsay behind them.

Why do we keep getting in these situations?  Ken Hatfield had his buddies taking up space, caused his dust-up with Broyles.  Nolan Richardson had some of the longest-lived and most useless assistants in college basketball, cost him his legacy.  Houston Nutt fills some of the plum jobs on his staff with cronies, so any chance of landing a decent recruiting coordinator or a special teams ace is nil.  And he engineers other jobs into being unattractive to anybody but his guys.  Such as the idea of dividing the secondary coaching between two assistants.  Or having a coach who handles tight ends and that's all, no exceptional off-field duties to compensate.

[John Futrall]

good posts, all of them...Just for the record, here are some #'s I crunched this evening (it was either do this or finish my homework...The choice was easy)

Nutt's record in the SEC with the Hogs:

Bama 4-3
Kentucky 2-2
South Carolina 5-2
Auburn 4-3
Ole Miss 4-3
Tenn  1-4
Miss St. 6-1
Georgia 0-4
LSU 3-4
Florida 0-2
Vandy 0-1   


vs SEC West (21-14)
vs SEC East (11-15)

vs Top SEC teams (teams consistently above .500) (12-20)


Just some more #'s to chew on..

[HawgWild]

Or having a coach who handles tight ends and that's all, no exceptional off-field duties to compensate.

We have a TE Coach? Wouldn't have never noticed that one because our TE's only block.

[Biggus Piggus]

The Auburn and Bama numbers were padded by periods when both schools were going through coaching changes and other problems.  We can't look at those in some sort of linear function.  Other teams may recover in the next few years, too, like South Carolina, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and even Vandy.  Arkansas is prime candidate for the next cellar dweller.  Why?  Everybody else has done something to address their problems.  Ours are mounting, and we've done SQUAT.

[Biggus Piggus]

Or having a coach who handles tight ends and that's all, no exceptional off-field duties to compensate.

We have a TE Coach? Wouldn't have never noticed that one because our TE's only block.

Exactly the point, completely marginalized to the degree where we don't have a chance to recruit any real tight ends.  We can't sign 'em and we can't coach 'em.

[CorningHog]

I had accepted last years LSU flirtation, expecting him to stay and actually alarmed for a "minute" but then getting pretty upset after a 5-6 season.  Kind of like a pretty girl letting you buy her dinner and spend a bunch of money on her but then never intending to date you again.  I felt like Nutt was going back on his "warm and fuzzy" loyalty thing.

Now, looking back, I was very upset during the Nebraska courting, and at that point was saying, let him go!  I felt like if he was going to actively pursue that, and let his name go out there, but you know, I told friends then, that if he looked hard at Frank Solich and his 9-3 record got him fired, that Nutt would look hard at that and realize that his "mediocre" 7 or 8 wins and the occasional 5 wins like at Arkansas would be a short career at Nebraska.  I also think LSU would have been an eventual "bust" because he would eventual choke on the coaching.

I have flipped pretty hard on the side that says, Nutt can't get it done.

WHY, because he continues to neglect his "offense".  YES, HIS offense.  Forget the horrible situation Herring has walked into, let him have a couple of years.  His talent that is on the field right now is probably about 3 or 4 SEC type players.  Harrison, maybe Bledsoe, maybe Vaughn and that is it with the starters.  NO LB's, and Fairchild is a freshman, so you can't count him.  There are some talented young guys, very young, Cord Gray, Antwain Robinson, Kevin Thornton, Tyrell Graham.  I just think these guys may need to remove "redshirts" and go with the ones that Herring thinks will eventually be very good.

Nutt's offensive scheme and all the crap he pulled with his choice of running backs against Vanderbilt is what has caused me to flip.  I hold nothing against him with USC.  ONLY, that he did not use the time as a "live" scrimmage against the #1 team and try and improve his passing attack.  He knows what he has with the running game, but his passing game is suspect, not the QB, but his formations and his emphasis under certain situations shows he knows little about "attacking" a team's defense.

Sorry, but even with Gus Malzahn at OC, I think Houston would meddle and it would be better to get a new coach so that the whole offense has a "consistent" scheme and the players learn to execute it.  Nutt's confusing desire to run Howard has to cause the offense problems since the real backs are Felix & Darren.

I really think it is TIME!

[TulsaHogFan]

Or having a coach who handles tight ends and that's all, no exceptional off-field duties to compensate.

We have a TE Coach? Wouldn't have never noticed that one because our TE's only block.

Exactly the point, completely marginalized to the degree where we don't have a chance to recruit any real tight ends. We can't sign 'em and we can't coach 'em.

LMAO i loved watching NBC last weekend and watching them review teams and then show Jason Peters go up and catch a touchdown for Buffalo, now this may be stretching but he looked damn good, just another wasted opportunity.  Oh he was complimented as a blocker as well, i said to myself, well he had 4 years of practice doing almost only that.

[kremlinhog]

please let me know when some other big football school lets it be said that they will be bad for two years.
this is one of the more disgusting things we have had to put up with.
you are right,the message out of fayetteville was we will be weak for two years.

[tophawg19]

i wanted to help him get on that damn plane . the signs of a poor coach were visable even then .

[WilsonHog]

please let me know when some other big football school lets it be said that they will be bad for two years.
this is one of the more disgusting things we have had to put up with.
you are right,the message out of fayetteville was we will be weak for two years.

Kremlin has a helluva point here. I haven't researched it, but I wonder how many coaches in the power conferences get a two-year "free pass" on the front end (six years in to their stay, no less), and then survive back to back losing seasons.

I would love to see the list of current coaches who can make that claim.