Mark Schlabach's Comments on the Finebaum Show

[HogHomer]

Clemson, South Carolina has 13,905 residents.  The nearest airport is Greenville (45 Miles from campus)

Out of the top 30 prospects in SC, 29 of them have Power 5 offers.
Out of the top 20 prospects in AR,(we only have 20 prospects listed in 247s database), 10 have Power 5 offers.

[The Hawg Marshal]

I guess we are supposed to finish 6-6 every year and just be fodder for the elite teams on their way to 10+ wins . We could accept that and save a lot of money on facilities and coaches. But, while we may not consistently be a power, we can occasionally be one. There is no reason why we can't. Schlabach is just a talking head, his opinion is worth about as much as it cost you to get it. He can go frick himself.

[online-with-swine]

Screw Schlbach.  We've got more pride than that.  He can take his condescending ass back from where he came.

[greenie]

This is a very important point, and makes the upcoming HC hire that much more important.  THE RIGHT HC HIRE can change the perception, and then the national media coverage, of our school. 

The hiring of Mike Norvell would create a completely different narrative than hiring Mike Leach or Gus Malzhan.  Hiring Norvell would say that we care more about the coach's age and offensive numbers than caring about where he put up those offensive numbers (AAC vs SEC).  It also begs the question, "Arkansas, you're an SEC school.  Is this the best you can do?"  There is an inherent risk with the 'up and coming' coach.  Nutt was one of those, but history is treating his win/loss record more kindly as of late.  The media might also perceive that we had to aim lower because we have an identity crisis in Fayetteville; this may or may not be the case.  The same liability would come with hiring Lane Kiffin or any other non-Power 5 coach.  I realize that Kiffin has coached in the P5 level, but he got fired at USC and only coached 1 year at Tennessee.

Hiring Mike Leach or Gus Malzhan would INSTANTLY change the narrative in Fayetteville, and I believe for the positive.  It's a much bigger swing, and it would signal that we are ready to change the culture NOW, much like when we got Petrino.  It's a signal that we are changing the way we do business.  We would have better skill position players (more speed) interested in our program on DAY ONE and the last time we won games on a regular basis we did it with skill position players, not slow players with limited playmaking ability.  The media likes big news and can be our ally in this situation, giving us a spotlight for a positive thing rather than negatives (no winning, firing your AD). 

The national media could be our ally if we make the right choice in a few weeks.

I agree.  To that end, I'm worried that whomever is in charge now, will try to make a puppet hire, i.e. someone easily controllable.  Mike Leach, Gus Malzahn, or any coach of significant stature won't play by those rules.  I don't know much about Mike Norvell, but considering his age he's likely to be more compliant than one of the more seasoned guys.  I also have a hard time imagining Norvell walking in and immediately improving our recruiting.  Most 17-18 yo kids don't know the coach at Memphis, and I doubt flashing your success there won't sway young opinions.  He may end up being a great hire, but it would be a risky hire, nonetheless.  Kiffin would be a slightly different kind of risk, IMHO.  He's proven he can run an offense loaded with talent, but he has not proven that he can effectively run a program.  I do think he might be a good recruiter.

[HognotinMemphis]

Paul Finebaum had Mark Schlabach on and he said "I really don't know what Arkansas hopes to achieve, 6-7 wins. They really need to look at themselves and set the expectations of what they can do being in the SEC west."

This bothers me, because of what we did under BP. I honestly just hope to compete better than we have recently.

I listened to that 2 min interview. I don't know who Schlabach is but I thought he did not sound very informed. He did not come off well in that interview.

[The Kig]

We know we aren't Alabama.  We also aren't a 6-7 win program.

Not this year anyway... we are a 4 win program.  /S

I think what Schlabach was stating was essentially true... If you look at the entire body of work for Arkansas since joining the SEC, we average around 6-7 wins.   Does that mean that we should simply accept that an not aspire to become more?   Absolutely not, which is why we have such a high level of frustration right now.  We saw that it could happen with Bobby and I absolutely agree that POS should have been fired, but it is possible with the right guy.

[RedRock]

Let's just play along and pretend we are only good for 6-7 wins.

[Jim Harris]

remember Colorado Buffaloes coming out of nowhere to have a few great seasons late 80's to mid 90's.

they cheated. Greatly.

[The Hawg Marshal]

Not this year anyway... we are a 4 win program.  /S

I think what Schlabach was stating was essentially true... If you look at the entire body of work for Arkansas since joining the SEC, we average around 6-7 wins.   Does that mean that we should simply accept that an not aspire to become more?   Absolutely not, which is why we have such a high level of frustration right now.  We saw that it could happen with Bobby and I absolutely agree that POS should have been fired, but it is possible with the right guy.

Exactly and if we lose those aspirations then why spend the money and effort.

[The Kig]

This is a very important point, and makes the upcoming HC hire that much more important.  THE RIGHT HC HIRE can change the perception, and then the national media coverage, of our school. 

The hiring of Mike Norvell would create a completely different narrative than hiring Mike Leach or Gus Malzhan.

Spot on... but filtering out the noise from the very vocal minority Gus haters who are trying to position Norvell as the 2nd coming is difficult. 

I would be happy to see Gus or Leach come, or any other big name that we will never get (Gruden, Kelly).  If you wanna play at the big boy table, you gotta bring enough cash for the buy-in.  Trying to chip up with a small stack is possible, but most of the time the big stacks are just gonna run you over. 

[orvillesghost]

I like to think we can do better than six wins

Arkansas hasn't averaged even eight wins a season for a sustained period in a long time though.

Is there a coach out there who can overcome the built in limitations of this program? I don't know but I hope so and hope we are lucky enough to come up with the one in a million who can.

[sickboy]

This is the stupidest comment you can make as a human being. We're a species that invented airplanes, the automobile and sent men to the moon. If the human species knew our place we'd still be in the Stone Age. If we can send Ken to the moon, we can get Arkansas football winning more games.

[EastexHawg]

Paul Finebaum had Mark Schlabach on and he said "I really don't know what Arkansas hopes to achieve, 6-7 wins. They really need to look at themselves and set the expectations of what they can do being in the SEC west."

Apparently he was on a two year drunk and slept through 2010 and 2011.  Or maybe he just forgot, considering that was so long ago.  Wasn't Wear Schoonover on those teams?

Screw him.

[Andrew]

All time Arkansas Record: 679-469-37 in 112 years. That's an avg of 6.06 wins a year. In 112 years, Arkansas finished ranked in the Final AP Top 20/25, 28 times.

Since joining the SEC in 1992, Arkansas is 170-144. That's an average of 6.5 wins per year.  In 26 years Arkansas finished in the final AP Top 25, 5 times.  In 26 years, Arkansas finished with 10 or more wins 3 times. 8-9 wins 8 times. 7 wins or less 15 times. 

Using Sports-reference.com's SOS rating, where 0 would be average and the higher the number, the more difficult the schedule.  BB avg SOS rating is 5.3 (his two best years the avg rating was 6.9). BP avg SOS rating was 4.9 (his two best years the avg was 4.3) and HDN avg SOS was 3.8 (his two best years the avg was 3.5).

All of that to say, Arkansas is a 6 to 7 win team. When they have been better, the competition has been weaker. I wish it wasn't like that, but History says otherwise.

[budcampbellfan]

What do you expect?  Oklahoma native Rick Schaeffer (sp???)  has been telling Arkansas fans for years on Drive Time Sports that we can't do any better and that unconditional love is the answer for all our problems with dissatisfaction and with coaching failures.

[31to6]

All of that to say, Arkansas is a 6 to 7 win team. When they have been better, the competition has been weaker. I wish it wasn't like that, but History says otherwise.

History also says that a great coach can win big here. If you put your 112 year history on a graph, you will see that the floor and ceiling go up and down based on, wait for it, coaching. Broyles built it and his floor and ceiling trended upward. Holtz worst season was 7-5. Hatfield's worst season was his first, at 7-4-1 and he won 9+ every year after that. We all know the story of the transition to the SEC, with some bad hires, but certainly the Petrino years (worst season, 5-7, average wins 8.25) show that it IS POSSIBLE to win. And Petrino's #1 (football-related) flaw is his recruiting. He is a great evaluator, but not a particularly good recruiter of top talent.

What your history is telling us is that Arkansas is not a "self-driving car" like Florida or Georgia, where 8 wins really is the floor for a coach with a pulse and two coaches in a row with NO OFFENSE, can win post double-digit wins and even a couple divisional championships.

With a bad to average coach and down talent years Arkansas can truly field a bad team because we can't just roll the ball out and ask 5 star athletes to make enough plays to win (See Miles, LSU.. where defensive freaks saved him from appallingly bad QB play on a regular basis).

But with a good coach aligned with good talent, we can challenge in the SEC-W. Sabanbama is a puzzle the entire conference has no really good answer for since Tebow/Meyer Florida, but aside from that, we can take a good crop of in-state talent, combine it with a focussed effort on some combination of TX, FL and LA, sprinkle some JUCO on it and put together a very good team.

So, what we have to do is get another coach that gives us an edge and we can make up for the bad seasons. Our good coaches do NOT average 6 wins. Therefore with a good coach, we are not a 6-win program.

So go get a good coach!