Who?

[bjbuatamu]

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for all the great posts after watching this football season and a more often than not somewhat empty Bud Walton Area in basketball thus far.

If the head coach leaves, who comes in and takes his place?  Who wants to face Alabama, Auburn, etc., year in and year out, especially Alabama as long as Saban is there?  LSU settles on Orgeron, Texas hires a coach that was soundly beaten by SMU, etc.  The thought of hiring a seasoned SEC assistant is tempting, but Smart and Muschamp both appear to be struggling.  And I know that there's a huge risk in hiring a successful mid-major coach like Fleck.  And it's interesting that Miles was on no team's radar, and I can understand why Briles was not.

And the "we can't recruit" issue seems a difficult one to understand for me...Clemson, Auburn, Starkville, Oxford, College Station, Stillwater are all small college towns.  We also hear about how important Texas is to recruiting, and a very large portion of the freshman class at the U of A is from Dallas.  Admittedly they are classroom students and perhaps not athletes, but, I look back at the last few years at good players such as Williams, Williams III, and Whaley, and they are all from Texas. 

Just my perspective as an academic who has worked with college athletes both in the SEC and Big 12: winning cures everything and winning in the SEC means beating Alabama.  Ole Miss was a forgotten entity until they defeated Alabama in consecutive seasons.  Texas A&M is still riding on their one victory over Alabama since joining the SEC.  When you beat Alabama, ESPN "gives you the love."  And when you are dealing with 16 and 17 year old high school students who are "tweeting" during recruiting and working diligently to receive ESPN commentator "stars," you had better win. 

A great analogy:  Life comes to a complete standstill here in Dallas during the Cowboy games.  That hasn't happened in the 12 years I have been here.  They are winning.  And they are winning with a quarterback from a small town in Louisiana who played college football in what is often considered the worst location in the SEC.  Winning cures everything.

Coaching, leadership, talent, beating Alabama.  Arkansas seems to be missing all four (Bielema, Long, average players, no victories over Alabama by Petrino, Smith, or Bielema).

Here's to what will hopefully be a better 2017 for we loyal Razorback fans!