Three Critical Eras in Razorback Football

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Fact is that Arkansas never really came very close to a national title under Hatfield.  We won a lot of games and had some good times, but almost every time we played anyone good, we lost.  If those teams had played in today's SEC, there would be no 10-win seasons and they'd fare no better then current teams have.

Hatfield gave us some very good memories, but like others have said (echoing my original post on the subject), those games that mattered most were the ones he lost.  He did get us to two Cotton Bowls as SWC champs, but by that time the SWC was dying a slow death and it had slipped far from the glory days of the '60s and '70s.  Hatfield's Hogs had to beat good A&M and Houston teams, but that was about it.  Texas wasn't Texas anymore.  And that loss to UCLA in the Cotton Bowl was absolutely embarrassing.  I think we had less than 50 yards of total offense that day.

[KennyForAD]

Good OP and interesting topic.  I'd divide "modern" Arkansas football into three parts as well - two eras and what I believe is the beginning of another.

I'd define the "modern era" as beginning in 1958 with the arrival of Frank Broyles.  Those who would begin the modern era at the integration of football in the South ignore two things.  First, by-and-large, the same teams competing for prominence in college football in 1958 were the same teams that have dominated the game since 1970.  Second, African- American athletes began playing college football outside of the South long before 1970.  The game changed dramatically at the college and jprofessional level once it became fully integrated, but to suggest that Arkansas was as successful as it was in the 60's because college football was not yet fully integrated is superficial.

Having said that, the first era in my mind was 1959-1989.  Arkansas was a perennial Top 20 team that entire time, even though it went through occasional dry spells like the early 70's.  Even then, Arkansas maintained its national image with a major drumming of California and an upset of USC in a year when the Tojans won the NC.  The national media was a bit stunned when Miami thumped Arkansas in Little Rock in 1987, even though Miami was in the middle of its heyday.  But that is only because Arkansas was highly regarded itself.  The Hogs almost got payback the next year in Miami when the two undefeated teams met to close the season.  Only a dead drop of an interception in the endzone by Steve Atwater allowed the Hurricane to escape with an 18-16 victory.  A deflated Arkansas team then lost to Troy Aikman-led UCLA in the Cotton Bowl.  The Hogs would return to Dallas the next year and lose to Tennessee in a game featuring two dynamic offenses filled with playmakers that could have gone either way.  In 1988 or 1989, the Hogs could have been in the national title conversation had a few plays gone their way. 

Everything changed abrubtly in 1990.  For whatever reason, Ken Hatfield left and Broyles, caught in a pinch, elevated Jack Crowe from offensive coordinator to head coach.  The thinking was that Quinn Grovey would return for his senior year, and Crowe would provide continuity.  That idea worked better on paper than in practice.  Almost overnight, defense and special teams, long hallmarks of Arkansas football, fell through the floor.  Arkansas opened 1990 ranked 15 in the AP poll, but in the 4th game in Little Rock, TCU threw at will over the top of the Arkansas defense in route to a 54-26 victory.  Razorbacks fans were stunned.  TCU had been to Arkansas what Kentucky has been to Tennessee for so many years.  Hog fans had never seen a defense give up so many big plays, not even to Texas.  And this wasn't Gary Patterson's TCU.  Jim Whacker's Horned Frogs would finish 5-6 that year.  But Arkansas would win only one more game in 1990 and finished 3-8.  Holy cow!  Little did we know that 1990 was only the beginning of a 25 year run that would be punctuated far more by lows than by highs.  Frankly, Broyles, Holtz and Hatfield had spoiled us.  We would wander in the desert through Crowe, Kines, Ford, and Nutt, finding an oasis here and there.  Then, when Bobby Petrino appeared to be the coach we'd been missing for almost two decades, he wound up in a road-side ditch, literally, and we were back where we started with Jack Crowe II a/k/a John "Smiley" Smith.  At least he held the official "interim" title, which Crowe had held on a de facto basis.

I firmly believe we are embarking on a golden era of Razorbacks football.  I've said this since Bielema was hired and have drawn many parallels since he was hired to the state of the program when Broyles arrived and the state of the program when Bielema was hired.  Even the spike of success Petrino had during his brief tenure has an analog in Bowden Wyatt's 25 Little Pigs of 1954 and a Cotton Bowl appearance.  Wyatt left for his alma mater of Tennessee, but the pump was primed.  Arkansas had a respectable new stadium in the heart of the state it could fill with cardinal-clad fans, and Frank Broyles and network television were about to take Arkansas to national prominence.

Fast forward to January, 2016.  Bret Bielema is beginning the fourth year of a six year rebuilding project, and it appears as if things are right on schedule.  Arkansas has a beautiful facility on-campus and can fill it with 75,000 cardinal-clad fans.  This weekend Bielema is hosting a dozen of the finest high school football players to ever visit Fayetteville at the same time.  The number 2 defensive end in the country and the number 3 running back are solid commitments.  The number 1 safety is in Fayetteville today.  The current roster includes four 4 star QB's lined up almost perfectly by class. 

The future is bright, but as Razorbacks fan, I'll still knock on wood.

You seem to mixing up an era of Arkansas football with an era of college football as a whole.  Just because Arkansas was good from the sixties through the eighties does not mean that college football didn't change in the seventies.  And saying that college football changed doesn't diminish what the Hogs did before the change. 

[KennyForAD]

I would have to take a little exception to this. Hatfield did win more, but his teams weren't necessarily well respected. Oh, we played hard and clean, and he ran a very clean program. But we were always the lowest ranked one loss team, or lowest ranked two loss team, or lowest ranked three loss team, etc.... whatever the situation may have been at the time.

It started with the 1985 Texas game. We were ranked #4, and they were unranked. We miss like a million field goals (what should have been touchdown opportunities) and lost in our newly renovated stadium on national television.

The Orange Bowl after the 1986 season and the Miami game in 1987 surely cemented this notion. Check where we were ranked when we went to the Orange Bowl and almost beat the Hurricanes in 1988. An undefeated 10-0 Southwest Conference champion ranked behind several teams that had a loss or two. We were ranked so low because we had not proven for years that we could play ball with the big boys.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Coach Hatfield. But for whatever reason, we never did well in games against the toughest teams.

Greg Horn... missed four fg's.  Meahwhile Texas kicked 5, and we lost 15-14, if I remember right.  Poor guy, we called him Greg Hook'em Horn after that.  I think you make valid points, but Hatfield had great teams.  Yeah, OU and Miami were better, but hey, they were better than everyone else too.  Couple of losses to Texas we should have won.  Should have beaten Tennessee, couldn't beat Troy Aikman's UCLA.   9-2, 9-2, 10-1, 10-1.  Lots of disappointment but great fun.   btw, we were undefeated and ranked 10th going into Miami game.  Sports Illustrated called us 8 and Uh-0H.  We had Miami beat and lost heartbreaker.  Stayed no. 10.  The season before, some national pundits picked us to win it all.  We were very well respected.  Miami and OU were just better.  That didn't bother me then, doesn't bother me now.

[KennyForAD]

My Grandfather explained the Hatfield era to me as a young teenager like this:

-Hatfield was a genuinely good man. But he is also a football coach getting paid to win.
-All football programs are judged on a winning "pattern" by the fans and media.
-Football programs winning "pattern" begins on the recruiting trail.
-Broyles was the "Godfather of Razorback Football", but not infallible. Had issues meddling in the program.
-Hatfield did lose a some games we should've won. Abysmal bowl record.
-Some fans didn't like the way he was winning games. (Extremely run heavy)
-The above led to fan apathy.
-Other programs began tell recruits that Hatfield was in Broyles' doghouse.
-Hatfield got wind of the rumors.
-Bailed to Clemson when he started losing recruits because of it.

I'm sure there was more to it, but media wasn't quite as accessible then as it is now.
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This is absolutely true.  Most popular joke in Arkansas then:  "Did you hear it took Hatfield 10 hours to get to Little Rock?  He ran all the way."  'Took 10 hours to drive back: He wouldn't pass."   Hatfield ran a version of the Wishbone offense.  The bone is a running offense.   OU ran the wishbone too.  No one in Oklahoma ever complained that OU didn't throw enough.  If anyone ever did, someone would say, "Uh, they run the bone, you idiot."  But not in Arkansas... Maybe 2% of our fans could name "flex bone" as our offense.

[bphi11ips]

You seem to mixing up an era of Arkansas football with an era of college football as a whole.  Just because Arkansas was good from the sixties through the eighties does not mean that college football didn't change in the seventies.  And saying that college football changed doesn't diminish what the Hogs did before the change. 

Doesn't matter.  The same teams that dominated college football in the 60's dominate college football now.  The game has changed because of integration, but college football powers have remained pretty constant.  Arkansas football was not somehow relegated to second tier status because of integration, which is what you are really suggesting.  Nothing new in the suggestion, it's just based on a faulty premise.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Doesn't matter.  The same teams that dominated college football in the 60's dominate college football now.  The game has changed because of integration, but college football powers have remained pretty constant.  Arkansas football was not somehow relegated to second tier status because of integration, which is what you are really suggesting.  Nothing new in the suggestion, it's just based on a faulty premise.

That's true.  Granted, our early '70s weren't stellar (the first "missed opportunity" in my original post), but I think that was more a case of losing a whole passel of stars at once (Montgomery, Dicus, Burnett, Powell, Bumpass, James, etc.) and having the next class coming in being a level or two below that.  By the time '75 rolled around, we were nationally relevant again and it was with a healthy percentage of African-American players. 

[KennyForAD]

Doesn't matter.  The same teams that dominated college football in the 60's dominate college football now.  The game has changed because of integration, but college football powers have remained pretty constant.  Arkansas football was not somehow relegated to second tier status because of integration, which is what you are really suggesting.  Nothing new in the suggestion, it's just based on a faulty premise.

I'm not suggesting that at all. Guess I'm kinda off on a tangent. All I'm saying is that I see three eras of college football - pre facemask, before integration and after integration - just as you seem to.  Arkansas was good pre integration, and after.

Jerry Jones was an offensive lineman.  Linemen today are twice as big.  Barry Switzer was a star player.  He said it changed so much that he couldn't have made the team ten years later.  Those are  different eras. 

But, I certainly see Arkansas football having a Broyles, Holtz, Hatfield era (or even before Broyles - not sure, but I think we went fifty years without a losing season from 50 thru 89), and an SEC era.  A Nutt era, etc.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

I'm not suggesting that at all.  All I'm saying is that I see three eras of college football - pre facemask, before integration and after integration - just as you seem to.  Arkansas was good pre integration, and after.

I will readily admit I am not the authority on the pre-facemask era of Razorback football.

I'm old, but not that old.   

[KennyForAD]

I will readily admit I am not the authority on the pre-facemask era of Razorback football.

I'm old, but not that old.   

Its necesarry if you live among Texas fans who love to go on and on about their 'all time record.'  Pointing out that they're bragging about wins against high schools in the pre facemask era shuts em up.

[bphi11ips]

I'm not suggesting that at all. Guess I'm kinda off on a tangent. All I'm saying is that I see three eras of college football - pre facemask, before integration and after integration - just as you seem to.  Arkansas was good pre integration, and after.

Jerry Jones was an offensive lineman.  Linemen today are twice as big.  Barry Switzer was a star player.  He said it changed so much that he couldn't have made the team ten years later.  Those are  different eras. 

But, I certainly see Arkansas football having a Broyles, Holtz, Hatfield era (or even before Broyles - not sure, but I think we went fifty years without a losing season from 50 thru 89), and an SEC era.  A Nutt era, etc.

Fair enough. 

[LZH]

Greg Horn... missed four fg's.  Meahwhile Texas kicked 5, and we lost 15-14, if I remember right.  Poor guy, we called him Greg Hook'em Horn after that.  I think you make valid points, but Hatfield had great teams.  Yeah, OU and Miami were better, but hey, they were better than everyone else too.  Couple of losses to Texas we should have won.  Should have beaten Tennessee, couldn't beat Troy Aikman's UCLA.   9-2, 9-2, 10-1, 10-1.  Lots of disappointment but great fun.   btw, we were undefeated and ranked 10th going into Miami game.  Sports Illustrated called us 8 and Uh-0H.  We had Miami beat and lost heartbreaker.  Stayed no. 10.  The season before, some national pundits picked us to win it all.  We were very well respected.  Miami and OU were just better.  That didn't bother me then, doesn't bother me now.

It's really hard to overstate how badly we screwed up that Texas game. That was awful. We completely dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage from kick off to the final gun.

The night before, me and a friend of mine were snooping around the new Sky boxes, which were left unlocked and unattended, and got caught by Uncle Frank himself. He was giving a quick run through to a group of VIPs and rounded the corner to see our drunk/stoned asses standing there looking for somewhere to quickly hide. (You ever been so buzzed that you were convinced your eyeballs would glow in the dark?) So, we tried to blend in and follow them around as he gave us 'that look' several times......as in, "keep your head down and your mouth shut".

Lord, I miss the 80s.

[Torqued pork]

A lot of old folks who didn't like Broyles the coach weren't going to like Broyles the AD regardless of what he did or didn't do.

[wholehog92]

Great conversation.  It's telling that Nutt was here for 10 years and isn't in the conversation about defining Hog football.  That is my biggest gripe with Broyles.  There is no justification for keeping Nutt after year 4.  He still had the authority at that time to make his own hires and fires.

I think Broyles, Holtz, and Petrino results show that with the right coach here, we have the resources to contend on the national stage.  The key is stringing two of those guys together in a row.  That's how we transition from a top 20 program to a top 10 program.

[Torqued pork]

Great conversation.  It's telling that Nutt was here for 10 years and isn't in the conversation about defining Hog football.  That is my biggest gripe with Broyles.  There is no justification for keeping Nutt after year 4.  He still had the authority at that time to make his own hires and fires.

I think Broyles, Holtz, and Petrino results show that with the right coach here, we have the resources to contend on the national stage.  The key is stringing two of those guys together in a row.  That's how we transition from a top 20 program to a top 10 program.

Broyles wanted Tuberville. John White's search committee wanted Nutt. Broyles' days of getting what he wanted were over.

[DeltaBoy]

Broyles wanted Tuberville. John White's search committee wanted Nutt. Broyles' days of getting what he wanted were over.

Yep John BOY White and the committee killed the Hogs for 10 years.

[dowils]

Well, you know what they say:Sometimes a warrior just has to lay down on the ground there for a minute and just have a good bleed. Just bleed.