we've come a long way in recruiting

[hawgXi]

current recruits seem to want to come to arkansas as a stepping stone on their career path to the NFL.

recently I keep reading comments reported from more and more recruits about how impressed they are with our coaching staff's ability to take people to "the next level".

the results and contacts cbb, pittman, herbert, segrest have in place has opened the door for us to a different higher quality recruit than we saw in the past.

today kids with NFL potential written all over them want to come to arkansas to prepare for the League at almost every position.

in the past a lot of our recruits came to arkansas simply because we were their highest offer for a full ride college scholarship they could get.

totally different set of expectations today.  totally different caliber of recruits

I'm prolly stating the obvious, but wanted to see other opinions.

fire at will.

[Vantage 8 dude]

current recruits seem to want to come to arkansas as a stepping stone on their career path to the NFL.

recently I keep reading comments reported from more and more recruits about how impressed they are with our coaching staff's ability to take people to "the next level".

the results and contacts cbb, pittman, herbert, segrest have in place has opened the door for us to a different higher quality recruit than we saw in the past.

today kids with NFL potential written all over them want to come to arkansas to prepare for the League at almost every position.

in the past a lot of our recruits came to arkansas simply because we were their highest offer for a full ride college scholarship they could get.

totally different set of expectations today.  totally different caliber of recruits

I'm prolly stating the obvious, but wanted to see other opinions.

fire at will.

I agree. I think too that many of these kids also like the relationships that the staff have with the players (and one another) as well as the fact that CBB and crew have made it very clear and obvious that their desire and goal for "uncommon" men is genuine. The program obviously wants its kids to succeed by getting a quality education and being prepared for what lies ahead, whether that be in the NFL or not. While this longer term approach obviously won't appeal to some kids, it certainly resonates with many of your higher caliber recruits.

[OLDHOG]

All of what you said plus being genuine. Kids can sense this. I am very happy with our staff and really pumped about the future. SOOIE PIG!

[Hoggish1]

current recruits seem to want to come to arkansas as a stepping stone on their career path to the NFL.

recently I keep reading comments reported from more and more recruits about how impressed they are with our coaching staff's ability to take people to "the next level".

the results and contacts cbb, pittman, herbert, segrest have in place has opened the door for us to a different higher quality recruit than we saw in the past.

today kids with NFL potential written all over them want to come to arkansas to prepare for the League at almost every position.

in the past a lot of our recruits came to arkansas simply because we were their highest offer for a full ride college scholarship they could get.

totally different set of expectations today.  totally different caliber of recruits

I'm prolly stating the obvious, but wanted to see other opinions.

fire at will.

You are right.  BP reached his level and it was going to be all down hill from there, but he crashed...

The SEC has gotten extremely tough since April fool's day in 2012 and we weren't anywhere close to keeping up with the upgrades other programs were making. 

CBB is the best thing that could have happened to this program.

[Swinehart]

Face it, BP had his pros and cons. He had a lot name recognition going for him in the business which seemed to attract skilled players especially on the offensive side of the ball AND was considered by some to be an offensive genus. His offensive and defensive strategy reminded me some of Nolan and Mike's current entertaining styles in basketball. As negatives he lacked communication skills, was a bit self-centered and had little concerns for the defensive side of the ball. His philosophy was to outscore the opponent which was flawed when the opponent was able to grind it out and keep the ball away from his potent offense.

Admittedly, I was totally disappointed of the U of A's interim choice to complete that forthcoming season. Did anyone actually look at the man's resume? LOL  An even bigger surprise was when the search committee did a complete 180 and went with the less exciting Big 10 "pound the ball" type coach. I thought is was very unfair to our players that had committed to a pass oriented offence and having to totally transition to a rushing offence with the new coach showing little or no aptitude to tweak his philosophy a bit and effectively utilize the skills of the players already on board. I was also concerned that our small recruiting base could not consistently produce the type of big and numerous athletes needed to sustain this type of system.       

However after looking up from the bottom for awhile, I am pleasantly surprised to see us going consistently for players with offers from elite programs and winning some of the better talent. We need to win more of the same and occasionally finish in the top ten in recruiting to be consistent. I see our coach and his staff doing a good job working tirelessly and recruiting talent on both sides of the ball. He said the goal was to first win the West and by golly; he just may do so.

[HSVhogfan2]

You are right.  BP reached his level and it was going to be all down hill from there, but he crashed...

The SEC has gotten extremely tough since April fool's day in 2012 and we weren't anywhere close to keeping up with the upgrades other programs were making. 

CBB is the best thing that could have happened to this program.

I love the direction of the program, but until AR wins 21 games over a 2 year period it's kind of foolish to take shots at BP. AR was also on a lot of preseason radars in preseason 2012. So much so that most folks thought Slappy the Clown could win 9-10 games with that team. Oh, and 2011 was the maybe the best year ever in the SEC. Very good argument that the 3 best teams in the nation were SEC teams.

But I do agree, given what happened on that April fools day, CBB is the best thing that could have happened to the program.

[bennyl08]

I disagree that CBB has more NFL level kids looking at the program than Petrino. However, Bielema and staff are much better at closing on the kids and getting them to come here. Petrino was a major step up from Nutt and Bielema has been a large step up from Petrino. I see no reason to cut down CBP, but I am certainly liking what I'm seeing with CBB.

[kp72204]

current recruits seem to want to come to arkansas as a stepping stone on their career path to the NFL.

recently I keep reading comments reported from more and more recruits about how impressed they are with our coaching staff's ability to take people to "the next level".

the results and contacts cbb, pittman, herbert, segrest have in place has opened the door for us to a different higher quality recruit than we saw in the past.

today kids with NFL potential written all over them want to come to arkansas to prepare for the League at almost every position.

in the past a lot of our recruits came to arkansas simply because we were their highest offer for a full ride college scholarship they could get.

totally different set of expectations today.  totally different caliber of recruits

I'm prolly stating the obvious, but wanted to see other opinions.

fire at will.

Co-sign. I'm loving this moment right now and hope it gets even better

[Science Fiction Greg]

I love the direction of the program, but until AR wins 21 games over a 2 year period it's kind of foolish to take shots at BP. AR was also on a lot of preseason radars in preseason 2012. So much so that most folks thought Slappy the Clown could win 9-10 games with that team. Oh, and 2011 was the maybe the best year ever in the SEC. Very good argument that the 3 best teams in the nation were SEC teams.

But I do agree, given what happened on that April fools day, CBB is the best thing that could have happened to the program.

I don't think it's foolish to take shots at BP.  He practically destroyed our program with his actions.  You don't just overlook that.  It's part of what he did here.  Even if you want to ignore that, you can't argue that his recruiting wasn'y going to be in a tatters if he was retained.  It *was* going to be all downhill.  Heck, it had started downhill well before the incident.

As far as Petrino is concerned, for me, fire away.

[HSVhogfan2]

I don't think it's foolish to take shots at BP.  He practically destroyed our program with his actions.  You don't just overlook that.  It's part of what he did here.  Even if you want to ignore that, you can't argue that his recruiting wasn'y going to be in a tatters if he was retained.  It *was* going to be all downhill.  Heck, it had started downhill well before the incident.

As far as Petrino is concerned, for me, fire away.

You can't offer any proof that it would go downhill. That's  just agenda driven. The guy was a scum bag, but he had the best 3 year run while AR was in the SEC, while the SEC was at its best. People were talking about AR being top 5 in 2012. Those are facts. You are just speculating.

It appears that AR has survived the scandel. The next 2 years will tell. There is, however, no need to rewrite history.

[hawgsmellgud]

You can't offer any proof that it would go downhill. That's  just agenda driven. The guy was a scum bag, but he had the best 3 year run while AR was in the SEC, while the SEC was at its best. People were talking about AR being top 5 in 2012. Those are facts. You are just speculating.

It appears that AR has survived the scandel. The next 2 years will tell. There is, however, no need to rewrite history.

We were preseason top 5, but we were overrated and even petrino would have lost a few games. We just didn't have the D or Oline/running game thought we had. He left us in shambles.

[Swinehart]

We were preseason top 5, but we were overrated and even petrino would have lost a few games. We just didn't have the D or Oline/running game thought we had. He left us in shambles.

Revisionist BULL !

[HSVhogfan2]

We were preseason top 5, but we were overrated and even petrino would have lost a few games. We just didn't have the D or Oline/running game thought we had. He left us in shambles.

And you know this, how? Carnac the Magnificent maybe?

[Science Fiction Greg]

You can't offer any proof that it would go downhill. That's  just agenda driven. The guy was a scum bag, but he had the best 3 year run while AR was in the SEC, while the SEC was at its best. People were talking about AR being top 5 in 2012. Those are facts. You are just speculating.

It appears that AR has survived the scandel. The next 2 years will tell. There is, however, no need to rewrite history.

I don't need to offer proof for something that was common sense.  He was a disciplinarian who didn't follow the rules himself, demonstrated on a national stage.  No one was going to come play for him.  His recruiting had already started going downhill, this sure wasn't going to help it.  I have no agenda, I have common sense.

This was only a small part of the point I made, anyway.  The important part was:

"He practically destroyed our program with his actions.  You don't just overlook that.  It's part of what he did here."

[hoghiker]

I was a huge Petrino fan but I'm not convinced you can go year after year in the same program and lead it to continuing glory with his personality. I know, I know, coaches can be total pricks and win. You just gotta think that 18 year old kids would rather play for someone else. Lots of roads to the NFL. No sure I'd want my son exposed to 4 years of Petrino. I can't imagine lots of parents getting around to that attitude over the long haul. Time will tell if he stays at Lousiville.

[Nipsey Mussle]

Good God, it took what, 3 posts to completely derail this thread?

Let's focus on the present and future. CBP never crosses my mind, I guess most of the fan base isn't so lucky, eh?

[Vantage 8 dude]

You can't offer any proof that it would go downhill. That's  just agenda driven. The guy was a scum bag, but he had the best 3 year run while AR was in the SEC, while the SEC was at its best. People were talking about AR being top 5 in 2012. Those are facts. You are just speculating.

It appears that AR has survived the scandel. The next 2 years will tell. There is, however, no need to rewrite history.

I'm certainly not going to debate whether or not we'd have continued to have success had CBP stayed. No one will ever know one way or another as far as that issue's concerned. However, there is one thing that CAN'T be denied now or ever: The "bone headed", narcissistic stunt that ole Bobby pulled off with wrecking his m'bike with is mistress riding on the back virtually destroyed our program for several years and from which we're just now beginning to recover. Thank goodness we did manage to land CBB who's had to completely redo and rebuild everything that was torn down due to Petrino's self-centered actions. BTW this is NO REWRITE of history, rather the sad and plain truth!

[hawgsmellgud]

And you know this, how? Carnac the Magnificent maybe?

I watched the games. We weren't a better team than the two years prior. Wasn't that hard to see.

[HSVhogfan2]

I watched the games. We weren't a better team than the two years prior. Wasn't that hard to see.

You do realize that 2012 team was coached by Slappy the Clown and Tyler Wilson, right?

[hawgsmellgud]

You do realize that 2012 team was coached by Slappy the Clown and Tyler Wilson, right?

Naw. Tell me more. It's all good, I'm not gonna  argue with you, I know what I saw. I was the biggest petrino fan, but he wasn't going to win the SEC that year.

[bennyl08]

Naw. Tell me more. It's all good, I'm not gonna  argue with you, I know what I saw. I was the biggest petrino fan, but he wasn't going to win the SEC that year.

No doubt, especially losing guys like Franklin, Nelson, and Bequette, which concerns me a bit losing Spaight, Flowers, and Philon. That said, you want a good look at the difference a HC makes, look at the Saints and even Brees. The year that they didn't have Sean Peyton was a mess. Peyton comes back the next year and everything is fine again.

I think we are better off with Bielema than we were with Petrino.

[Nipsey Mussle]

No doubt, especially losing guys like Franklin, Nelson, and Bequette, which concerns me a bit losing Spaight, Flowers, and Philon. That said, you want a good look at the difference a HC makes, look at the Saints and even Brees. The year that they didn't have Sean Peyton was a mess. Peyton comes back the next year and everything is fine again.

I think we are better off with Bielema than we were with Petrino.

I 100% agree with you, except I'm not sure how much the Payton stuff holds true at this point. They went 7-9 the one year without him. They're 18-14 since then.

[hawgsmellgud]

No doubt, especially losing guys like Franklin, Nelson, and Bequette, which concerns me a bit losing Spaight, Flowers, and Philon. That said, you want a good look at the difference a HC makes, look at the Saints and even Brees. The year that they didn't have Sean Peyton was a mess. Peyton comes back the next year and everything is fine again.

I think we are better off with Bielema than we were with Petrino.

Don't get me wrong it made ALL the difference my point is that even with Petrino we were not going to finish as high as the national pundits  thought we were. Our defense and running game was severely lacking that year.

Pardon the grammar and spelling I am typing this via voice text

[bennyl08]

I 100% agree with you, except I'm not sure how much the Payton stuff holds true at this point. They went 7-9 the one year without him. They're 18-14 since then.

IDK, they went from 13-3 to 7-9, then back up to 11-5 before back to 7-9. They had 3 11+ win seasons before his suspension, then back up to 11 wins after he returned. In the NFL it is very hard to maintain success and a lot of their decline is due to retiring players/players leaving to FA. Look at Jimmy to Seattle (which makes me very excited).

Don't get me wrong it made ALL the difference my point is that even with Petrino we were not going to finish as high as the national pundits  thought we were. Our defense and running game was severely lacking that year.

Pardon the grammar and spelling I am typing this via voice text

I agree that our defense was inevitably going to take a step back that season, no matter who our new DC was. I would argue against the running game. It ended up being lacking severely that season, however, how much of that was because Knile wasn't managed properly? He went on to have a solid rookie season in the NFL that next year and showed flashes of potential all season long, especially the early aggie game which lends one to believe that it wasn't because he hadn't healed yet. Add a healthy Knile and BP to that team and it was probably an 8-9 win team that year, which is a far cry from being in the top 10 as you say.

[OneTuskOverTheLine™]

Could have summed up every thought in this thread in 10 words...

"Finally..! A staff that can recruit is employed by Arkansas..."

[Pork Twain]

No doubt, especially losing guys like Franklin, Nelson, and Bequette, which concerns me a bit losing Spaight, Flowers, and Philon. That said, you want a good look at the difference a HC makes, look at the Saints and even Brees. The year that they didn't have Sean Peyton was a mess. Peyton comes back the next year and everything is fine again.

I think we are better off with Bielema than we were with Petrino.

Except that CBB is improving this team with every class.  In hindsight, it appears that CBP topped out with his first class and even with solid finishes from then on, on the field, he was unable to attract the talent we all thought he was going to.  After Childs, Wright, Adams, Gragg, Mallett, I thought we would be fighting off the top offensive talent.

[Chief Mac]

Except that CBB is improving this team with every class.  In hindsight, it appears that CBP topped out with his first class and even with solid finishes from then on, on the field, he was unable to attract the talent we all thought he was going to.  After Childs, Wright, Adams, Gragg, Mallett, I thought we would be fighting off the top offensive talent.

yeah, it is curious how "21-5" didn't translate in the living room of recruits on the offensive side of the ball