Micheal Smith just told an awesome story on the radio.

[intelligence]

Those 5 running plays were pretty effective seeing as HDN's offences averaged 38 pts a game during those years.

With a bigass oline and 3 future nfl running backs in the backfield

[LZH]

With a bigass oline and 3 future nfl running backs in the backfield

Naw man, it was because of the play caller - big baller!

[jgphillips3]

Five running plays.  Hmmm... TB right, TB left, TB up the middle, FB belly dive and smoke draw?

[Iwastherein1969]

Naw man, it was because of the play caller - big baller!

" shot caller "

[Mike Irwin]

To clarify, I asked Michael about this story again yesterday. He said he never mentioned the name of the RBs coach. I just assumed it was D-Nutt but my memory was off. By that time D-Nutt was in his non coaching job and Tim Horton was the running backs coach.

Also in an interview with Jim Chaney on Media Day I asked him what would be a normal number of running plays an OC would install for use in a season. He said there was no set number but he typically uses around 8-10.

I asked Michael Smith and he said 5 was on the low side but anything more than 10 would probably start to become counterproductive.

This was a subject I had not thought too much about except for noticing Nutt's playbook was squeezed way down after Frank scared him in December of 2000.

[bphi11ips]

This was a subject I had not thought too much about except for noticing Nutt's playbook was squeezed way down after Frank scared him in December of 2000.

No doubt Nutt's offense was more wide open his first few years.  We've heard for years that Broyles handcuffed Nutt, but I don't recall seeing anything from the media on that story.  What happened?

[KlubhouseKonnected]

No doubt Nutt's offense was more wide open his first few years.  We've heard for years that Broyles handcuffed Nutt, but I don't recall seeing anything from the media on that story.  What happened?

I had actually never heard that. In fact, I almost always hear that the difference between Nutt's offense in the early years and his later tedium was that Clint would consistently change the plays in the huddle or at the line.

[KlubhouseKonnected]

Well don't I feel special. I started a thread that got talked about on the radio. 


That is called cross over appeal.

Of course, the thread I started that got talked about on the radio was about what earlier got talked about on the radio.

So I guess... Synergy?

[TMc]

Don't forget the pass to 'grandma in the stands'

Too funny..

[Mike Irwin]

No doubt Nutt's offense was more wide open his first few years.  We've heard for years that Broyles handcuffed Nutt, but I don't recall seeing anything from the media on that story.  What happened?

The morning after the Vegas Bowl Nutt was late for a press conference at the team hotel (Golden Nugget downtown as I recall). When Nutt finally came in he looked odd. Like he'd seen the Fouke Monster.

Some of you may recall that the 2000 team had pretty much tanked under Robby Hampton who got hurt late in the season. At one point a bowl game seemed out of the question. But with Hampton hurt Nutt went to a ground game with Fred Talley and Brandon Holmes.

The team rebounded just enough to get to six wins and become bowl eligible.

During the bowl practices Hampton came back and Nutt changed his game plan back to throwing the ball. Hampton looked bad and Vegas pretty much dominated the game.

Once we got back to Fayetteville the word out of the BAC was that Frank had jumped Nutt really good the morning after the game, right before the press conference I mentioned.

Supposedly he told Nutt, If you want to keep running that offense you need three things you don't have. A QB to throw it, receivers to get open and catch it and linemen who can pass block.

I was also told that Mike Markuson agreed with Frank telling Nutt that Arkansas did not have the kind of recruiting base to run a wide open passing attack against SEC defenses. Markuson supposedly said, "We're not at Murray State anymore."

Frank pretty much confirmed this whole thing several months later in a conversation with Wilson Matthews. I was standing right next to both of them at an August workout when Frank revealed that he had told Nutt he was throwing the ball way too much and needed a better running game.

Of course he left out the part about scaring the fool out of Nutt. I can't say that it was Frank that got to him that morning in Las Vegas but somebody did.

Nutt's offense completely changed after that.

[WorfHog]

Had to go look up the Fouke Monster Mike, now I have to find that Mystery Science Theater Episode. And it's funny that Petrino came in after Nutt. Proving Frank and Markuson wrong in less than two years.

[Mike Irwin]

That day with Wilson Frank said he was fine with Nutt throwing the ball all over the place as long as it worked. It was pretty clear that Danny Ford had left Nutt better players to chunk the ball than Nutt had been able to recruit for himself.

Markuson believed that you could take a pretty good high school O-Lineman and teach him to run block if he was the right size. Pass blocking, he said, required a specialized skill and was much harder to recruit. He used Shawn Andrews as an example.  He said if there were more Shaw Andrews types in the state of Arkansas it would be easier to run the wide open stuff Nutt employed at Murray State.

[Biggus Piggus]

Only Nutt would have responded to Broyles's guidance by never trying to recruit the talent necessary to run a balanced offense.

[Peter Porker]

I had actually never heard that. In fact, I almost always hear that the difference between Nutt's offense in the early years and his later tedium was that Clint would consistently change the plays in the huddle or at the line.

Nutt trusted Clint enough to audible. The audible, obviously, was from Nutt's playbook. Nutt had a very good playbook at one time. Too bad for him he shelved it.

[Hogpkins]

Had to go look up the Fouke Monster Mike, now I have to find that Mystery Science Theater Episode. And it's funny that Petrino came in after Nutt. Proving Frank and Markuson wrong in less than two years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RqQOhiDQqo

The Hogs make a cameo at the 1:50 mark.

[jesterzzn]

Only Nutt would have responded to Broyles's guidance by never trying to recruit the talent necessary to run a balanced offense.

That was what I took away as well.  That and apparently the O-line coach had more sway in the recruiting focus than the head coach.

[j-mann]

Nutt only had 8 Plays  no wonder most do not like him as a game day coach 

if i was a coach i would have about 800   plays but i would only tell my guys u only need to know about 80 plays   


the 800 is just in case i can install a play on the fly to beat certain  Man Zones