Grumbling on the Hill
By Ronald Sitton
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - No matter where you reside in the South, you follow Southeastern Conference football. You can't help it; if you cannot talk about it, sometimes you'll have nothing to say while everyone around you throws in their two cents on the current crisis facing their favorite team.
You may have noted I didn't write last week following the USC collapse. For an entire week, I seriously questioned my allegiance to the team I've followed for 37 years. I had no choice but to be a Hog fan ... my dad left the delivery room to check the Arkansas score in November 1968. I've seen the ups - 1978 Orange Bowl, etc. - and the downs. I even sat in the student section of my alma mater - the University of Tennessee - decked out in Hog paraphenalia to see The Fumble and The Thrashing two years later.
Still, I've never seriously reconsidered my allegiance until last week. My good friend Poguey noted his dad once gave him sound advice, i.e. "Never bet on the Razorbacks or the (Dallas) Cowboys." And I don't bet on the Hogs, but I've lived and died with them many a year.
I listened to the Razorbacks play Utah State on the radio yesterday since the game was not televised. It's a hard thing to do without Paul Eels' signature "Oh MY!" following an Arkansas touchdown. When I lived in Tennessee, I'd listen to Paul over the Internet just to get a taste of home. The seven-overtime win at Ole Miss wouldn't have been as special without Eels vividly describing Matt Jones executing the impossible. It's fitting Arkansas opens Southeastern Conference play against Vanderbilt next week. I'm sure we'll see another special since Eels came to Arkansas from Vanderbilt in the '70s.
The Razorbacks beat Utah State 20-0, the team's first shutout since 2002, with Darren McFadden scoring twice while gaining 184 yards on 20 carries and Mitch Mustain throwing a touchdown to Marcus Monk. You would think that would make people happy. Instead, the critics are already calling for Houston Nutt's job because he wants a smash-mouth running game. The critics want Guz Malzahn to turn the team on the hill into Pass-Happy U.
I remember those same fair-weather fans clamoring that Ken Hatfield's flexbone wasn't good enough or fancy enough, though it won back-to-back SWC championships. So we got rid of the winningest coach in Arkansas history for an offensive wizard in Jack Crowe, who lasted until the Citadel debacle.
I've already detailed Frank's itchy finger, and even thought it may have cost the job of our only basketball coach with a national championship. That last piece noted Frank canned anyone who couldn't keep his mouth shut.
OK, Nutt ain't Butch Davis, but Nutt can keep his mouth shut.
Nutt's already broken a cardinal rule this fall by starting a freshman quarterback in Mustain. ESPN and everybody else commented on the situation. He moved the former starting quarterback and the backup defensive end to wide receiver. He told the media last night that he loves ugly wins because they're wins.
Sound like a coach on the hot seat?
Oh yeah, HDN knows the fickle tastes of the Razorback Nation. He's two years away from taking the team to six consecutive bowls, a feat only accomplished by Lou Holtz, who also got canned after a down year. Nutt came in on the tails of Danny Ford, who got canned two years after winning the SEC West. Nutt wanted the Arkansas job when few did.
Of course, some will point out the coach Broyles passed over, Tommy Tuberville, consistently challenges on the national level. Perhaps Arkansas would also challenge had it not gone through NCAA sanctions Nutt endured though they happened in Ford's tenure. But perhaps not.
Arkansas will never have a budget to keep up with the likes of USC, Texas, etc. We as fans have to get used to that, and the fact that those budgets bring in players who we'll only see lining up against us. The main way Arkansas will recruit top-notch talent will be to keep it's home crop intact, something that only Nutt has been able to do since Frank Broyles retired.
Occasionally, Arkansas will make a national run as a darkhorse contender, but it will never dominate the Southeastern Conference. Maybe instead of changing coaches, we should change conferences. We'd at least have a shot winning the Big 12 more often than we can win in the SEC.
Ya know, it would have been really easy for me to become a Volunteer fan while attending UT. While in graduate school, I watched Peyton Manning as well as the Tee Martin-led National Championship team of 1998. Last weekend, I watched UT dismantle Cal just prior to USC roughing up Arkansas. I thought about switching allegiance and I don't think anyone could blame me if I did, especially considering UT is my alma mater.
Maybe then, I wouldn't have to take so much crap from my friends at Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. But I love the Razorbacks, and while you can occasionally flirt with others, you never walk away from your true love.
While my personal crisis seems to have subsided, Houston Nutt's facing his. I know Nutt loves the Razorbacks, but he'll be dumped if he doesn't win seven this year. If he doesn't, we won't see Malzahn anymore either. We'll get Butch Davis most likely, and he won't care what the boo-birds think.
If Nutt wants to keep his job, he cannot think about the boo-birds either. People who boo at college games suck. They need to take their Eeyore mentalities and follow the pro game. But don't think Broyles isn't listening. Nutt dodged his Citadel last night with the win over Utah State. The only way he can keep dodging bullets is to continue winning. It doesn't matter if we're running the Power I or the Spread, just win and everything else will take care of itself.
