Hog Calls : Nutt fights off rumors, focuses on task at hand
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007
Playing the No. 1 team in the country on a short Thanksgiving week should override distractions that otherwise could beset these Razorbacks.
Like the distractions of rumors swirling since last Friday that 10-year head coach Houston Nutt will soon leave for another school or be fired and bought out.
Or the distraction of two weeks ago when the Razorbacks went into their 34-13 Nov. 10 tumble at Tennessee still fielding questions midweek about how great they had played during the previous Saturday's 48-36 victory over South Carolina.
Arkansas' offense and opportunistic, though pass-riddled, defense did a lot of wonderful things beating Mississippi State 45-31 last Saturday in Little Rock.
Yet Arkansas-Mississippi State coffee shop topic shelf life already has expired like last Halloween's Jack-O-Lantern carved too soon.
The nationally No. 1-ranked SEC West champion LSU Tigers loom in Friday's 1: 30 p.m. CBS nationally televised regular-season finale in Baton Rouge, La.
"I think it's a lot different," Nutt said Sunday of circumstances pre-LSU as opposed to pre-Tennessee. "We're playing the No. 1 team in the country. This is a tremendous opportunity on CBS playing a very, very good football team. Just focus on the task at hand. When we focus on the task at hand, we have a chance to have a good football team that can play all the areas of the game We put it all together with that kind of status, we can play."
As for the rumors about Nutt's Hog future, intense as those rumors were and still are, what else is new ?
Whether losing seasons in 2004 and'05 or even a 10-4 SEC West championship season last year, it seems like Nutt has been subjected to more heat on and off the field than catfish frying in a pan.
And his teams played on.
"The one thing I don't think y'all give our players enough credit for," Nutt said," is when I've asked them to tune in to us, they've done that. When I've asked these guys to stay together, no matter what happens, they've done that. That's what I'm proud of."
Well, maybe this team hasn't always stayed tuned in.
They looked tuned out and overconfident at Tennessee and similarly unfocused struggling, 34-15 by lower division lightweight Tennessee-Chattanooga back on Oct. 6.
But Arkansas' 9-2 for intensity, the effort was there for these 7-4 Hogs in the other six victories and in SEC losses to Alabama, Kentucky and Auburn, is pretty stout for this 11-game grind about to go 13 with LSU plus a bowl game.
More stout than Alabama's anyway. The Nick Saban coached Tide just experienced a "Citadel"moment getting shocked at home last Saturday by Louisiana-Monroe.
Alabama first-year $ 4 million former LSU national championship coach Saban of course won't get sent packing like former Arkansas coach Jack Crowe did the day after the 1992 Razorbacks lost the season opener to The Citadel. But the coach, who seemed to walk on water in Alabama when hired, certainly rides low Tide right now. So it's not just Arkansas, folks, where a coach's appeal fluctuates like the most volatile stock market. Even down Baton Rouge way, with Les Miles' Tigers No. 1, there's big-time apprehension Miles might bolt to Michigan, his alma mater, with veteran Michigan coach Lloyd Carr apparently set Monday to retire. Does Nutt wonder if the Tigers might be distracted this week, or conversely, as the Miles to Michigan musings mount, worry LSU will have the spite the rumors edge the Razorbacks seemed to harbor last Saturday ? "No," Nutt said wryly. "I got all I can worry about right here. I don't worry about somebody else's rumors and what they have. I just worry getting the best game plan that we can have and give our guys the best chance to win. "That's all a coach can and should do whether coming, going or staying put.
• • • Nate Allen's Razorback column appears Mondays in The Daily Record. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
