Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino spoke with the media today for about 18 minutes. He hit on the Hogs’ 52-10 loss to Texas, what the Razorbacks need to do to bounce back against Florida and some of the things that worry him when it comes to recruiting this year.

Here are a couple of notables before you go on down to listen to the two-part audio files from today:

— Say goodbye to the “Jack” linebacker position. The Hogs are moving more toward a 4-3 base defense with nickel and dime packages mixed in. It’s not too much of a change, but the returns of Elston Forte, Ryan Powers and Wendel Davis has bulked up the numbers a bit at LB and the Hogs are moving away from that hybrid position.

In fact, the Jack position is no longer listed on the Hogs’ depth chart.

— The coaches hope to redshirt true freshman linebacker Tenarius Wright. Wright was getting plenty of hype in the preseason but a high ankle sprain kept him out of action for three weeks during fall camp, and it doesn’t seem the coaches are ready to burn his redshirt this season.

— Petrino isn’t ready to hit the panic button when it comes to his team’s personnel not executing the offense or defense perfectly.

“Again, I just want to reiterate that those two teams (Alabama and Texas) we played, they’re pretty darn good. We’re not happy with the way we played. We want to play better. We want to get better. We will improve in a lot of areas. But we’re not going to panic because we lost those two games”

 

AUDIO: Bobby Petrino’s Monday press conference (two parts)

Part 1: 9-29-petrino-part-1.mp3
Part 2: 9-29-petrino-part-2.mp3

– Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: SEC Football, Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 29, 2008 at 4:34 pm
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When Bobby Petrino started his first season as head coach at Louisville in 2003, there were some bumps and bruises.  There was a new offense, a new defense. There were assignment errors, miscues and, as Petrino said at his press conference today, the Cardinals simply just “struggled.”

But not as much as the Hogs have in Petrino’s first season at the UA.

While the Cardinals did start the season 4-0 in his inaugural year while adjusting to a new system, they weren’t facing the level of competition like the Hogs have faced the last two weeks with Alabama and Texas. There was time to improve and grow, Petrino said.

“That helped a little bit,” Petrino said.

Petrino’s Hogs are 2-2 now, losing their last two games by a combined 77 points. And the Razorbacks’ murderer’s row of games continues this week. No. 12 Florida is in town after losing to unranked Ole Miss at home, 31-30.

There’s quite a bit of rebuilding to be done on the UA campus and Petrino sent that message out at his press conference today with some assurances.

“We know how to win,” Petrino said. “We know how to practice. We know how to stop people, move the ball. But we’ve got to get it done sooner than later. We still have to keep our confidence and understand that it will happen.”

But it’s tough to do that when Florida awaits, especially after losing such a close game and their Heisman winner quarterback, Tim Tebow, making a promise to Gator fans.

“I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry,” Tebow said, according to the Associated Press. “We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida’s never done here. But I promise you one thing: a lot of good will come out of this.

“You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you’ll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you’ll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season.”

As for the Razorbacks, they’re hoping the worst is over.

“We’ve seen the lowest of the low and now we’re just looking to turn this thing around,” UA center Jonathan Luigs said. “We’ve got to start with Florida this week.”

– Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: SEC Football, Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 29, 2008 at 1:14 pm
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ESPN College GameDay’s Arkansas-themed commercial is now running on ESPN, and you can check out the video online by clicking here.

The commercial features ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit calling the Hogs alongside a couple of Arkansas fans, who are critiquing the former Buckeye’s Hog calling technique. The commercial debuted today on ESPN as a part of the network’s “How Well Do You Know GameDay?” promotion, as mentioned here last week.

ESPN sent us a news release Wednesday. Here’s a portion of it:

After two hogs appear out of nowhere, the question posed to fans is: “Kirk’s been known to ‘call the hogs’ in Fayetteville – True or False?” Fans can then vote, see a video response with the correct answer and view additional content about that week’s big match-ups at collegegameday.com.

College GameDay airs Saturdays at 9 a.m. CDT. The GameDay crew of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard and Herbstreit will be in Nashville, Tenn., this week for the Auburn-Vanderbilt game.

Photo by Danny Moloshok

– Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 29, 2008 at 9:24 am
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The sudden de-commitment of a UA recruit last October may make a bit more sense after reading this. It seems, according to a report in the Kansas City Star, that Houston Nutt’s staff told a high-profile quarterback recruit that they did not expect to be with the Razorbacks in 2008.

Soon after, the recruit, Kale Pick, de-committed from the Hogs and verbally pledged to Kansas. Pick is redshirting at the KU this season.

Here’s more from the Star:

Kale Pick

Last fall, when Pick was still committed to the Razorbacks, he would come to KU to visit friends. The Jayhawks were undefeated, lighting up the scoreboard, and he’d hear from those same fans who now stop him around town.

“The KU fans would give me a hard time,” Pick said, “saying they were undefeated and that I needed to come here.”

In late October, Nutt’s staff indicated to Pick that they didn’t expect to be at Arkansas after last season. On Oct. 22, with KU 7-0 and moving up the polls, Pick decommitted from Arkansas and immediately gave his pledge to the Jayhawks.

Near the timeline Nutt or a member of his staff was telling the recruit that the Nutt era at Arkansas was expected to be over at the end of the season, the then-UA head coach was telling members of the media that he was not worrying about his future. On Oct. 14, after starting the season 3-3 and with an 0-3 record in the SEC, questions about Nutt’s job security were presented by the media.

Here’s more from Nutt on Oct. 14:

“I don’t worry about that at all,” Nutt said. “I really don’t. Because if I do, I’m taking away from my guys. If I do that, I’m taking away from my 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds, who have their hope in this year, this team. There is a lot of football left. Again, my contract says 2012. I put that to the side.

“The contract they’ve given me, it’s real clear. It says 2012,” Nutt continued. “It doesn’t say you’re gone 2007, 2008. It says 2012…. I don’t worry about ooh, there’s a plane in the sky, or there’s a shirt or there’s somebody saying something. I can’t do that. I’m going to get lost with these guys, get lost in this team room here in about 30 minutes, have a good practice today and get ready for the next one.”

Richard Davenport of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on Oct. 23, 2007 that Pick had made the decision to de-commit because he was not sure of Nutt’s status with the UA. There was no mention of Nutt actually telling Pick of his expectations that are now being reported by the Star.

“The reason why I committed to Arkansas was because of their coaching staff,” Pick told Davenport last year. “I love their coaching staff. That’s the No. 1 thing on my list is the coaches, and I love Coach Nutt and Coach [David] Lee and Coach [James] Shibest. I love them to death. I have a lot of faith in all of them.

“It’s just the fact if they’re going to be there. I was trying to think if they’re not there it would be tough for me to be there. It just seems like they’re under a lot of pressure with a lot of things. When we come down there, it seems like they’re under pressure.”

Nutt pushed aside job security questions throughout the rest of the season. Rumors of his resignation began on Nov. 16, the day before the Hogs were scheduled to play Mississippi State.

“It’s ridiculous to put rumors out there right now,” Nutt told reporters on Nov. 16. “It’s not true.”

Nutt pushed aside rumors up until his resignation on Nov. 26. But when the news did come that Nutt was leaving the UA, many of his recruits did seem surprised at the news.

Pick, however, was not. By then he was a firm commitment to KU.

(Photo by Associated Press)

– Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: SEC Football, Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 28, 2008 at 4:14 pm
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While you make your predictions for the Hogs-Horns matchup in Austin, Texas, make sure and check out our Game Day edition of the WholeHogCast.

Here’s a synopsis:

Texas GameDay Edition: Northwest Arkansas Times sports writers Joe West, Terry Wood, Brandon Marcello and Heath Allen preview the Hogs’ trip to No. 7 Texas and give their picks.

Subscribe to the WholeHogCast through iTunes

WholeHogCast MP3/XML subscription feed

Also make sure and check out our Game Day section in Saturday’s edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Turn to the classifieds section. That’s where you’ll find our tabloid.

Or you can get a sneak peek by checking out some of the Game Day articles on the front page of WholeHogSports today.

ALSO, YOU CAN FACEBOOK and TWITTER US

If you want to add WholeHogSports.com as a fan on Facebook, have at it by clicking here. We’re also on Twitter now, so you can follow us from there, too.

 – Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: Other Conferences, Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 26, 2008 at 10:13 am
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Take your pick. Is No. 7 Texas going to give the nation an encore performance of ‘Bama’s dominance over the Hogs last week, or do the Razorbacks bounce back in a miraculous win?

Before you give your pick, lets recap the Alabama picks from last week. The Hogs were bludgeoned, 49-14, at home and took two interceptions back for touchdowns.

Brandon Marcello was the closest of the Northwest Arkansas Times staff, predicting a 38-17 Alabama win. Reader gatorjag was the closest prognosticator. Gatorjag also picked a 38-17 loss for Arkansas. Surprisingly, quite a few of you picked the Hogs over ‘Bama. Will you do the same this week?

With that, I open it up for your Arkansas-Texas projections.

Give us a stat line, your comments and whatever else comes across your noggin.

And don’t forget your score prediction.

Times staff picks

Brandon Marcello
Texas 42, Arkansas 21

The Hogs get their early points, and perhaps score their first touchdown of the first quarter this season, but Texas proves too much on offense and beats the Hogs down in the second and third quarters. Ignore Texas’ national ranking of 103rd in pass defense. They’ll do better Saturday against the Razorbacks’ passing attack.

Terry Wood
Texas 59, Arkansas 10

Joe West
Texas 38, Arkansas 17

Believe it or not, I think the Arkansas passing game will exploit a shaky Texas secondary early and the Hogs will take a short-lived lead. However, the Longhorns will adjust and own the game’s final three quarters.

Heath Allen
Texas 44, Arkansas 18

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Filed under: Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 25, 2008 at 12:02 pm
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Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson has already heard it, and he wasn’t about to let the media ask the question as soon as he walked up to the microphones and tape recorders this evening.

Yes, he said, Arkansas missed some tackles against Alabama on Saturday, as he started talking before the first question was fired.

“We’re working on it. We work on it all the time,” Robinson said. “Maybe it was the fact that we played Alabama and they were awed by Alabama. But technique, if your eyes are right, that body right there is going to look no different week in and week out.”

Robinson said it took heart to fix the tackling problems. Well, he didn’t really say it until prompted. He incited Gene Hackman from the film The Replacements and started tapping his chest with a rolled piece of paper.

“Heart,” he said.

The message from Robinson to the players this week, senior Will linebacker Elston Forte said, was simple.

“Step your game up. Step it up.”

For the time being, it seems they have. The UA defense had its best Tuesday practice of the season this week, Robinson said. “You wish you could replay that (Alabama) game but you can’t. Our kids are focused for this game. We had a good Wednesday practice.”

VIDEO: Robinson, Forte think Hogs up to tough Texas task

So who’s stepping out on the practice field? Linebacker Freddy Burton, who was suspended for the first two games this season because of a drunken driving charge, has done a “nice job” this week in practice. Burton, Robinson said, is now a starter.

“He had a really good game on special teams last week,” Robinson said. “(Malcom) Sheppard had a nice game. He’s playing with heart.”

Defensive ends Jake Bequette and Antwain Robinson were also singled out by Robinson.

“I thought our corners stood out,” said Robinson, who seemed to be giving kudos to just about everyone before adding, “But as far as some of the linebackers and safeties, we’ve got a ways to go.”

A BETTER MATCH-UP?

The Arkansas defense will match up better with Texas’ offense than it did with Alabama’s rolling offensive onslaught, Robinson believes.

“Not all that power stuff we faced a week ago,” Robinson explained. “Now it’s zone blocking and QB reads. Great skill kids and the quarterback is a great football player. Great offensive front, but it’s a lot different offense.”

At the controls is quarterback Colt McCoy, who tossed a school-record four touchdowns last week in a 52-10 win over Rice. McCoy also led the team on the ground with 83 rushing yards on eight carries.

“Because of that young man’s acceleration, they’ve really added a dimension,” Robinson said. “It’s not an Alabama that’s going to punch you in the mouth. Now these guys are strong up front, because they’ll pancake you if you don’t keep your edges, but it’s not the direct runs we saw in the past.”

McCoy has completed 77.8 percent of his passes, thrown for 833 yards and has 11 touchdowns compared to just 1 interception. It’s quite a difference from last year, when McCoy tossed 22 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

The junior also leads the Longhorns on the ground, averaging 64.7 yards rushing in the first three games. He also has a team-leading three rushing touchdowns.

“It’s not just mobility, it’s confidence,” Robinson said of McCoy. “Any type of blitz a year ago got him rattled. This year he just kind of laughs at the blitz. And he can move around in the pocket. He’s fearless with what he can do with the ball — run and pass.”

But back to the point — why is the Razorbacks’ defense better suited against the Longhorns?

“Speed,” Forte said. “We’re built for speed. Coming in we don’t have as big as size, so we have to use our speed to our advantage and I think that’s what we’re going to do.”

Photo by Harry Cabluck, Associated Press

– Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: SEC Football, Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 24, 2008 at 6:51 pm
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Arkansas will be featured in a new ESPN College GameDay promotional commercial called, “How Well Do You Know GameDay?”

The advertisement is scheduled to start running on the ESPN network Monday. Here’s a rundown of the new commercial courtesy of ESPN:

ESPN’s promotional campaign How Well Do You Know GameDay? poses true or false questions to viewers about how well they know the College GameDay Built by The Home Depot crew of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard, as well as traditions of some of the most storied programs in college football.

The campaign’s new commercial spot “Kirk Calls the Hogs” will begin running Monday, Sept. 29 on ESPN, and features two Arkansas football fans trying to teach GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit how to ‘call the hogs’ – a cherished University of Arkansas pastime. After two hogs appear out of nowhere, the question posed to fans is: “Kirk’s been known to ‘call the hogs’ in Fayetteville – True or False?” Fans can then vote, see a video response with the correct answer and view additional content about that week’s big match-ups at collegegameday.com.

For the record, when Herbstreit and the GameDay crew were in Fayetteville for the Tennessee-Arkansas game Nov. 11, 2006, I can’t seem to remember Herbstreit ever calling the Hogs. Corso did call the Hogs during a commercial break, however, and also donned the mascot head of Big Red when he and the crew picked the Hogs over Tennessee.

College GameDay Built by The Home Depot (Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN) will originate from Athens, Ga., this Saturday, site of No. 8 Alabama at No. 3 Georgia (televised on ESPN at 7:45 p.m. ET).

Photo by Danny Moloshok

– Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 24, 2008 at 4:36 pm
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The newest edition of the WholeHogCast is now up and ready for download.

Here’s the WholeHogCast synopsis:

Troubled Tidings: Northwest Arkansas Times sports writers Terry Wood and Brandon Marcello discuss Arkansas’ blowout loss to Alabama, what went wrong, what mistakes need to be corrected before the Texas game and the guys also provide an injury update.

— Subscribe to the WholeHogCast through iTunes

— WholeHogCast MP3/XML subscription feed

ALSO, YOU CAN FACEBOOK and TWITTER US

If you want to add WholeHogSports.com as a fan on Facebook, have at it by clicking here. We’re also on Twitter now, so you can follow us from there, too.

 – Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: SEC Football, Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 24, 2008 at 1:26 pm
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Everyone is going nut(t)s over the Miami Dolphins’ implementation of the Wildcat formation, a variation on the old single wing of the olden days.

Miami ran just six plays in the formation, but the four touchdowns that resulted against Bill Belichick’s New England defense has everyone going googly-eyed. As we mentioned previously, you can thank the Arkansas Razorbacks, who made the old formation famous again in 2006 and 2007 with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones having uber-success in the spread iteration.

Earlier this week, South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist Dave Hyde credited Miami quarterbacks coach David Lee with inventing the formation at Arkansas in 2007, when he was the Hogs’ offensive coordinator. We mentioned that Gus Malzahn introduced the package in 2006 when he was the UA’s offensive coordinator. Well, it turns out Malzahn may have introduced a variation of the formation, but that doesn’t mean he created it (duh!).

In fact, when Hyde caught up with Malzahn over the phone earlier this week, he was quite shy.

“Wait, please don’t make it sound, you know, like I ’invented’ anything,” Malzahn, 43, said. “Football’s a game where you use ideas that you see. I’ve used everyone’s ideas. This isn’t about me at all. Please don’t make it sound that way.”

You’ve also got to give credit to former UA coach Houston Nutt, and former running backs coach Danny Nutt. The Hogs ran a variation of the formation with quarterback Clint Stoerner in 1998 and “reprised it” in 2004 with Matt Jones, according to ESPN.com’s Tim Graham. Lee, by the way, was the Hogs’ quarterbacks coach from 2001-2002.

In fact, if you look back, the Hogs debuted the formation against Southern California in 2006. Fullback Peyton Hillis was the first to be lined up at quarterback in the formation and carried the ball twice for 16 yards. McFadden, who was recovering from an injured toe and was limited in the 50-14 loss, was not on the field during that debut.

McFadden, however, would end up being the one to make it famous later that season with a jaw-dropping 181-yard rushing performance against Tennessee as he invigorated his Heisman campaign and the Hogs’ 10-game winning streak.

So, let’s recap.

The formation is a varation of the single wing, which teams utilized quite a bit in the 1940s.

Gus Malzahn used it quite a bit while head coach at Springdale High School in 2005, when the Bulldogs won the state championship. Beforehand, in 2004, the Razorbacks ran a single wing look with quarterback Matt Jones.

Malzahn was then hired as the UA’s offensive coordinator in 2006, and with the help of the Nutt Bros., implemented a spread iteration of the formation with an unbalanced offensive line. The formation made its debut against USC on Sept. 2, 2006 with Hillis lined up at quarterback.

“It didn’t take a genius to figure out,” Malzahn told ESPN.com. “We were looking for ways to get the ball in our best players’ hands with a little bit of deception at the same time.”

Flash forward to 2007. Malzahn leaves for Tulsa and Lee returns to Fayetteville. The Hogs keep using the Wildcat formation under the new label, “Wild Hog.” McFadden continues to have success with the formation and finishes second in the Heisman race for the second year in a row.

McFadden leaves for the NFL. Nutt leaves for Ole Miss. Lee leaves for Miami.

And finally, Lee helps implement his variation of the Wildcat at Miami.

Nutt told ESPN.com that Miami head coach Tony Sparano should be liberal with the use of the formation in the NFL.

“It will be a little more difficult the next time they run it,” Nutt said. “That’s the thing about it. As people prepare for it, that’s tough. You’re going to end up having to punt more than you’d like.

“I don’t know if you can major in it and say ‘This is going to be 60 percent of our offense.’ That’s hard. They’re eventually are going to come down and overpopulate the line of scrimmage and make Ronnie Brown throw it, throw it, throw it.”

Oh, but there’s more up this Wildcat’s sleeve, according to ESPN.com:

“We’ve just scratched the surface of really what we were trying to do,” Sparano said. “We didn’t go in there with 30 plays’ worth of what we’re trying to do out of this package.

“This is not something that just came up and we scribbled on the board a couple days ago. It’s something that, quite honestly, we had even some other people in mind for down the road.”

From high school to the NFL, to the 1940s to 2008, the Wildcat has always been dangerous.

– Brandon Marcello
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Filed under: SEC Football, Arkansas Football, Uncategorized by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: September 24, 2008 at 12:20 pm
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