We need to play every game with intensity and a sense of urgency.

Time to start drinking spinach flavored Kool-Aid.

By Ron in Germany on Oct 26, 2009 @ 8:12pm

ole miss played their best game they’ve played all year.

nutty was celebrating after like he’d won the BCS championship.

we will be fine. we are better off.

we are still a sophomore laden team.

By Razorback56 on Oct 26, 2009 @ 8:25pm

I am sick and tired of the “sophmore laden team” excuse. Everybody is young, you know why? Because the really really good players leave early. Look down Bama’s roster and see the number of Fr and Sophs playing LOTS of minutes. In this day and age you must play young and play solid fundamental offense and defense (like catching, touch throwing, and God help us, BLOCKING and TACKLELING). Give me a double of the Spinach Kool-Aid. MAN UP! GO HOGS!!!!!

By bhamhawg on Oct 26, 2009 @ 8:50pm

These players are close, but they dont know how to win yet in the SEC. Once they get that mindset to dominate every week and leave no doubt then they will be a force to reconn with. But i knew that this would happen. U come off a game that u were a field and a call from winning against the #1 team and you get what u got saturday.

By JDanger on Oct 26, 2009 @ 9:22pm

bhamhawg – 15 of alabama’s 22 starters are juniors or seniors. http://alabama.rivals.com/cdepthtext.asp?teKey=2

Bama’s defense – 7 senior starters, 2 junior starters, 1 sophomore, 1 freshman

Bama’s offense – 3 senior starters, 3 junior starters, 4 sophomore starters, 1 freshman.

So that means, Their upperclassmen went through a 7-6 season in 2007 and a 6-7 season in 2006 when they were YOUNG like us.

By Grant on Oct 26, 2009 @ 10:05pm

Grant:

Thanks for setting the record straight for us.

Go Hogs

By 1973 Hog on Oct 26, 2009 @ 10:13pm

Anybody see Micheal Smiths interview? If not you can see it on hogville.net. He did not appear to be a happy camper about the L and his touches. I could not get a good read on him, wondering what yall thought.

By tomt58 on Oct 26, 2009 @ 10:17pm

I don’t know why we should be surprised the team took Old Miss for granted. The fans sure did. Everyone did after that moral victory over Florida.

By Ima Hawg on Oct 26, 2009 @ 11:45pm

my god thank you for posting alabamas starters and there class it is moronic to think they are playing a bunch of young guys cus their not. god we have so much to look forward and way more than we ever had with nutt. we have great wide recievers coming back a great SOPHMORE quarterback coming back still lots of miles and things to be learned by him most of our OLINE alot of our DEFENSE and great running back prospects all you could ever look forward to when nutt was here was good line and good run game … PERIOD.. im so glad to be out of that one demensional hell and i think everone else who is a hog fan should be too. my god we are young its not and excuse its a reality.. we will be better we have coaches with half of their brain cells left piss on motivational speeches we need good players and sound coaching thats IT.

By JHawG5656 on Oct 27, 2009 @ 12:12am

I think Ima Hawg hit on something. As amazing as it seems the HOGS took an experienced “Old” Miss team who at one time were ranked #4 lightly (culitvated by – gasp – the Arkansas Fans).

By OKOFCOURSE on Oct 27, 2009 @ 5:27am

this was ole miss’s super bowl. end of story.

and as good as our young players are that CBP has brought in, bama and saban have owned the world of recruiting for the last 2-3 years.

bama is the gold standard for the nation now.

By Razorback56 on Oct 27, 2009 @ 5:51am

Grant, I said “playing lots of minutes” not starters and don’t forget they were 10-2 in a BCS bowl last year.(which they were disappointed to be in, which is unforgiveable too). The point is that they load and reload now that Shula is gone, no more rebuilding years, championships are expected. How do you get the #1 or top 5 recruiting class every year? They have to be paying players or is the entire coaching staff just that good. I just want people to compare us to the cream of the SEC, not Ole Miss. LSU would be the same way if they had a coach that wasn’t an absolute clown.

By bhamhawg on Oct 27, 2009 @ 8:07am

Alabama gets the best of the best, just like Southern Cal, LSU and Notre Dame….the difference is what they do with the players. Arkansas CAN get the best of the best…but that comes with time as players from around the country start to believe that going to Arkansas is the best place to win or play for a championship team.

By Razorback Roger in Florida on Oct 27, 2009 @ 8:13am

Let’s not forget the “history” of Alabama recruiting. cheating is a way of life. Their fans and boosters expect it and accept it. they are perfectly happy to win, deal with probation, reload and do it again. Good Lord! One of the biggest miscarriages of justice here in memphis was the death of Logan Young. NOBODY believes that he died from natural causes or an “accidental” overdose of medication. If we have a kid who gets a ticket for DUI, we are lambasted by the media. Alabama faces forfeiture of an entire season and it’s no big deal.

By oink2u2 on Oct 27, 2009 @ 8:13am

Don’t believe a word from Nutt about his “just another game” rhetoric. His best offensive player is CLEARLY Dexter McCluster. In previous press conferences Nutt said he didn’t play him more because of his slight build and didn’t want to get him hurt. He average 2.6 receptions and 6.3 rushes over the first 6 games. Then he has 7 receptions and 22 rushes against us. You could tell from their first snap that the whole game plan revolved around him.

This game obviously meant the entire season for Nutt. Statistics show he didn’t play McCluster earlier because he wanted him healthy for this game. That cost them the South Carolina game and they may have had a chance against Bama. South Carolina- 15 rushes, 85 yards, 5.7 ypc, 0 receptions. Bama- Only 9 total touches.

It reminds me of the Vanderbilt game when McFadden and Jones sat out the final drive because “they were too young” or some BS like that. What an insult to McCluster. With the patsies they had on their schedule he should be up for Heisman talks.

I don’t blame Nutt for being so emotionally invested in this game. But he let his personal feelings cost his team the South Carolina game and got them smoked by Bama. Their offense is much, much better than that.

By Daniel M. on Oct 27, 2009 @ 9:06am

Saban had a whole heck of a lot more to work with as Shula was a great recruiter for Bama. He got Andre Smith, Nikita Stover, Roy Upcurch, Javier Arenas, Glen Coffee, and John Parker Wilson among several other very talented palyers.

By Daniel M. on Oct 27, 2009 @ 9:24am

very true oink2u2, so how far do you have to go to win? We only paid players a few hundred bucks at that dealership in Dallas right? USC boosters paid Reggie Bush what $250000 and seem to be getting away with it… Maybe we just don’t pay enough. Here’s hoping we can win clean and everyone else get caught!!!

But back on my original comment. I heard the freshman comment on CBS last year I think, maybe it was Danielson… He said and they put a graphic up that said the only team “playing” more freshmen than the Pigs last year was Bama (by like 1 or 2 players). I give you kudos for going to check out their story. What we can say for sure is that Ingram So, Julio Jones So, Richardson Fr(our whole defense knows him), Daereus So, N Johnson Fr, Barron So all play a MAJOR (perhaps All SEC) role in their offense and defense.

I’m just saying we need to recruit and play good fundamental defense. I’m surprised so many people seem to want to argue about that… GO HOGS!!! Stay clean! Spinach kool-aid, WOOO PIG!!!

By bhamhawg on Oct 27, 2009 @ 9:25am

Daniel M., forgive me, I guess our standards of recruiting are much lower than the Bama fans. I have to listen to these Bammers on talk radio every day and they are the ones who keep trashing Shula and the cupboard was bare when he left, Saban is God almighty Himself, blah, blah, blah. I’ve clearly been brainwashed! HELP! CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By bhamhawg on Oct 27, 2009 @ 9:31am

Why would we take them for granted they were a 7 point favorite to beat us. I don’t get that….If we had won it would have been an upset victory.

By Daniel on Oct 27, 2009 @ 12:34pm

Whoever made or agreed to this schedule should find something else to do. Teams typically improve the most from the first week to the second, when the Razorbacks had a bye. Then, the Hogs play 11 straight games, including a rugged SEC schedule? Ridiculous. Hopefully, some lessons have been learned. As to Ole Miss, I still think the guys came out flat.

By dwp007 on Oct 27, 2009 @ 12:45pm

bhamhawg, I can certainly empathize with you living amongst all those Bama fans. I would say they are definately the worst of bandwagoners touting their skilled players then turning and ripping apart Shula who they refuse to acknowledge as the coach that recruited their top talent. Of all the coaching changes, Ole Miss and Bama were left with overflowing cupboards. Each coach inherited at least half a dozen future NFL players if not much more. These players all had at least a year of experience, most of them 2 years. Of the game-experienced players that Petrino was left with, will anyone other than DJ Wiliiams have a shot at the NFL.

I spent way too long in St. Louis hearing how superior either the Big 12 or Big 10 was to the SEC. Too bad statistics exist so they were quickly embarassed.

Our standards for recruiting were much lower where we used to pursue 3 or 4 great players each class with no decent fallback options. I have never seen this number of highly talented players on our radar. We used to be content with getting a most of the in-state recruits regardless talent level. Now we recruit the best players at each position nationwide.

As for our record, I don’t think any BCS conference team has played this many road games. It gets even more brutal when you realize they were Florida, Bama, Ole Miss, and A & M in Dallas. Ouch.

By Daniel M. on Oct 27, 2009 @ 1:45pm

Wasn’t McCluster involved in a car accident early in the season? Maybe that’s why he wasn’t getting a lot of touches. Maybe OM lost to south carolina because they had 5 days to prepare for them and played them at south carolina and maybe south carolina’s defense matches up well with OM’s offense.

By MRPRFCT on Oct 27, 2009 @ 2:32pm

I forgot about the car wreck. Both McCluster and Hardy were involved but sustained no serious injury.

The South Carolina defense could not have matched up that well with McCluster if he got 85 yards on 15 carries averaging nearly 6 yards. His longest run was 18 yards so it is not like he got all his yards on a busted play. He got big gains on each touch.

By Daniel M. on Oct 27, 2009 @ 2:46pm

If you go back and watch OM South Carolina game McCluster was killing them at TB Nutts Bad play calling cost them McCulster should of had 20-30 rushes that game

By Big Boi on Oct 27, 2009 @ 4:16pm

I have watched all the Ole Miss games televised this year and there were too classic Nutt moments that took me back to his days at Arkansas: McCluster on the bench on the last play of the SC game (McFadden and Jones on the bench during our last drive when Vandy beat us at home) and poor clock management letting time expire at the close of the first half against us (pretty much every game at Arkansas). It killed me when he said, “We should have scored” to the reporter while walking into the locker room for halftime. The announcers were even questioning why he never called time out to have more opportunities to get those points. That came across as “The players didn’t make the plays they were supposed to.”

By Daniel M. on Oct 27, 2009 @ 4:27pm

*two classic Nutt moments. My bad.

By Daniel M. on Oct 27, 2009 @ 4:27pm

Nutt never makes mistakes. (in his own mind) Only the players do.
Kind of like MRPRFCT on this blog.

By GonzoHog on Oct 27, 2009 @ 4:54pm

time to forget about Nutt….move on…

By Razorback Roger in Florida on Oct 28, 2009 @ 10:18am

Daniel you are right, I thought the same thing. And, Roger I agree. We have our coach and Old Miss has theirs.

By Ima Hawg on Oct 28, 2009 @ 10:40am

Still posting my name let’s me know I’m always on your mind. Thanks!

By MRPRFCT on Oct 28, 2009 @ 11:02am

I think the entire fanbase will move on once we beat him which will be next year. Ole Miss fans claim that it is not a big deal to them, yet towards the end of both games they were chanting his name. Is it true that he celebrated on the field for 20 minutes after the game while nearly his entire team was in the locker room?

Until we beat him, Houston Nutt and the Ole Miss fans will say it is just another game when their actions suggest otherwise. I’ve heard from every Arkansas media outlets that a part of their fanbase is speculating that Nutt didn’t play McCluster more in earlier games to keep him in top shape for this game. They think he is so emotionally invested in beating us that it cost them in other games. The sad thing is the statistics support that theory.

I am extremely anxious to move on and I think everyone else is as well. Handing Nutt a loss and a stadium full of Razorback fans chanting Petrino’s name next season will finally bring closure to the ordeal.

By Daniel M. on Oct 28, 2009 @ 11:09am

It’s a big deal to them because WE make it a big deal. WE keep telling them how terrible he is. If WE kept our mouths shut they wouldn’t act like that. OM lost to Alabama because Alabama is a better team. I haven’t watched but one OM game and it wasn’t south carolina so I don’t know why they lost that game. When the losers of the Arkansas fanbase stop telling OM fans that their coach is terrible, then the OM fanbase will stop celebrating victories over us like they won a title or something. I don’t know why ppl here hate HDN anyway. Before he got here we couldn’t even beat SMU

By MRPRFCT on Oct 28, 2009 @ 3:02pm

Thats only because SMU had the best players and refs money could buy…

By hognmisseri on Oct 28, 2009 @ 3:13pm

I watched the South Carolina/ Ole Miss game from opening kick-off to final whistle. It was poor playcalling at critical moments of the game, poor time management, and not getting the ball in the hands of the playmakers. Snead only had 21 pass attempts the entire game. He was sacked 4 times but threw no interceptions. Dexter McCluster only touched the ball 15 times and was on the bench asking to go in for Ole Miss’ last chance. Running backs were changed out a lot so nobody got into much of a rhythm.

By Daniel M. on Oct 28, 2009 @ 3:22pm

We need to get on and leave HDN in our past. Don’t even look in the rear view mirror.

With that said, our dealings with him were not something we can be proud of. The noise the Springdale Mafia made, as well as Malzahn and Mustain thing, along with the pressure to bring them aboard on the Hill, that was not right. That whole show was painful. And then FB and White unlocked the golden handcuffs, and let him screw over us. Had HDN gone to Nebraska or Illinois, we would celebrate his victories with him, not lament him as we do now.

We can win the next 10 games in a row from Ole Miss and NO one will have forgotten HDN.

Where is that rear view mirror? I will tear it off!

By Bigfoot on Oct 28, 2009 @ 3:22pm

I’m not referring to the SMU of the 80s. I’m referring to the mid 90s when our then head coach was leading us to defeat against a bad SMU team. We played them in Shreveport and lost. We scored a TD, but our coach didn’t even know we did. Does anyone remember the Crowe/Kines/Ford years?

By MRPRFCT on Oct 28, 2009 @ 3:43pm

I don’t think it’s as much people hating HDN as much as it’s the fact we were villified by the national media for running off the best person the state ever produced. Houston Nutt was put on this pedastal so high he’s dodging satellites. The way the media talked about him, you thought he won every game and we’re a cruel pitchfork-wielding moronic mob.

All the people who loved Nutt made it personal. Some stepped over the line and went way too far. I made a crack about his coaching style and someone jumped down my throat saying how nice of a guy he was. I never said he was a bad guy. I’m a nice guy but I don’t think my wife would jump down your throat for saying I’m a terrible basketball player. I do suck at basketball much in the same way Nutt is not a great football coach. Terrific motivator, average coach. It’s evident by his 8-4 record in the final year with the greatest collection of backfield talent to exist in college football- McFadden, Jones, and Hillis. Meyer, Miles, Saban, Spurrier, Carroll, even Petrino would have made a BCS appearence with that group.

I am so anxious to prove those media outlets were wrong in their perception of us and their proclamation of Nutt as the greatest coach ever.

I was thoroughly amused by his introduction at Ole Miss:

“We were looking for a coach wh has been to the SECCG a few time (and lost each time).

We wanted someone who had been to 8 bowl games in 10 years (and lost six of them to the likes of UNLV, Minnesota, and Wisconsin)

We wanted a coach who has proven success in the SEC (with a record barely over .500).”

When you look at stats and records, we aren’t these ignorant morons that ran off the bestest coach in the whole wide world. We had beenstruggling and Nutt reinvgorated the fanbase and motivated the team. We no longer need a motivator, we need a football genius that can have us competetive for the SEC title every year.

I’ve heard the argument that “Oh we’re Arkansas and we’ve never been to that level and we’re not capable of that kind of stuff.” My bet is that is spouted off by people satisfied with mediocre effort. Why should we not try to be the best we possibly can be.

By Daniel M. on Oct 28, 2009 @ 3:45pm

Daniel M., your last paragraph about being satisfied with mediocrity is exactly what I was trying to say earlier. The Bammers were LIVID with Shula over only having a Top 20 recruiting class (which is still better than ours most years). Their version of mediocrity is what we would have been thrilled to be getting. We need to expect and demand more. We all know there are diamonds in the rough, but we need to up the ante, our class this year leaves much to be desired so far. I hope these guys that are “on the radar” start showing up before we are out of scholarships… Coaching can only go so far. We need players! Especially on Defense. But we need coaching there too.

By bhamhawg on Oct 28, 2009 @ 4:16pm

I completely agree. I would be very interested to hear who the staff would be accepting commitments from right now.

By Daniel M. on Oct 28, 2009 @ 4:33pm

Daniel, everytime an Arkansas fan badmouths HDN they’re proving the media right. You say the folks that loved HDN made it personal? How about the folks that hate him?

By MRPRFCT on Oct 28, 2009 @ 4:33pm

I kind of liked Coach Ford. I always thought he was bound for more sucsess once HIS players had gained experience in the SEC.
After his firing, it’s very easy to see where the sucsess came from in the ‘98 and ‘99 seasons.
You could tell in ‘97 we were beginning to put some things together, even though our record was only 4-7 overall. Very much like Ole Miss did in ‘07.
They were winless in the SEC that year, but I seen a couple of games (against Florida and ‘Bama, I think) that year that was really competitive. Good talent was recruited on both of those teams.

By GonzoHog on Oct 28, 2009 @ 4:42pm

Do you hear other schools that fired their coaches of ten years still talking about them?

The love and the hate both need to stop.

Nutt is nuttin but gone guys. He is a Rebel now.

I don’t like any coach that celebrates after beating the Hogs likes its Dec 31st in 1999.

By BoutDemHogs on Oct 28, 2009 @ 5:00pm

MRPRFCT, I should have clarified that the people I refered to as those who “went way too far and stepped over the line” as the haters. A lot of the crap they did was absolutley ridiculous and out of bounds.

By Daniel M. on Oct 28, 2009 @ 5:13pm

Just another ballgame, eh? I read where the Ole Miss fans are lining up to get a HDN autographed football involving their “momentous” victory on Saturday. Now, that’s funny.

By dwp007 on Oct 28, 2009 @ 6:29pm

Wow! a “momentous” victory over a 3-3 football team. Now THAT’S what I call mediocraty.
I wonder if all the fans in Oxford are welcome to come over and ride the horses?

By GonzoHog on Oct 28, 2009 @ 8:26pm

BoutDemHogs, yep Tenn still talks about Fulmer, Auburn still talks Tubs, but how many coaches last 10 years…

Look, I was a lover (well probably a liker). Now I’m a hater. He’s in our division, recruiting against us. There’s nothing left to like. He went there to spite us. No other reason. Anyhow, he is an enemy now. What running back wouldn’t want to play for him? He is a danger to us, even if it is only at that 1 position… So I agree, out with the love, out with the old hate. There are plenty of new reasons to hate him. GO HOGS!

By bhamhawg on Oct 28, 2009 @ 9:23pm

Same goes for Malzahn, except he is a danger to us at every high school in the state… So I hate him even worse.

By bhamhawg on Oct 28, 2009 @ 9:25pm

It was just annouced that there will be no more reprimands for SEC coaches. From here on out…..suspension.

By Mike on Oct 30, 2009 @ 11:45am

Kiffin will be the 1st one to be suspended. He can’t help himself.
His philosiphy is that he want’s to put Tennessee back on the map.
He doesn’t care how he does it, and to be perfectly honest about it, teenagers like that kind of saveey.
What cooler coach is there to play for than one that gets all of the national attention? He relates to them well, and he has a very good offensive play-calling reputation.
He’ll put the Vols back on the map, it’s just that most everyone in the league will hate them.

By GonzoHog on Oct 30, 2009 @ 6:29pm