After Houston Nutt left as Arkansas’ coach following the 2007 season and Bobby Petrino was hired I said on radio, television and wrote that it would ultimately set the program back 10 years.
People had told me for a few years Petrino was a cancer to whatever program he was involved with, would stay about four years, there would be some good years and it would be a mess when he left.
The trail of former coaches he worked for and worked for him that will not take his phone calls to this day is impressive primarily by its length, I was told. He probably will not coach a big-time program again because no top assistants will work for him.
This was in December 2007, but nobody wanted to hear that. It had nothing to do with Houston leaving Arkansas and that entire circus, but the decision to hire Petrino.
Over the years that’s proven to be as exact of a description as I’ve ever been given.
But you can’t dump the current state of the Hogs on Petrino, no matter how much you might want to.
No, this is a program in this mess because former chancellor John White and athletics director Jeff Long systematically set out to destroy everything Arkansas athletics had become under Frank Broyles.
Whether it was intentional or not is something only they can answer.
White, who may have done a great job for the university, is another example of incredibly brilliant people who get into trying to make athletic department decisions and screw it up so bad you think it has to be on purpose.
Long appeared to be accomplished at promoting himself and convincing people to spend money on things and then not having a clue how to manage it. The fact he may be the worst public relations athletic director I’ve seen in over 40 years of being around it gave him almost zero support when he needed it in 2017.
He also was lazy hiring coaches, particularly football coaches. Don’t put all the blame on Petrino, John L. Smith or Bret Bielema. Long hired them without a clue and not having a clue about what it takes to win at Arkansas.
The way Long is freewheeling with other people’s money puts it right at his doorstep.
All three football coaches he hired were ridiculously, hilariously, bad fits for Arkansas. The day after Bielema was hired I said on statewide radio it was the worst hire for the Hogs since Otis Douglas in 1950.
To the credit of current chancellor Joe Steinmetz, athletics director Hunter Yurachek and Chad Morris, they appear to understand a lot of this and are working their way through rebuilding it.
For the first time in over a decade all of the people in charge of the football program seem to be interested in winning games. In the SEC, if everyone from the top of the list at the board of trustees to the lowest janitor isn’t on that page, you’re not going to win at a championship level.
Yes, things have changed to that point in this league.
Saturday’s 38-0 loss to Missouri was a merciful closing page to a season every Razorback football fan wants to forget. It was surprising to me because there appeared to be a lot of players he inherited comfortable being losers, which was the way their previous coach acted his final two seasons.
That’s actually worse than any other problem a coach can inherit. As a coach you hope you can change half of them, but the reality is you might get 25 percent at best, but more likely about 10 percent.
Arkansas may be be the youngest team in all of college football next year. In this particular case that’s the best news of all for fans.
It was Bear Bryant who said in the late 1960’s when he was struggling for the first time at Alabama when he said, “the worst thing you can have is a bunch of returning starters coming back off a bad team.”
Morris and his staff are hitting recruiting hard. By all appearances, they should have a recruiting class that will be solidly in the Top 20, which is the best it’s been in awhile.
If there’s a question of immediate need it’s at quarterback and with the possibility of former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant transferring for a year (we’ll know December 4) plus incoming freshman KJ Jefferson there’s hope for many, but nobody knows if either one can put the Hogs near the top in the West.
Bryant may help a little, but he’s not a Cam Newton. Jefferson is a project and 2020 might be more in the forecast for him.
The biggest questions, though, are the offensive line — particularly tackles — and the secondary — particularly cornerbacks.
If the Hogs don’t find some answers there none of the other position upgrades are going to make a whole lot of difference.
And above all … speed.
In his first press conference, Morris said you either have speed or you’re chasing it.
After a year of chasing it, he’s trying to get it.
