Ouch!

Suprisingly, I’m not that upset about the game. We knew the defense was young, we knew that we would have some growing pains, but considering that 21 of their points were give-aways (the roughing the kicker penalty and two of the interceptions), and considering that most of the controversial calls or no-calls (I can think of 3 off the top of my head) didn’t end up in our favor, I’m kind of happy with the way the team played. A hallmark of HDN’s tenure, the 3-and-out, was virtually non-existent. Casey Dick passed well, except for 3 interceptions, 2 of which burned us. Michael Smith ran for around 100 yards (I’ve seen numbers ranging from 98 to 117) against a defense that allows an average of about 40. This wasn’t Alabama totally dominating us. This was Alabama taking full advantage of any mistake we made. One of the most pleasing thing I’ve seen from this team is that they truly learn from their mistakes. For Western Illinois, it was fumbles. For Louisiana-Monroe, it was piss-poor kicking. I’ll bet Casey Dick doesn’t throw a single interception against Texas. If Alabama truly is an Elite SEC team, and we can limit the more egregious mistakes, I still have faith in this team. If Alabama is overrated, we’re in trouble.

I agree with Drew. The good thing to take away from this was that we moved the ball on Bama; sometimes very well. No more off-tackle, off-tackle, dump to the flat, series.

Anyone who thought this season would be anything other than painful was smoking crack. Better times are ahead.

As consolation, I give you HDN losing to . . . Vanderbilt.

Personally, I am feeling bad, which I always do after a loss, but I don’t feel as terrible this year as I did last year when we lost in the final moments. I suppose that is partly because last year came with so much grander expectations for the season than what I had for this year. But still, I would like to see for once a BCS team play against the Hogs and THEY look like keystone cops and the Hogs look like a polished, crafted machine of football excellence. A friend and I were talking over the phone after the game (guy counseling, haha), and we both had a hard time thinking of when that last happened. Can any of you provide a recent memory of Arkansas playing a fellow BCS team that just repeatly shot itself in the foot time after time and had mistake after mistake snowball on them that Arkansas capitalized on like the Tide did on Saturday?

Yeah, haha, I take some comfort in my other alma mater (of the graduate school kind), Vanderbilt, beating Colonel Nutt. I am not near the Vandy fan that I am an Arkansas fan, but it looks like, geez, Vandy is going to have to carry my standard this year!

Speaking of Colonel Nutt, I don’t really think you can say his era is finished here until Casey Dick is no longer in the backfield. I salute Casey for making clutch plays in the first two games, but he is far from the steady and consistent hand that we need. He is looking like his old coach, something of a roller coaster. I just hope his coaster is going up during the Texas game! The down, as we witnessed, sure isn’t pretty.