Your Take: How Did the Coaching Staff Do in 2009?
by John Expat on Dec 11, 2009 2:00 PM CST
in Arkansas Razorback Football
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PrintThis week we've asked you to pick the best win, the worst loss and the team's MVP. Now we move on to the final piece of the puzzle: the coaching staff.
Year two of the Bobby Petrino Era has come and gone (not counting the bowl game)...how did the coaches do? We saw an offense that made mindblowingly huge advances, a defense that gave up a 70+ yard TD in nearly every game and special teams that frequently weren't very special.
Factoring all that in, we'll say that there's still plenty of work to do, but the current staff seems to have the ship pointed in the right direction. But how does that translate into a final grade? Vote below, and then share your thoughts in more detail in the comments section.
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for what it's worth, I gave them a B
After balancing out the amazing offense with the less-than-amazing defense and special teams, that seemed about right.
B- / C + Range
What makes it more of a “B minus” is that this was a 5-7 team last year and we were more competitive in our losses. They flipped the 5-7 to 7-5 with another year of coaching basically the same players. What makes it more a “C +” is that special teams again cost us games and that the defense is still far from where it needs to be.
I gave them a B.
The offense was really improved. High octane for the majority of the season. Like night and day, compared to last season. Ryan Mallett is the man.
With some solid returning O-linemen, excluding Sr. Mitch Petrus, the O-line could be pretty good, especially if we have guys like Alvin Bailey, Zhamal Thomas, Matt Hall and Colbi Berna come on strong.
The RB combos of Dennis Johnson, Broderick Green, Ronnie Wingo, Knile Davis and DeAnthoney Curtis will continue to improve.
The defense was only margionally improved, but I did like the fact we were able to get much more pressure on the opposing QB this season, and was able to come up with quite a few more sacks in the process. (6 on Tebow alone)
We also improved greatly on turnover margin, and seemed to be one of the better redzone defenses in the SEC. All together though, we were still too inconsistant.
I believe we’ll remedy this problem next season with more experience and depth.
The STs are still the area for most concern in my opinion. Not so much Tejada’s FG kicking, which was better overall, but his inability to put the ball into the endzone on kickoffs.
Also, the kickoff coverage has to be better next season, and I really wish we could come up with a big play guy returning the punts. I have nothing against Jerrell Norton. He’s a good football player, but I’d really like to see Joe Adams back in there.
As far as the punting goes, we’re still looking for someone to step up.
Christopher Martin Gonzalez
Hey guys
ECU fan here again. Just trying to find out what we should expect in Memphis. Houston put up a lot of points this season, but had kind of a gimmicky offense (they threw 75 times in the C-USA championship game, but it was mostly 2-5 yd slant routes and quick outs).
From what I understand, you guys have a more balanced attack but also like to throw it quite a bit, per Petrino’s style. What kind of base defense are you playing? We’re a fairly standard 4-3 that relies on pressure from our front 4 and big plays from the secondary.
Our offense can be hard for a fan to figure out sometimes. When Holtz got here he brought the spread but had an influx of talent at RB (see: Johnson, Chris) so the gameplan has changed. We try to build everything we do off of the run, but if we have trouble getting it established we’ll revert back to a traditional spread offense (I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of those in the SEC).
Anyway, just looking for some info. I look forward to the game and expect to see and ton of red on Beale st. Where are the majority of Razorback fans staying? We’ll be swimming with the ducks at the Peabody.
Still not a crook!
Petrino seems committed to running a balanced offense. Runs will be executed both under center and out of shotgun or pistol. Our passing game tends to come from play action under center mixed with 4 or 5 wide shotgun formations. Expect audibles from our QB in passing situations. Throughout this season, when our run game was not productive (which was often, early in the season), we went to more of a one dimensional pass based spread offense. Expect Ryan Mallet to stretch your defense vertically with some downfield throws. Also, expect him to do a good job of holding your free safety by looking off receivers.
As for the defense, we run a 4-3 and on good days the front 4 are able to put pressure on the opponent’s QB without a blitz.
Thanks for the info. In my opinion the game will be decided by the front four of each Defense. We have a lot of talent on our line (3 of the 4 D-lineman have scored this year) and hopefully will be able to get pressure on Mallet. This allows our secondary to take some risks and ball-hawk quite a bit. We will give up some big plays to the pass, but our turnover margin is usually what wins games for us. I don’t have the numbers, but we force a lot of turnovers and usually take pretty good care of the ball on our end.
Still not a crook!
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