WE GOT THAT BOOT
by John Expat on Nov 29, 2010 11:42 AM CST
in Arkansas Razorback Football
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PrintOne of my favorite things about the Hogs' win over LSU on Saturday was that, as KevinHog put it, no miracle was required. Sure, things did get a little wacky there at the end of the first half, but overall it was a solid, end-to-end victory. It was the kind of solid win that a BCS-bound team should produce (and that the Hogs have traditionally managed to let slip away in the past...see the 2006 LSU game for reference). LSU is a good team and put up a tough fight, as expected, but in the end there was no doubt about who was better.
Other thoughts:
* as a Little Rock guy now living far away, I always get a particular thrill from seeing War Memorial on national TV. I went to many Razorback games there as a boy, and my high school (Go Rockets) played there as well. Love that place.
* I'm guessing both teams were a little too wound up at the start of the game...the first quarter was exceedingly sloppy all around. I kept picturing people from around the country seeing the Hogs and Tigers for the first time and thinking "these teams are supposed to be good?"
* it wouldn't be an Arkansas-LSU game without a little crazy, and the sequence to end the first half was about as crazy as it gets: LSU fumble deep in their own territory + Arkansas interception in the end zone + Les Miles actually leaving too much time on the clock with an incredibly short possession + that insane Ryan Mallett/Cobi Hamilton bomb as time expired...all in about two minutes of game time. Dizzying!
* Props to Alex Tejada for making a couple of potentially game-saving tackles on Patrick Peterson's painfully long kickoff returns.
* Although it didn't feel like a great thing at the time, the decisive point of the game was when LSU took over on the Hogs' 9 yard line after Dylan Breeding's muffed punt in the 3rd quarter. Instead of letting the Tigers roll in for an easy TD and the lead, the Razorback defense stiffened with three consecutive great plays: a touchdown-saving open field tackle on a screen pass, stuffing a run up the middle for no gain and batting away the corner fade pass on 3rd down. From that moment on, it was all Arkansas.
* Continuing the theme of the above point, the defense played its best game of the year. Hats off to them (and especially SEC defensive player of the week Jerico Nelson). LSU had just 71 yards of offense in the second half.
* After the aforementioned defensive stand, the offense rose to the occasion with two of the best drives I can remember from an Arkansas team: first, an 11 play march that culminated in Mallett's triumphant 39 yard TD pass to Joe Adams on 4th down (and featured a couple of huge 3rd down conversions before that), then, after a quick stop by the defense, a smashmouth masterpiece that featured nine straight butt-kicking runs by Knile Davis and Broderick Green.
* Les Miles must have still been a little sleepy from too much Thanksgiving turkey, because we never even saw a glimpse of the wackiness that's made him famous. LSU had several opportunities to go for it on 4th down and never did...in fact, it was Bobby Petrino who broke the game open with that ballsy 4th down call on the TD pass to Adams.
* Cobi Hamilton is a proud Texarkana native, but he must feel a special connection with Little Rock: in his two SEC games at War Memorial the speedy WR has caught TD passes of 85, 80, 64 and 58 yards. And, he made the game-clinching recovery of LSU's last minute onside kick. Not too shabby.
* I alluded to this in the intro, but in 2006 the highly-ranked Hogs took on the highly-ranked Tigers in War Memorial with a BCS bowl on the line and managed to lose in typically Nutty fashion. Very nice to come full circle and close it out this time.
* Final thought: when was the last time the Razorbacks had a win this big? Submit your suggestions in the comments section, because I'm having trouble thinking of one.
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two points
1. a win this big? I don’t believe there has been one since we’ve been in the SEC. In every other opportunity, we’ve lost — Tenn 98, SEC champ games, all 3 of them, LSU 2006 — just typical Arkansas choke jobs. I thought for sure we were goners when Breeding inexplicably dropped that snap, but as you point out, our defense just stood firm and gave up nothing. Maybe the Oklahoma game in 78 Orange Bowl, but that really led to nothing beyond a huge win. I’d go back to the Texas wins in 64 and 65 as huge wins that led to national recognition as the biggest in the program, which goes to point 2.
2. Like Nolan Richardson in basketball, Petrino is building a team that isn’t intimidated by anyone. We’re as strong as anybody, as fast as anybody, and as well-coached as anybody. We may not have a Nick Fairley at nose tackle or a Patrick Patterson at corner, but we have very good athletes who are backed up by equally good athletes.
It’s a program with a long-range plan, not geared to a one-game pep-talk driven upset. In the past, playing Georgia on the road, Alabama and LSU at home, and the SEC East champs South Car on the road, plus Ohio State !! in a bowl would have been intimidating to say the least. Today, we’re the team nobody wants to play. We can score. We can defend. We can run and pass. We just can’t stop kickoff returns, but we’ll work on it.
Perhaps we can make a national champtionship run in the next few years, just like Nolan in the mid 90s.
AGREED
Probably not a win this big (in my lifetime at least, 1979) probably 78 orange bowl.
Dont even mention kickoff coverage, we’d have owned Auburn if we could’ve stopped them from starting inside our 50. I think special teams is the difference between a National Championship THIS YEAR and a Sugar bowl(maybe if things go right for us).
I hate to sound like Debbie Downer but we would be (not could) 11-1 if John L. would teach the kickoff team how to frickin tacle a man and not leave Tejada back there by himself to mop up a mess. I am glad for a BCS chance but this is a letdown for me.
Special Teams
As a previous Middle School football coach and current high school football coach, I can say with 100% confidence that kickoff coverage is not JLS’s fault. Every team in the entire nation is taught from middle school on up (and I was even taught in pee-wee; I remember my job was the outside lane) that LANE COVERAGE is the key to succesful special teams. The problem is, everybody wants to make the tackle. On one of Peterson’s many returns, I saw everybody on the right side swoop towards the middle, including Elton Ford who is our outside contain guy on the right side, and Peterson said “I’m gonna go right outside you,” and he did just that. It was lame, and that to me just looks like a straight-up lack of discipline.
We won't know for a while
This game was big because it was the one this week. You simply can’t say that it was the programs’a biggest win ever. There was no title on the line, no number-one ranking. It was impressive, it was imperative. What’s much more important now is a win over a Big Ten team. The only one we’ver ever beaten was Northwestern in 1981 when they were the Vanderbilt of Big Ten football. Beat Ohio State with alleyes watching on January 4th, and we’re right there with Florida and LSU for respect. The programs biggest game ever will be the one in which three 5-star blue chippers from Texas start for the Hogs because they saw us win the Sugar Bowl the year the Longhorns (spit) didn’t go to a bowl game!
RazorWOP = An Arkansan of Italian descent
Am I incorrect?
Or have we been ranked the whole year, from preseason to now? It would be almost impossible for us to fall out of the rankings at this point, which will mean that we would have been ranked wire to wire. I cannot remember these last time this happened to Arkansas. Can anyone else remember?
You are not incorrect.
Wire-to-wire top 25 ranking. It’s happened here before, but pretty sure not in my lifetime (and I was born in ’86).
You should get your interns to check that out.
Don’t you have, like, hundreds of them?
by ArkansasChap on Nov 29, 2010 5:16 PM CST up reply actions
Just checked in the media guide
You know your history, John. It was 1989. Looks like it also happened in ’87, ’85, ’82, ’79, ’78, ’71, ’70, ’69, ’66, ’65, ’64, ’62, None before Uncle Frank and none (obviously) during the Nutt, Ford or Crowe eras.
by ArkansasChap on Nov 29, 2010 6:05 PM CST up reply actions
HA!
Turns out I’m a year older than you! And I thought I was the youngest fellow to read this blog!
Stay Classy San Diego.
WMS Needs to Die
I truly understand the nostalgia. I was there when Joe Ferguson dismantled Texas. I saw Jim Plunkett dismantle us for a half and then Bill Montgomery almost win it. I was there when Ken Hatfield, in all his alligator-hided stubborness refused to pass against Texas and we lost on the LAST play. I saw us beat Houston in one of the greatest games anyone other than Andre Ware would ever want to see. I hate that stadium! It is antiquidated to the max. Uncomfortable and needs to be nuked. I think the difference is the Little Rock crowd and they deserve better. Come on, build it!!!! They will come!!!
I love WMS
I know I’m in the minority, but I much prefer WMS to RRS and nostalgia has nothing to do with it.
For the actual game atmosphere, WMS can’t be beat.
RRS is comfortable, has lots of nice amenities and has that big ol’ TV to watch. Comfortable, well-fed fans who prefer to watch the TV – as opposed to what’s happening on the field – are lazy fans. And a significant percentage of those that are in RRS on any given day are just that – lazy. They are there for the social event, not the game. They annoy me to no end.
WMS is cramped, uncomfortable, has crap for amenities and is kind of a dump. But cramped, uncomfortable fans are loud, involved fans. There isn’t any distraction from what’s happening on the field and the social event is out there on the golf course.
If I want to be comfortable and well-fed while watching the game on a giant TV, I’ll stay home.
Awww. c'mon girl.
We need to keep 2 in WMS
Arkansas has a true statewide fan base and I consider it a tip of the hat to them to leave 2 games at WMS. The tailgating atmosphere is unparalleled. I say keep 2 there – just my humble opionion.
WMS was rockin'!!!
Great weather, Hog fans cheering every single defensive down…what a great game full of great memories!!!
A win as big???
Being in Texas, I fondly remember a 49-11 whoopin’ put on a #1 Texas Longhorn team back in ‘80 or ’81 (can’t remember exactly). That one didn’t have bowl implications as big as this last one but I sure did enjoy it an I’ll never forget it!
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