I was disappointed yesterday with several aspects of the game.
First, it astounds me that a CBB coached team is faced with 4th and short again, this time against Alcorn State, and again failed to convert. Seriously…
Second, I’m disappointed for Jared Cornelius. Two years in a row, he returns a punt for a TD in the Rock. Two years in a row, some idiot (this year, Randy Ramsey) throws an illegal block that nullifies it. Good thing it wasn’t Toledo yesterday, huh?
Third, I’m downright aggravated at how poorly the team played in the 2nd quarter. Good gravy, y’all! We should have been up 35-0 at half. Only because of Alcorn State’s ineptitude resulting in a fumble at the 1 yard line just before half did the score not end up 24-14 at the break.
Fourth, Cole Hedlund…what? Oy…
Finally, where were the fans? The east side was only half-filled for the entire 1st quarter (and was only three-quarters filled the rest of the game). I know that games at WMS are almost a memory and it was just Alcorn State. And the 11am kickoff didn’t help. But I was embarrassed by the low turnout. I’ve been a season LR ticket holder since 1998 and I never remember seeing that many empty seats on a day unless the weather was a factor. And trust me yesterday’s weather was almost perfect. Those folks whining about how the UofA is taking games out of the Rock need to shut their pie-holes if they’re not even going to show up in the stands. Sorry, getting liquored up on the golf course with your buds and standing in line to pee in a Port-o-Potty doesn’t count. Even if the Hawgs don’t play any more games in the Rock, I’ll still root for them. And I will try to make to a game or two in Fayette-nam if my finances and schedule will allow. Life-long fan, good years and bad. Just don’t understand how some folks think.
Sorry for the rant. Feel free to bash.
As I remember, those OOC cupcake games were always hard to get a sellout in Little Rock many decades ago. The Hogs’ conference games of long ago would get sellouts unless the team was doing poorly which was rarely the case back then. There already may be some backlash, I mean the serious talk of the games ending after 2018. The Razorbacks haven’t had much of a real presence in Little Rock since the LSU game was pulled.
I don’t particularly like being visionary about the prospect of a pullout of Little Rock by the Hogs. However I think over decades, the absence of games in Little Rock will have the effect of making the Hogs a northwest entity. I use to travel this state on a job I had. I noticed back in the 1980’s that fan support was much more intense in Fort Smith and the area north of that. That was when a lot of games were still played in Little Rock. I think decades minus those Little Rock games is just going to multiply that difference of fan intensity I saw decades ago over & over & over again. I became attached to the Hogs as a child at those games as tens of thousands have done. Wiping that out with expectations of 200 & 300 mile drives is probably not logical. I guess the multiplying NW Arkansas population will blunt that loss though. A shame Fayetteville is not more centrally located if that means anything.
I can’t agree in the argument that all games moving to Fayetteville will make the Hogs a NW Ark team. There are many other teams that are not centrally located where they get fan support from the entire state. I could see having an issue if he roads to Fayetteville were 2 lanes of misery but it’s interstate the entire way. I live in the Dallas area and even though I’m working Saturday my family is making the drive to see the Bama game.
The Little Rock auditions are over and the fans in Central Ark failed in demonstrating they want games in Little Rock. They prefer to spend their money on canoeing, going to the zoo and museums. Those are not bad things but the world is constantly changing and it won’t cater to just what you want!
My only concern based off Saturday is our run defense. Most of this is based off the A&M game a week ago and the Bama game coming up. Our Dline was opened up many times for big holes for big gains for Alcorn. A&M in the fourth was the same way. We usually are a very good rush defensive team, but if we can’t control Bama’s run game and force Hurt to throw, we will get dominated on Saturday.
And I agree with Smashmouth. I lived in NE Arkansas near Jonesboro and ASU for the first 12 years of my life and EVERYBODY was a Hog fan, even more than an Indian(now red wolves) fan. Moving all the home games to Fayetteville won’t make the Razorbacks just a NW Arkansas team.
I don’t know how long you have been in Dallas, however if you are native to Texas. You cannot gauge the prerogatives & subsequent actions of Little Rock people anymore than I could if we were talking about people in the Dallas area. I would not even attempt such a venture. I was born in Little Rock. I lived within 60 or 70 miles from it all my life but a couple of years. I live retired in central Arkansas as I sit. The people of Little Rock did not miss any auditions to support the Hogs. The elected and appointed bureaucratic managers failed to keep War Memorial Stadium competitive with the Fayetteville Stadium. The games are leaving central Arkansas because the people in the UA athletic department want the revenue of potentially soon to be 25,000 more seats each game. It has absolutely nothing to do with central Arkansas people missing any audition. As far as the freeways, some people will drive the 200 - 300 miles. Those that went to Fayetteville games from throughout the state will surely continue to do so. However many that just attended the Little Rock games throughout the years will not. The Hogs will also lose the offspring of those people and that may very well escalate in the future decades. Who really knows? But pulling those games from LR, we will find out if one has the decades to watch it.
If you are going to tell me about central Arkansas. I will tell you about Jonesboro. More Red Wolf fans there than Razorback. Common sense.
False on both accounts. Everybody is a Razorback fan. I still keep in contact through my old church relationships with everybody I ever knew and they are still more Razorback than ASU supporters. And I spent my teen years in Bryant, so I understand central Arkansas as well.
I don’t think I am false on nothing. Arkansas State churns out thousands of graduates each year that are staunch Red Wolves supporters over the Razorbacks. You think those people support the Hogs, get on those Red Wolves blog boards. You appear to be in for a shock. The University of Arkansas doesn’t have graduates in that area of the state in anything close to ASU. That is the COMMON SENSE part.
As for as the Little Rock games being canceled diminishing central Arkansas fan support? I think that is another COMMON SENSE positive. As far as hurting the Hogs? I addressed that in the first post. The rapidly growing NW Arkansas population will negate any possible losses there.
We are going to have to agree to disagree, but as a product of that area, I’m telling you the facts. Yes, there are some that probably like ASU above the Razorbacks, but they are in the very small minority. Heck, my parents are graduates of ASU and they are big time Razorback fans, over ASU. You call it common sense, but you don’t know from experience like me. Do people in that area cheer for ASU? Sure, but if they had to choose, it’d be the Razorbacks for the vast majority and that is a fact.
But my point was, even if they never play another game in WMS, the fanbase in Arkansas won’t be affected that much if at all. And I used my life in NE Arkansas as evidence of that because nobody went to games even when they are in central Arkansas.
I have had some experience too. My father attended all Little Rock Razorback games and followed them all around the SWC, but rarely went to Fayetteville games. I don’t know why, he just did not go to Fayetteville often. However he took me with him to most Little Rock games. I think I draw my fondness for the Hogs from those games as a child. A child is fascinated by the cheerleaders and the Hog call and just the game. I think it makes a lifelong fan. Moving those games out of Little Rock will take that experience from some kids. You and smashmouth think that doesn’t matter. I think over 30, 40, 50. and 60 years that it will.
Maybe your parents as ASU graduates favor the Hogs over Red wolves. That doesn’t establish any pattern for the illogic of someone not favoring their alma mater.
Games like this don’t really give you any good indication of how your team will fare going forward. They accomplish what they are designed to and that is to practice under game conditions. It’s ok if your practice doesn’t go as well as you’d like. And not going as well as you’d like doesn’t mean that the team didn’t get good preparation for the rest of the conference schedule.