Fred Talley is still running through the Auburn secondary.
An enjoyable 20 odd minutes.
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A lot of special plays … made by some special players.
Those were some fun times.
OK, something that JARED me. One of the early highlights has Chrys Chukwuma throwing a pass to Clint Stoener. The announcer says “from the wildcat…” So we ran the wildcat before Gus? I did not remember that. I honestly thought Gus “reinvented” the wildcat.
The announcer said, “from the 41 of the Wildcats,” before Chukwuma thew the pass. It was a toss right, throwback to the QB.
OHHHH. Thank you! Misunderstood (happens more and more these days!)
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I watched this video last night. I really enjoyed Houston’s years as the head coach. There were a lot of great players and great games, and some great teams. The thing I remember most is how hard they seemed to play. It almost always felt like Arkansas had a chance to win, no matter how big of an underdog the team was, which is such a contrast from the last few years.
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Houston always got us up for big games, but we all too often laid an egg against lesser opposition. But he never had an 0-8 or 1-7 year in the SEC.
I agree Matt, I still am puzzled the way some fans attacked Houston but I had long since moved out of Arkansas and did not realize that much about how NW Arkansas ran things. In my day, they did not, but that is history.
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Not as often as Beliema and Morris. I don’t remember Nutt ever losing to teams like Toledo or San Jose State.
I was a supporter of Nutt for a long time. Finally, at the end, I thought it was best for him to go, just so we could unit the fan base again.
I never understood those who hated him so much. Did he get on my nerves sometimes with his coach speak all the time and other things? Sure. Was he a GREAT coach? I don’t think so, but compared to most of the ones who have followed him, I would take him in a second!
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Great memories of great former Hogs. What stood out to me was out defense. It’s been a few years since we had one. And O-Line play nice creases for those talented backs. And time to throw.
The blocked FG against Carolina at WMS by Carlos Hall was memorable too. We were there that day. What a moment!
HDN gave us some good years. His demise was sad to watch.
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Nutt proved we could compete in the SEC. Before he was hired, I was starting to think we couldn’t on a consistant basis.
Other than the 2 probation years, Nutt’s teams competed with the best week after week.
I was never a Houston Nutt fan as a coach, but looking back now…he did a solid job. He had us reasonably competitive most every year and should have won an SEC Championship, but somehow we frittered it away against Florida.
He had his limitations and was stubborn to a fault, but history will probably be kinder to him than we fans were when he was here. His handling of the Gus Malzahn situation was his Waterloo.
Even those teams were in most of their games. Both teams were blown out once (LSU in 2004, at USC in 2005), but Arkansas lost to Texas by two in 2004 when Texas won the Rose Bowl, and lost by three at Georgia and two at LSU in 2005 when those teams won their divisions.
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Wanted to be a Nutt fan but could not do it. Much of his success & tenure was due to Dmac being from AR. Despite tutoring from Broyles, his offenses were stubbornly uninspiring prior to Malzahn.
In later years, Nutt could not recruit the top players, was too distracted with texting lady friends especially on gameday, got into petty disputes with parents & players, could not delegate to asst coaches due to ego, & proved his lack of loyalty to UofA, (ie NE followed by LSU & OM). Nutt was fortunate that he coached during relatively down years for the SEC & proved his abilities & limitations at OM.
Much preferred the Petrino years & his style of football. A comparison to the Bert & Morris trainwrecks, would be a positive for any coach, including Nutt.
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DMac was his last three years. He had been coach for seven years before signing McFadden. Won a division with him; also won the division with Chukwuma and Fred Talley at tailback.
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Vince Lombardi would disagree with your assessment of “uninspiring”
And I remember Frank’s first few years at Arkansas they quick kicked on third down a good number of times a game. Gus and his stylish football would never worry about field position etc.
Think you are missing a lot here, if you link his success to McFadden. McFadden, no doubt was high water mark in football talent, but in looking back, Nutt had some pretty salty teams that did not have McFadden. I never thought Houston was a stellar coach and think his ego created numerous failures, but one cannot deny that the kids really competed during his tenure. Not certain we saw that with Bret’s teams and know that our competitive fire under Chad never reached kindling temperature.
IMHO, HDN was a better motivator than he was tactician and detail man. 7 of his 10 years at Arkansas he had either Matt Jones or Darren McFadden. Those two freaks, along with Gary Anderson, were the three greatest Offensive Razorbacks in my time of watching the Hogs, which goes back to 1964. Those guys did things that Houston or anyone else couldn’t coach.
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Eaglehog, I don’t disagree, but everyone in the SEC has “freaks.”