In my 58 years as a Razorback, I can only remember one time when a coach inherited such a depleted talent deficit that CM INHERITED. That was the transition to Danny Ford. He never got the credit for the talent he recruited to turn the Razorback program around.
With all that said… had we beaten SJS this whole conversation would be different. Yes, we should have won but nobody with football experience would say we’re more talented than A&M or Kentucky. Our problem is speed & talent. With exception to SJS… I see improvement even though we’re at a talent deficit. Cmon are we really on the same level on O or D lines as A&M or Kentucky? Check next year’s draft.
In Closing, we’re cutting our nose off in spite of our face due to the arm chair qb’s that don’t understand the talent deficit we’re playing against. Easy to be a great or good coach when you’ve got talent. Someone please point out a team in the SEC with less talent at O line and Defense??
You’re exactly right! That one does fall on the coaches. But… We showed real improvement against 2 teams that we shouldn’t beat on paper! Kinda like politics… how good might we be if everyone would look for the positives rather than the negative? Our recruiting suffers and we’ll only go backwards. CBB hurt us in more ways than the Mods will ever post. A really bad spot for CM
Part of what you have pointed out is very true!
Explain just how all of this can excuse a coach for getting beat by SJS and not being able to motivate his team and have them fired up to play from the first snap?
How does it excuse the whole staff for watching QB’s play like the “Bad News Bears” and make a change just in time to Come So Close! There are decisions made early in games that get you to the final outcome. I will say this for the talent and play making capabilities of our offense the OC did an extremely poor job of getting the ball spread out and in the hands of play makers! When did Knox and Burks touch the ball?
Army, if you’re talking about SJS, Knox had 8 catches (four more than anyone else) and Burks didn’t play due to injury. Against Kentucky they combined for four of our 12 catches; issue there was that Starkel couldn’t throw a beachball in the ocean that night.
The major issue in the first half was OC and Starkel made their collective mind up to force feed OGrady. That’s my opinion. And yes Starkel could have throw the ball in the ocean I observed that as well. The Staff should have pulled him in the second quarter.
You are correct about the lack of talent. Losing to power 5 schools is a lack of talent. But losing to SJS, North Texas, and other non power 5 schools is coaching. I don’t care how well liked and respected Morris is in Texas. Or that he’s got connections and knows how to build relationships. If you can’t beat teams you are expected to beat, and score a goose egg in conference play for 2 years, recruits stop will stop listening to him. To stare to odvious, Morris is being paid to win games. Excuses may get you by to the end of year 3, but if he’s not winning by then, he needs to go.
I know we are behind in talent, but with my very unqualified eye, it looks to be more than a talent issue. I think it is a culture issue, one where we have few bell cows on the team to push the effort level. I am not saying they are loafing, but winning teams and cultures find a way to push themselves up a notch when the need is there. Even though I am frustrated with Chavis’ defensive failures and sometimes wonder about other coaching concerns, I believe the most important evaluation going forward is whether they can get this team playing hungrier and more passionate. If they can’t, then the decision, albeit an expensive one, is easier made.
My expectation is we better beat Western Kentucky and Miss State at Home.
Those are both winnable games with the talent we have on this team.
Also need to be competitive against Missouri in Little Rock and Auburn at home.
With the talent we have at the skill positions and the Freshman growing up this should be a realistic expectation. Yes we should be 5-1 right now by just playing the hotter of the two QBs which was Hicks in the last 3 games.
Watching a QB struggle for series after series throwing interceptions and behind players and not making a change earlier in the game has been the most baffling razorback snafu i have seen in my 50 plus years of watching the hogs. Just 3 or 4 plays away from being 5-1…
Keith - my biggest concern is do we have two many upperclassmen and coaches that have been losing for so long that they have become accustomed to it?
Not saying they like it by any means of course, but perhaps they don’t deep down really believe they will win when the chips are down. If so, how can you blame them given how many painful losses they have experienced? Losing, like winning, is a habit and we don’t have a lot of players or coaches that have been in the habit of winning a lot of games in the past few years.
Here’s the deal about the QB situation.
To me they both seem so inconsistent that the coaches cannot possibly totally trust either one. As for not pulling Starkel earlier, it’s easy to say that seeing how it played out. But we don’t know, Hicks may have been lousy in practice to the point they couldn’t be comfortable putting him in earlier. But we have a lot of coaching geniuses here who can see all…
After the fact
I believe you are correct. We show signs of improvement.
But there have been decisions and actions that make the losses have a little more weight.
For Ole Miss, it was the QB situation. Hicks was VERY ineffective, and we went to Starkel too late. Then Starkel plays well at CSU, proving he’s capable of being our every down QB.
Against SJS, he throws 5 interceptions. Was it a bad night? Was it a lack of coaching preparation during practices? We will never have an answer to this question.
Against A&M, played well. No real concerns. Just frustration we were so close.
Against Kentucky, it was the fact they had a WR at QB. We knew exactly what was going to happen. They were going to run the ball, and we couldn’t stop it. We consistently had a nickel back for no good reason.
So, yes, I wasn’t expecting them to make a significant jump in our record, though I thought it was possible. I was hoping they came out to look like a better team. They have. But I can’t help thinking we could be in a better situation if not for the coaching staff.
We don’t have many players in the program that would start for any of the top tier SEC programs! Our best recruiting class in recent history is filled with players needing a couple of years to become second and third string All SEC. I expected we would win our non conference games and strike out again in SEC play, but that was too much for this team. I feel terrible for the players, and for the coaches, they all make a tremendous income relative to the remainder of AR residents. If we’re going to do anything, at the very least replace the OC & DC in an effort to give the fans some hope? Obviously our future success is beyond their capacity to revive, and there are plenty of hungry coaches looking for a shot to prove their worth.