Bleacher Report - Articles by Donald Fincher

The Dominant SEC Starts and Finishes Season the Same Way Against ACC

Donald Fincher — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:10:04 -0500

The SEC is considered to be the best conference in college football.

They are even marketed by the media as some hybrid between the NFL and the rest of college football. And they really showed it against the ACC...again.

The ACC, on the other hand, thought they were going to take the best of the Big East and fold it in to their conference and be a contender. Instead, they apparently have gone backwards.

Because of geographic proximity, no league plays the SEC as many times as the ACC teams do. That's bad news for them. If you were the commissioner of the ACC or one of the schools' presidents, you could not have envisioned a worse scenario as two 7-5 SEC teams beat the two teams that are playing in the ACC's conference title game. That's just embarrassing..

The year started, as it did last year, with Alabama beating a supposed ACC frontrunner in a prime time, showcase, hyped-all-summer-long, game. This year Bama beat Virginia Tech. Last year it was Clemson.

And it ended with Georgia manhandling Georgia Tech, South Carolina beating Clemson worse than the score indicated (though that was bad enough), and Florida stepping off the gas pedal at halftime against Florida State.

With the exception of South Carolina, this is nothing new. Georgia has won somewhere around seven of the last 10 games against Georgia Tech. Florida has beaten Florida State six consecutive times, the last three badly.

No wonder Urban Meyer was vowing his respect for Bobby Bowden after the game. He wants Bobby around another 20 years.

The ACC has conference envy because it is situated nearby the SEC and has the unfortunate task of having to compete for many of the same kids. They know that the four and five star kids go to the SEC.

They've tried everything.

They've inked a TV deal back before Alabama hired Saban to put their top teams against 'Bama in a showcase game. Back when Mike Shula was coach, the idea was to sneak a win or two against the SEC in prime time and people would think it's a big deal because it was 'Bama, notwithstanding the fact that Mike Shula was the coach.

That didn't work out.

They tried conference expansion and a conference championship game because it has worked great for the SEC. Both have failed miserably for the ACC.

They've tried improving their record against the SEC by scheduling some games with the SEC's lesser tearms. This only manages to produce some statistical anomalies.

This past weekend showed just how much separation there is between these two conferences and, by extension, college football as a whole.

Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Mississippi State Bulldogs: Hogs on a Roll

Donald Fincher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:19:02 -0500

Mississippi State is supposed to be one of those "dangerous" teams that has some talent and has been injected with new coaching and new enthusiasm. The Bulldogs played LSU very tough and Florida didn't run away with their game.

Mississippi State is one game shy of being .500. If it had beaten one team that it instead lost to, the Bulldogs would be even and hoping for a bowl.

That formality out of the way, there is a flip side to this coin. LSU has had offensive woes all season, so that game being close wasn't necessarily as much of a statement as some made it out to be.

'Bama dominated the bulldogs. And Miss. State would not have scored a touchdown on Florida had it not been for two uncharacteristic Tebow interceptions that both got ran back for scores.

State hasn't beaten a single team it wasn't supposed to. The team's wins came against Jackson State, Middle Tennessee State, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky. And the Kentucky game was courtesy of three Wildcat turnovers, which prevented the Bulldogs from having just one SEC win.

The trouble with teams like Miss. State is that they don't have much depth. And this late into the season, many teams are playing second stringers at a number of spots.

With teams like Miss. State, that's a bigger problem than with higher caliber teams. A team that Miss. State could have gone toe to toe with in the first or second week is going to have an easier win later in the season due to this.

And then there are matchup issues. When Miss. State has the ball, it is primarily a rushing team. Arkansas doesn't have a very good defense statistically. However, the one area Arkansas has done well is against the rush. The hogs are fifth in the league in rush defense.

And Arkansas leads the league in passing offense and scoring offense, while Miss. State is poor against the pass. Therefore, while both offenses will get their yards, Arkansas figures to be a better match against Miss. State's defense than vice-versa.

Morale becomes an issue with any team. Miss. State started out winning two of its first three. Since then, the Bulldogs have lost five out of seven. Arkansas ebbed and flowed and never allowed itself to get more than one game below .500 at any point, and is currently on its first three-game win streak since 2007.

As for motivation, Arkansas has the revenge factor since it laid an egg when playing Miss. State last year, and Arkansas can greatly improve its bowl placement with a win.

Meanwhile, Miss. State has the tough task of winning out against two better teams to even become bowl eligible and, even if it does, it then gets smacked with the reality of being the 11th team and the league only gets 10 bowls.

Adding all this up, Arkansas enjoys home field, better matchups, better depth, higher morale, momentum, and motivation. This looks like the typical Arkansas win over Miss. State. I look for Mallet and company to get out of the gates hot and to press the accelerator.

Finally, there is the coaching. Arkansas also enjoys the advantage of having the better coach. Petrino knows better than to let the opponent stay in the game and leave a glimmer of hope that it can win. Given the improvement of Mallet and the level of execution on this team, Petrino has the system, the weapons, and the trust in his team to fully utilize his weapons and his mismatches to take away any belief early in the game.

He's a "rip out the jugular" kind of guy when he has the team to do it and, in my opinion, that's his best trait. This is because college kids are easily distracted and tend to lose their focus if things are coming relatively easy.

Petrino's aggressive play calling will negate any chance that the players might let down their guards which, to me, seemed very common during the Nutt years. I look forward to more of this aggressive style from Petrino in this game and in future seasons.

Arkansas vs Troy: Hogs Look for Third Straight Win for First Time Since 2007

Donald Fincher — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:56:22 -0500

Arkansas finds itself in a much better position this week. The hogs have again won two straight. Yet this time, winning a third straight doesn't require beating Florida, the nation's No. 1 team. And it doesn't require winning on the road or even winning an SEC game. Arkansas must beat the Troy (Ala.) Trojans to do this hat trick that eluded them last year.

As I've written before, Arkansas was expected to lose at Bama and at Florida and was expected to have won their non-conference games and to have beaten Auburn and to beat Mississippi State next week. It was the games against Georgia, Ole Miss, and South Carolina that the hogs needed to split 2-1 but ended up splitting 1-2 instead.

However, with the win over South Carolina last week, the hogs can at least breathe a little easier that they didn't go winless in those three games. And with that South Carolina win sandwiched between Eastern Michigan and Troy on the schedule and having four straight home games (the three just mentioned and Miss. State) is just what the doctor ordered for a late season surge.

A bowl game now is just one win away and almost a lock. And with each successive win, the quality of the bowl game improves. So the hogs could potentially end the season by winning five straight (if they really get on a roll and use the rhythm and momentum to again beat LSU).

But for now it's one game at a time. The Razorbacks are obviously more talented on offense than Troy. And the defense is improving. Last week, South Carolina scored two touchdowns. One was from an Arkansas turnover that gave South Carolina the ball on the Arkansas 30 when Arkansas failed to convert a fake punt.

The second was a botched secondary coverage coming right out of halftime. Arkansas is not going to try many fake punts from their own 30 yard line so giving the short field is not a regular occurrence. So the only play of concern that really "drew blood" from South Carolina was the long pass play. For a defense that has been anything but stellar, that's good news.

On a statistical note, Arkansas currently ranks No. 1 in the conference in the following very important categories (data from secsports.com)...Red Zone Offense, Red Zone Defense, Turnover Margin, Passing Efficiency, Passing Totals, Points per Game, Stopping Fourth Down Conversions, and Scoring Offense.

If you had told me before the season that Arkansas would win all of those categories, I would have gladly taken that. This shows for sure that Arkansas has had marked improvement from last year to this year and from the early part of the season until now. Arkansas is much better than their record. From all indications, that record is about to get a boost.

Arkansas-South Carolina: Last Chance at Redemption for Hogs

Donald Fincher — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:55:28 -0500

Most conferences have their top tier (perennially elite) programs, their middle tier programs, and their bottom tier (cellar dweller) programs. The SEC is no exception. Arkansas has traditionally been in the middle tier.

The key for middle tier programs to have successful years is to win your non-conference games, beat the teams on the schedule from the bottom tier, and split the games on your schedule against the other middle tier teams and occasionally beat a team that you shouldn't. That leads to 8-4 or 9-3 seasons and good bowl games.

Early this season, I wrote that Arkansas should beat their non-conference teams, Mississippi State, and Auburn. So far so good.

I also wrote that Arkansas would lose to Bama, Florida, and LSU. Again, so far that's holding up.

And I wrote that Arkansas needed to win two of the three against Georgia, Ole Miss, and South Carolina. And it's here's where the Hogs are off track.

These are the games that matter the most. This is what decides if a team is 6-6 (if they lose all three) or 9-3 (if they win all three). That's a significant difference in record. Bobby Petrino's first priority should be splitting these games 2-1 and upsetting one of the big boys. That would make a 9-3 record every year. And that is what Arkansas should realistically hope for.

It's tough to have 10-win seasons in the SEC. Even if Petrino eventually has a couple of them, by no means should they become "expected." But being 8-4 or 9-3 with this formula is not unreasonable.

It's too late to split these games 2-1 this year as Arkansas lost to both Georgia and Ole Miss already. This is the last opportunity to avoid being winless in these three important games.

This concept is not unlike Presidential elections. Republicans are going to win certain states (Utah, for instance) even if they run a fall-down drunk on the ticket.

Likewise, Democrats are going to win certain states under the same circumstances (Massachusetts, for example). It's the "battleground states" that end up mattering.

For Arkansas, with Georgia being average this year, those "battleground games" were Georgia, Ole Miss, and South Carolina.

Improvement can be measured by the fact that Arkansas' cupcakes were taking the Hogs to the wire last year, where this year they aren't.

But that's not enough. Improving the record in these type games is where the "rubber meets the road." Good luck, Bobby P.

Arkansas Vs. Eastern Michigan: Hogs Get Much Needed Break From SEC Play

Donald Fincher — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:11:55 -0400

Sometimes a team just needs a win. Arkansas was riding back-to-back wins headed into the Florida game and was feeling pretty good about themselves. Now, they're riding back-to-back losses.

And it's not just the losses but the way that they lost. First, it was two consecutive road games which, in the SEC, are always tough environments. Then there was "referee-gate" that was the difference in the Florida game. And a combination of hangover from the Florida affecting the offense combined with the Hog defense zooming back into the unit from the early part of the season which resembled cheese from a certain European country (starts with "S") were the story lines in the Ole Miss game.

So this week's "opponent" is a welcome relief. Eastern Michigan is 0-7, playing a road game, and doesn't even have the weapons to pull an upset here. This is no Appy State/Michigan sequel. This will be a blowout. There should be plenty of game time for the second and third string.

Due to a scheduling problem, the Razorbacks had their bye week in the second game of the season. That makes for a long eleven-game stretch with no breaks after the bye week. So having a "tune-up" game will be just what the doctor ordered to get back to an even record (thereby staying on track for a bowl game albeit a very minor one) and to get back in "rhythm."

Looking forward, there is one more "should win" game on the schedule with Troy. South Carolina will be favored against Arkansas, and so will LSU. Mississippi State is no longer a gimme. They should have beaten LSU and the margin at Florida was inflated by seven as replay photos clearly showed. Yes, given what's ahead, this week certainly is needed.

Arkansas Vs Ole Miss: A Must Win for Both Teams

Donald Fincher — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:02:29 -0400

There's been a lot made of the officiating calls in the Florida game. The SEC took the unprecedented step of suspending the crew that called the game. While it has given fans something to chatter about this week, the real question will be whether or not the team has been able to move past it. This could either galvanize them or really sidetrack them. Petrino has been relatively quiet on this front. I guess we'll see Saturday.

Another challenge facing Arkansas in this game is that the Razorbacks under Petrino have won exactly one SEC road game. Road games are hard to come by in this conference. It was always an Achilles heel when Nutt was the coach too. That's why everyone always raves about Mark Richt's road record. Outside of the game in Jacksonville every year, Georgia has an astonishing record on the road. But Arkansas does not. So going on the road with a distracted team would be a bad combination.

Yet a different challenge is the hogs again face the pressure of a "must win" situation. For Arkansas to take the place they have had over the past decade or so as being one of the teams in the top half of the SEC West, Arkansas really needs to be able to count on beating Ole Miss as they have in years past. The glow for this years Ole Miss team has worn off and most midseason assessments consider them one of the underachievers of this season. If Arkansas can't get it done there, the Hogs go to 1-4 in conference play and one really has to begin to wonder if Arkansas will be a "close but no cigar" type of team under Petrino.

Like the Auburn game, I believe that this game will be a sign of things to come. Arkansas has truly improved but how much. If the defense plays like it did against Florida, the Hogs will be in the game. And if the offense gets clicking, it could be a fun one. However, Ole Miss has a good defense. Alabama got into the red zone five times and had to settle for five field goals. The only Tide touchdown came on a 4th down gamble from outside the red zone.

Nutt will pull out all the stops including trick plays and gambles to win this game. He needs this game to be one the Rebs can win because his road got harder when he moved to Ole Miss. That's because his record playing the rest of the SEC will be theoretical about what it was when he was at Arkansas. But now, instead of getting to play Ole Miss every year (as he did with Arkansas), he has to now play Arkansas every year. That's a schedule upgrade for him. So the more he can turn Arkansas, the team he replaced Ole Miss with on his coaching schedule, into what Ole Miss was while he was here (which was a fairly guaranteed win), the better off he is. Without doing so, he will not have winning records in the SEC and will eventually get canned...again.

Nutt has shown that a leopard doesn't change his stripes. His teams at Arkansas constantly didn't develop QB's and, in fact, QB's regressed under his tutelage. The same can be said of Snead. And he doesn't know how to prepare for passing teams. When he was the coach at Arkansas, I constantly feared how bad the score would be against teams that had really good QB's. So Mallett should really strike fear into the Ole Miss faithful given Nutt's previous tendencies against good passing teams. If Arkansas' offensive line can absorb the blitzes they will get all day and Mallett can get into a rhythm, this one could get ugly for Ole Miss.

It's hard to predict this game. I'll revert back to what I would predict when Nutt was the head Hog. If Arkansas was playing a team with an improving defense and Mallett as QB, I would probably pick the score to be around 35-21. So, for lack of anything better to go on, I'll just go with instinct.

Arkansas Vs. Florida: One That Got Away and One That Was Given Away

Donald Fincher — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:46:35 -0400

I don't want to be "that" fan. You know him. He's the one that wants to find someone or something to blame when their team loses. And a common target of that blame is frequently on the refs. I see that as weak and try very hard not to do it.

So when I see bad officiating, I usually try hard to see where it affected both teams and tell myself that the referees did a bad job but not a slanted job. And even where I feel they might have thrown a few too many flags on one team, I don't point fingers their way if it ends up not making a difference anyway.

Having said that, I'm really at a loss as to the referee behavior in this game. Many on BR and on message boards (for both Arkansas and Florida) are really ripping the refs over this game. And some are even alleging the worst kind of cheating...that is conference-sanctioned cheating to keep the national championship "players" in the hunt.

This same crew worked the Georgia-LSU game and the SEC clearly admitted their mistakes for them...after the game. At the time, before LSU lost to Florida, they were the No. 4 team and were still tracking to be one of the conference's potential national championship teams or at-large bids.

Was LSU being protected in that game after Georgia went ahead? Many fans from schools outside the SEC think so.

Last week, when Florida played LSU, Florida scored on an obvious penalty play and wasn't called. The refs later said they didn't "see" the play. But most think Florida has a better shot at the national title game than LSU did. Was Florida being aided by the refs? You be the judge.

But today, it's hard to argue against the impression that the stripes simply took matters into their own hands to ensure a Florida win. There was the pass interference call on Broadaway in the end zone that gave Florida 15 yards of help.

Following that, Florida got another 15 yards with an unsportsmanlike conduct call on an Arkansas player for throwing a block...and this was shown by replay to clearly have been a self-defense block as the Florida guy was gunning for him.

With the help of the crowd and the penalties, Florida ends up with first and goal and gets the score.

Then, after Arkansas gives the ball up after a missed field goal, the refs again help Florida get themselves marched down the field for the game winner. It seemed beyond blatant. I've got to say that I've never been more in favor of the movement that is afoot to have all referees be hired by, trained by, paid by, and scheduled by the NCAA rather than the conferences.

While I have specifically avoided going so far as to say I personally believe that the fix was in today, I would be an ineffective representative if asked to argue for the other side.

But, if the NCAA was responsible for referees, one would not have to wonder if the referees were keeping their employers happy by keeping their employer's contenders for a national title alive. Currently, we do have to wonder. And today did nothing to dispute those who have their suspicions.

As for Arkansas, they should have put this game away to where some bad calls would not have mattered. Arkansas left a lot of points (or potential points) on the field. In the late first half, the Hogs badly mismanaged the clock.

They ended up kicking a field goal on third down rather than getting to run another play from the two yard line. Given Arkansas' red zone percentage, I like the odds of Arkansas getting another play from the two. That was potentially four missed points.

Mallett misfired on two sure touchdown passes. One turned into a field goal and one drive ended with a missed field goal. So getting three points out of a potential 14 means a net 11 missed points on those two drives.

Then there was the missed field goal again at the end. That's 18 missed points. If Arkansas had capitalized on any of those missed opportunities, the refs would not even have been able to "fix" the outcome (if that indeed happened).

Having said that, I have to give props to Arkansas today. Realistically, I didn't enter the game today assuming we'd be discussing whether or not Arkansas was robbed. I was hoping it would be less than two touchdowns so as to not have a psychological backward step after getting back to back wins.

Arkansas was playing without their leading rusher and leading receiver. However, that was somewhat negated by the fact that Florida was missing pieces on their defense as well. But for Arkansas to play as well as they did in the Swamp without Smith and Adams was astonishing.

The defense was nothing short of great. Defensive breakdowns occur because either the players aren't in the right places or they are in the right places but don't execute. Arkansas had only one glaring example of being in the wrong place (the 77 yard TD pass in the third quarter), and only a couple of missed tackles.

Truthfully, Florida missed more tackles than Arkansas and I NEVER thought I'd be typing that.

Bottom line is that Arkansas won the turnover battle big time (4-0) and it wasn't carelessness on Florida's part but aggressiveness on the Razorback's part. And if you can turn a team over like that and can't beat them, then you really don't deserve to win. But the hogs WERE winning you say? Well, we've covered that already.

I think Arkansas can take great pride from this game, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively, Arkansas also put more points up on Florida than anyone else has and were in position to have scored many more. The special teams didn't allow their star kick returner to break loose one time. Tennessee can't stop their guy Brandon James but the Hogs had no trouble with him.

Going forward, I mentioned that this marks the halfway point in the schedule and that the tougher half of the schedule is now over with. After the way the Hogs played today, I'm convinced they CAN win all of their remaining games.

In fact, they should be favored in most of them. They'll be favored for sure in the Eastern Michigan, Troy, and Mississippi State games. And after the way they played at Florida and with everyone realizing that Ole Miss is a fraud, the Hogs should be favored there too.

The worst I see is 4-2 and more likely 5-1 out of the remaining games. But Arkansas has already had two get away from them this year so who really knows. One thing is for sure, it should be an interesting ride.

On a side note, Petrino is one of two coaches so far (and one of only four in the whole season provided Florida and Bama stay undefeated) that have had to face both the number one and two teams in the country.

Given that those two teams account for two of the three Hog losses (and the other loss was to a team that was number 13 at the time), it's no doubt why many people are saying that Arkansas is the best 3-3 team in the land. I agree with them. And Bobby Petrino is the reason why.

Arkansas Razorbacks-Florida Gators: Will The Hogs Be Spoilers or Gator Bait

Donald Fincher — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:38:14 -0400

Arkansas usually wins one game a year that they "shouldn't" win. The past two years it's been LSU. Arkansas won a couple against Texas in the early part of this decade. And Arkansas has beaten Bama a couple of times.

Florida usually loses a game they shouldn't. Last year it was Ole Miss. In the last few years, they've lost to South Carolina and even Mississippi State. That game was effectively the end for Ron Zook.

So what are the odds that these two dynamics merge on the same day when Arkansas plays at the swamp? While it gives some hope (and so does the Razorback's electric offense), one still would be doubtful. Last year, with less of a team, Arkansas was keeping it close until the late third quarter. Then, Florida rattled off a couple of scores to seal the win and make the scoreline appear more convincing than the win itself.

This game, like most of the others, will again be about the Hog defense. They've gotten a little better with each game. And Florida hasn't been an offensive juggernaut this season. They didn't handle Tennessee the way everyone expected them to and their only touchdown against LSU was clearly due to an officiating crew breakdown. Even the convincing first half at Kentucky was aided (for the second year in a row) by special teams breakdowns on the part of Kentucky more than offensive fireworks by Florida.

But Kentucky, Tennessee, and LSU are all struggling on offense. While the Gator defense did its job in those games, these teams haven't exactly been lighting it up against lesser defenses than the Gators. Arkansas, however, is 11th in the nation in total offense and has scored 41 or more points in all of their games except for Bama. The Gator defense will be tested in this game. Arkansas should definitely score more than the other three SEC teams Florida has faced (the highest so far was 13, by Tennessee).

So while I don't expect an Arkansas win, I also don't expect a blowout. For the Hogs to win, they'll need some turnovers or some drive-killing penalties on the Gators. Some decent field position would be useful too. The key is hanging around and getting some confidence while removing the crowd as an element. Arkansas will probably also have to settle for some field goals so making those with consistency will be vital.

I do expect Arkansas to be 3-3 after this game with the more difficult half of their schedule having been played. One can continue to be tormented by the fact that Arkansas was on the way to beating Georgia and then self-destructed. But I'm still happy the team has "broken even" over this first six games.

Had you asked me before the season, I would have picked Arkansas to beat A&M and Missouri State, lose to Bama and Florida, and split Georgia and Auburn. That's exactly what has happened so far. So a loss at Florida is nothing to be too upset about in the big scheme. And a win...well let's just say I'd trade a couple of those losses to Georgia for a win at the Swamp. I'm sure most Razorback fans agree with me.

Arkansas vs Auburn: Razorbacks Coming Together

Donald Fincher — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:01:43 -0400

Arkansas had a good win this past Saturday. Auburn was on a five game winning streak while Arkansas had one decent win against Texas A&M to even their record at 2-2. The home team had lost this game seven of the last eight years which did not bode well for Arkansas entering the game. Gus Malzahn would pull out all the stops to do what he couldn't do last year at Tulsa and beat the Hogs.

But that storyline didn't work out. Arkansas put this game away early. Once up 34-3, the Hogs put it on cruise control and let down a bit. However, when the other team has to score four touchdowns and two-point conversions just to take the lead and that's if Arkansas were to score no more points going forward, it's hard to keep up the intensity.

Last week, I said in this space that I thought Arkansas would find their rhythm early, limit Auburn's time of possession, and make Auburn play uncomfortable, mistake-prone football by having to play from behind. I further said that Auburn's defense had not been tested like Mallett would test them.

Finally, I said that the Auburn game would be a measuring stick as to whether Arkansas was as good as they looked against A&M or as bad as they looked against Bama. Some disagreed that the Auburn game could be so indicative. But, to me at least, it appears that it was.

Auburn clearly seems now to have been overrated. But they are dangerous and they do have a fairly prolific offense that was to be matched up against Arkansas' previously porous defense. Therefore, it was widely believed that unless Arkansas found a run game and stopped being such a one-dimensional passing team, Auburn would win the shootout.

So it was a significant win for Arkansas. What does it mean for the Razorbacks season? It certainly is a confidence booster. The Razorbacks haven't won back to back games since the first two cupcakes last year (and both of those were pulled out in the last minute).

It will give them some confidence and a feeling that their back isn't so against the wall going into Florida. Florida would have to help Arkansas win the game but they have done that at times in the past with teams that they should have beaten (such as Ole Miss last year) so it's not outside the realm of possibility, but it's certainly unlikely.

But Florida aside, with Ole Miss slumping and QB Snead getting a first hand experience of Nutt the quarterback killer and with LSU not looking as impressive as we thought they might, it is conceivable that Arkansas could win the rest of their games outside of Florida. The Auburn game was a key to getting the needed confidence.

Now we watch and wait and hope that Arkansas wins seven or eight (or nine) games instead of just six games so as to go to a real bowl rather than that excuse for a bowl that resides in Shreveport.

Arkansas vs Auburn: Keys to a Razorback Win

Donald Fincher — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:43:39 -0400

The Arkansas-Auburn game is a hard one to predict. Part of that is because both of their records are misleading.

In the Georgia game, Arkansas had just scored and Georgia had just turned the ball over on their side of the field when Hades broke loose. Arkansas was penalized 30 yards on a double personal foul penalty and lost their best linebacker to an ejection. This caused Petrino too complain too loudly and he got another 15 yards tacked on.

So what should have been the score that broke Georgia's back and resulted in a Razorback win ended up being the turning point that instead gave Georgia the lifeline they had to have and momentum. But truth be told, Arkansas should be a one loss team right now.

Auburn was trailing and playing very ineffectively at home to West Virginia. WVU was pulling away very steadily. Then, all of the sudden, they got turnover-itis and coughed up the ball five times. No, that's not a typo. Even with those turnovers, Auburn only won by 11 and in the fourth quarter. So, truth be told, Auburn should also be a one-loss team.

The betting public and casino houses apparently know this as they have set the line at two points in Auburn's favor. Home team only accounts for three points in a betting spread meaning that on a neutral field, Auburn would be favored by five points. When's the last time you saw a team that was 5-0 only favored by that little when their opponent was 2-2 and in the same conference?

Another reason it's hard to predict this game is because both teams mirror each other in their strengths and weaknesses. Both teams have prolific offenses. Arkansas' offense is high octane because of an abundance of skill players and Bobby Petrino is an offensive genius.

Auburn is a high powered offense because they run so many plays with their hurry up offense and they are hard to prepare for because they run a different offense than just about anyone else in the SEC (lots of motion, deception, and trick plays).

Both defenses have some serious holes—especially against the pass. And both defenses have issues in the depth department.

Special teams for both squads have been hardly better than mediocre.

One would normally conclude that the home team would have the intangibles advantage. However, the home team nearly always loses this one. Auburn has won three of the last four meetings in Fayetteville and Arkansas has won three of the last four at Auburn.

Arkansas has a better coach but Auburn has a lot of confidence and the momentum that comes from starting 5-0.

So what will determine this game?

I think that once Arkansas gets going offensively, they won't be stopped. Auburn hasn't seen the kind of passing game the Razorbacks have.

They've played Tennessee (who could not be more unhappy with their QB situation), West Virginia (who is breaking in a new QB this year and he had trouble telling uniform colors apart in their game because he kept throwing to Auburn's guys), Miss. State (who could never be confused for an offensive juggernaut), and a team from the WAC and the MAC.

If Mallett and the receivers get in rhythm, Arkansas will move the ball and limit the amount of times Auburn has the ball while keeping the crowd in the game. This will put stress on Auburn's offense to keep up and possibly make them play from behind. Their QB is decent but not great. He will be prone to bad decisions if he gets behind the proverbial eight ball.

Not only that but he is not the most mobile guy either. He's not going to beat you with his feet like a Tebow would. If Arkansas can get any pressure at all on him, he will have to hit passes on the run in Malzahn's offense which is more of a finesse offense than a power offense. Disruptions in timing and throwing on the run will be more problematic for a Malzahn offense than most teams.

I see another shootout like Georgia but this time I don't see Arkansas fading in the 4th quarter like they did in that game. Also, from the looks of the last two games, it also appears that monumental penalty breakdowns were taken care of after the Georgia game as well.

Since Arkansas has scored over 40 points against all of their opponents except their game against Bama (which was on the road, in the rain, and against perhaps the best defense in the game), I see Arkansas able to cross that threshold again. This is especially true against a porous non-tested defense and after really coming together offensively in the A&M game.

Auburn's scoring average is 41 points but that average is skewed high by playing Louisiana Tech, Ball State, and Mississippi State where they averaged 46 points per game in those three outings against only 33 per game in the two outings against decent quality defenses (West Virginia and Tennessee).

And the average in those latter two games would be much lower than it is (probably high 20's) if not for the explosion of WVU turnovers that led to some easy Auburn touchdowns.

I see Auburn getting a higher amount of points than the Tennessee game (26) but less than against their weak teams average (46) which would put them mid 30s.

Therefore, my prediction is Arkansas 41 Auburn 35

Arkansas-Texas A&M: Is Arkansas Coming Together or Was A&M Exposed?

Donald Fincher — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:41:51 -0400

Last year, Arkansas wasn't scoring 40+ points on anybody. This year, they've done it in three of their four games. And two of those were against Georgia and Texas A&M, both foes from BCS conferences. This certainly bodes well for the offense.

The Arkansas offense had an off day against Bama, but after playing in the rain at Tuscaloosa and against what may be the best defense in college football, some troubles were expected. However, I think we can see that Bobby Petrino can get the scoring done when he has weapons.

Defensively, it's been another story. Bama and Georgia scored plenty. However, against Texas A&M, Arkansas' defensive unit finally found a way to get some pressure on a quarterback while still stopping the run. The result was that several times A&M had opportunities to score and the defense held.

I'll grant you that A&M is no powerhouse. They will likely finish in the middle to bottom of the Big 12, but they were 3-0 coming into the game and none of those wins were against FCS schools.

After Mississippi State managed to put more points on LSU than Georgia did, I think we can conclude that Georgia isn't an offensive juggernaut. However, they put 52 on the Razorback defense. So Arkansas has gone from giving up 52 to mediocre offenses to holding mediocre offenses to under 20. That's improvement.

So the defense seems as if it maybe taken two steps forward. Will they take three steps backward or will they retain their momentum? We'll see.

Next week, with Auburn coming to town, they will not only be tested but will be tested with motion, trick plays, and a large number of plays as Malzahn likes to do a lot of hurry-up.

We are nearing the halfway point in the season and it's time to make some assessments.

If Arkansas can maintain this defensive momentum and beat Auburn who is a surprising 5-0, I'll then be ready to certify this year as a year of solid improvement and the Petrino era in full steam ahead mode.

However, if Arkansas loses to Auburn and thus begins with a conference record of 0-3, I'll have to conclude that Arkansas is not ready to compete week in and week out with the SEC and that Texas A&M was indeed even worse than we thought.

Notable Moments: The Southwest Conference, Arkansas, and Texas A&M

Donald Fincher — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:15:33 -0400

The Arkansas Razorbacks have played Texas A&M 65 times. Arkansas leads the all time series by 38-24 with 3 ties (back when there was no overtime). These games were played predominantly when Arkansas was a member of the Southwest Conference.

Just as a refresher for those who may not remember well (or a primer for those too young to know), the Southwest Conference existed before the SEC and the Big Eight (at that time) expanded. It consisted of Arkansas and eight Texas schools. Those schools were Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston, SMU, and Rice.

Arkansas had winning records against everyone in the conference except Texas. The conference had its heyday.

There were a number of famous players. Among the more noteworthy are a few big names. The Doak Walker award is named for Doak Walker who played for SMU. Andre Ware of Houston, Earl Campbell of Texas, Doak Walker of SMU, Davey O'Brien of TCU, and John David Crow of Texas A&M all won the Heisman Trophy.

There were also national championships. Those teams were: SMU 1935, TCU 1938, Texas A&M 1939, Arkansas 1964, and Texas in 1963, 1969, and 1970.

Besides some of the national title teams, there were other very noteworthy teams sprinkled in there. SMU had the famous Pony Express and was No. 1 for several weeks in the late '70s. Coincidentally, SMU is also the only school that the NCAA has ever put on death penalty—a penalty that was so harsh that the school never did recover and is now a "mid major" and not even a very good one.

The NCAA has never considered using it since. But despite this, SMU was once powerful. Houston developed an early forerunner to the today's modern spread offense. It was known as the "run and shoot" offense and there was a period of time in the 1980's when Houston was very feared and would frequently score 70 or more points per game. They won one game 95-5.

Some legendary coaches also prowled the sidelines during the heyday. Frank Broyles is still the name most people think of when they think of Arkansas football. He has been with the University in some capacity for 52 years (from 1957 until today). He still is the fundraiser-in-chief.

Darrell Royal, namesake of the Texas Stadium and the coach who delivered three national titles to Texas, is synonymous with Texas football. Grant Teaff, former Baylor coach for years, still serves on most of the more powerful NCAA and BCS committees. Lou Holtz coached Arkansas for about eight seasons. Bear Bryant, Gene Stalllings, and Jackie Sherrill all served coaching stints at Texas A&M.

Finally, the biggest college football game ever played up to that point (and some say it remains the biggest but it is certainly in the top 10) is the 1969 Great Shootout game played between Texas and Arkansas at Fayetteville. President Nixon was helicoptered in, future president George Bush was there. Many other famous people of the day attended.

It was the 100th year (centennial) of the existence of college football. Texas was the No. 1 team in the country and Arkansas was No. 2. It came down to a one point game as Texas won in a 15-14 thriller. Texas would go on to win the national title that year.

But all good things come to an end. The Southwest Conference didn't lose its way because of lack of competition or quality of teams. It lost its way due to four factors with the first three of them leading to the fourth and deciding factor.

The first problem was that in the 1960s, pro football came to Texas. Dallas and Houston now had pro teams. And, especially Dallas in the 70's, they were success stories. Four of the eight Texas teams in the conference were located in Dallas or Houston (TCU and SMU in Dallas/Fort Worth area and Houston and Rice in Houston).

The fans shifted allegiances to their pro teams and that got worse as these teams started being cellar dwellers in the conference. The big schools (Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Texas Tech) had no problem filling their stadiums but these schools in the pro markets weren't.

That led to television problems. TV was starting to really take a dominant role with the creation in the '80s of ESPN. More and more games were being shown. But the only games that got put on tv from the SWC were the big four that I mentioned because fans didn't really support the others much any more.

Besides that, the real killer was the at the geographic territory occupied by the SWC only accounted for 7 percent of tv sets at the time where other conferences were accounting for a lot more. The SEC had 18 percent of tv sets at the time. One doesn't have to know high finance to know that spells trouble in a tv world.

SMU and Texas A&M also got put on NCAA probation and SMU's was bad. This tarnished the reputation of the conference significantly. People used to care a lot more about cheating.

The phrase passed around in the SEC that "if you ain't cheating, you ain't winning" may have worked there but getting caught at it at most schools outside of the SEC at that time was bad news.

Finally, sensing that the conference was ripe for plucking some teams away, the SEC decided they were going to expand to 12 teams. This was due, among other obvious money, power, and reach considerations, to a little known (at the time) NCAA rule that allowed teams with 12 or more teams to host a conference championship game.

The SEC considered Arkansas, Texas, and Texas A&M from the SWC. They also considered South Carolina, Clemson, and Georgia Tech from the ACC. We now know that in 1992, they decided on Arkansas and South Carolina.

When Arkansas accepted, it was really the death knell for the SWC. It became an all Texas league with only about 5.5 percent of tv sets after the departure of Arkansas and still stuck with the same aforementioned problems. The Big Eight sensed the opportunity and grabbed the three other coveted schools (Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech).

Because they saw the opportunities involved in a conference championship game too (and didn't want to fall behind the SEC), they sought a fourth team from the remains of the SWC to complete a dozen. Due to some politics, the influence of Grant Taeff, and the fact that Baylor had recently been the best of what was left, Baylor was chosen.

The other schools were left to scurry for other conferences which wasn't too hard for them because Texas produces the most recruits every year in the nation. Therefore, like Florida, most conferences want t presence in that state if they can logically get one. TCU is now in the Mountain West and is annually a BCS buster candidate, Houston, SMU, and Rice are in Conference USA.

There have been some notable games over the years between Arkansas and Texas A&M. Here are just a few...

1906 - Texas A&M 6 Arkansas 0

This was the first meeting between the schools and only the 43rd game ever played by Arkansas and only the 42nd ever played by Texas A&M.

1937 - Texas A&M 27 Arkansas 0

Texas A&M put a whipping on Arkansas that day en route to an undefeated 11-0 national championship season.

1964 - Arkansas 17 Texas A&M 0

Arkansas would have their way this day and go on to finish undefeated and beat Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl winning the national championship. The famous Ken Hatfield punt return happened during this season. Current Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones (who helped orchestrate the renewal of this series) played for this Razorback team.

1980 - Arkansas 27 Texas A&M 24

This was the 800th game in Texas A&M history.

1991 - Texas A&M 13 Arkansas 3

This was Arkansas' last conference game as a member of the Southwest Conference. Arkansas was weak that year and the rest of the conference schools were really ticked that Arkansas left them in the lurch. This was one of the lesser beat-downs as the Texas schools near unanimously took revenge on Arkansas that year.

This series is set to renew and be an annual contest in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. It has been signed for 10 years with renewal terms already in place for afterward. It is supposed to be a inter-conference rivalry between the SEC and Big 12 that is being touted as a near equal to the Red River Rivalry played annually between Texas and Oklahoma in Dallas.

Texas A&M has some of the more famous and unique traditions anywhere. Some famous Texas A&M traditions are: the 12th man (the crowd), purebred collie mascot Reveille, Yell practice, Yell leaders (there are five of them, three seniors, two juniors, and must be elected), the Aggie Bonfire, Gig 'Em, and Kyle Field.

I hope you enjoyed reading this walk down memory lane as much as I enjoyed writing it. This took quite a bit of research. Any comments are certainly appreciated.

Arkansas vs. Alabama: What Did We Learn?

Donald Fincher — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:13:41 -0400

It could have been worse and it could have been closer.

After watching the debacle that was the Arkansas Razorbacks performance against Alabama, one is left with a lot of question marks.

Is Arkansas even further away from being at Alabama's level than the score indicated? Or did the score look worse than it really was? Personally, as odd as this may sound, I think you have to say yes to both questions.

Bama is the real deal. That's for sure. Saban took the air out of the ball in the fourth quarter but this could have been worse. I think there are several reasons why he did this.

First, there was the pure sportsmanship angle for a conference brethren. One doesn't want their conference brethren to be the victim of blowouts because it then hurts the league and, by implication, your own team.

Secondly, Petrino will have this team clicking at some point. I don't know that Saban necessarily wants to make enemies out of the other coaches, particularly those that are capable later of putting up large numbers of points on a day in the future when his defense might not be clicking.

That being said, this game could have been two touchdowns worse.

But it also could have been two touchdowns better.

The rain and wet conditions are generally less favorable to a passing team than a running team and, as weird as it is to say after seeing Arkansas be a run-oriented team for decades, Arkansas is now a passing team. And the rain made that more difficult.

The Bama crowd and environment were obviously hostile. On a sunny day in Fayetteville or even at a neutral site, I'm fairly convinced that the offense would have played better against this same Bama talent.

The defense eventually wore out in the later stages but the first three touchdowns by Alabama were big play breakdowns that stuck out like sore thumbs against the backdrop of the otherwise great game the defense was playing up through that point.

There was the four missed tackles behind the line of scrimmage play which went for a 53 yard score, the razzle dazzle play to Julio Jones for a score (that I'm betting would have worked on any defense), and the long pass that the Razorback defender didn't turn around in time to see that the ball was coming in behind him.

Outside of those three plays, the defense was holding their own in the first three quarters.

While I'm still fairly convinced that Arkansas needs a new defensive coordinator, I'm also fairly convinced that this defense is a few adjustments away from having better days. Alabama began drives 14 times in the game.

However, because the last drive was a kneel the ball drive and the drive before that Saban was letting the air out, I'll only count 12 drives as real scoring threats. Bama scored on five of those drives. That's an improvement over the Georgia game. And I believe that most fans could see some of the adjustments that were made between the two games.

Even playing away instead of home and playing a better team, Arkansas' defense showed better. Granted there were a couple of scoring drives in the Georgia game where Arkansas held to field goals where Bama scored only touchdowns but the improvement was still there defensively.

With these two games behind, Arkansas is now 1-2 overall and 0-2 in conference. They badly need a win. Will Texas A&M be that win. A&M is undefeated at 3-0 but has played three soft teams. Will they be prepared for a team that's of a higher caliber than Utah State and UAB (Alabama Birmingham)? Will Arkansas be able to channel the lessons learned from playing back to back tough games the way Georgia did with Arkansas?

Those are questions that will be answered on Saturday. I do believe that Petrino must be feeling like his back is up against the wall. And, from his reputation, if he's anything like those that have been around him say he is, he'll find a way to win this game. Hopefully, the defense will get the memo.

Arkansas vs. Alabama: A Test of Bobby Petrino's Ability To Adjust

Donald Fincher — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:41:16 -0400

Last week, in this space, I wrote we'd know a lot after the Georgia game. And we certainly did learn a thing or two. However, there are many in Razorback nation that are going off the deep end and perhaps reading too much into things. Here's a sampling of some of the sentiment that is going around.

Arkansas has no defense.

Arkansas has no run game.

Arkansas can't kick the ball deep.

Arkansas has no depth (this theory being brought about by the drop off in linebacker strength after Franklin was ejected).

Arkansas didn't make adjustments once Georgia found their rhythm.

There are reasons for any and all of these assumptions based on what we saw last Saturday. However, I don't think we'll see a static team that doesn't improve. And I think the facts bear this out.

Let's start with the run game.

Petrino is known to like to have a big back. Broderick Green was supposed to fill that role. However, he had less than stellar success last week.

But Petrino is already adjusting and scheming. He plans to get Wingo more involved this week. That gives Arkansas a threat of a pass to a back coming out of the backfield and also the toss sweep.

This will keep the defenders guarding the long pass more honest. Also, it will free up room in the middle as the run defense will have to cover the field more sideline to sideline.

This one step will help with two of the other items on the list.

While Arkansas didn't make the adjustment to Georgia's defense "in game," at least they are making it now.

Georgia had better success containing Arkansas after the first quarter (when Arkansas scored 21 in a hurry), after making their adjustments. Other teams will see this and do likewise. So Arkansas must have a plan to move the chains on the ground when the pass is being defended.

Petrino is one of the best at taking what the defense gives when he has the weapons to exploit it. It appears defenses will be giving Arkansas the run. Petrino is getting ready for it.

Secondly, fixing the running game will help the defense. Georgia got the ball 16 times on Saturday. Yes, I said 16 times! That's astonishing.

They scored on nine of those possessions (six touchdowns and three field goals). That means they were stymied (due to Arkansas defense or turnover or penalties) on seven drives. That's pretty close to half and half.

Based on that ratio, had Arkansas been able to run the ball more, not only would Arkansas likely have scored once more, but, if they could have limited Georgia by two drives, statistically, they would have reduced Georgia's scoring by one score.

So, even if the defense were no better than it was, the ability to run the ball more and hold on to it longer offensively would have won this game.

Furthermore, on the defensive side, the loss of the starting middle linebacker obviously hurt, and the Hogs haven't worked their star freshman cornerback into the mix yet. I'm guessing that Franklin won't miss another game unless he's injured, and Winston will be playing shortly.

There is reason for optimism because the Razorback defense was last in the league last year and they weren't giving up this many points. Therefore, there is a rationale for any assumptions that at least some tightening up is coming.

Finally, the kicking game covered well, and I attribute those gains to the new special teams coach, John L. Smith.

However, you can't coach kick distance. I'm afraid Arkansas is stuck with the short kickoffs for this year. An upside is that at least they're covering them well, and the short ones are less likely to be fielded by speedsters who can go the distance.

All in all, I think we'll see great improvement from last week to this week. They say a team improves the most from week one to week two. However, when you play Missouri State in week one and you're off week two, that improvement trajectory is interrupted.

I'm assuming we'll see that improvement this week.

Will it be enough to beat Bama? Not unless Bama helps out.

But Bama may be the best team in the country right now. Saban may be about to win his next national title.

But I think we'll be surprised in that it won't be a blowout. And I think it will give Arkansas what they need to even up their record at 2-2 once the Texas A&M game is in the rear view mirror.

After that, with Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, and Auburn still to go, we'll see what this year's Hogs are made of.

Lessons from the Georgia Game: Arkansas Defense Still a Year Away

Donald Fincher — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:19:05 -0400

Well, the Georgia game was very frustrating and very telling. The offense surprised me at times with how good they were. Then they turned around and surprised me by how they could be so good one minute and then not so much.

But it's obvious that there are play makers and that Mallett can throw it just about anywhere on the field. His height certainly helps, too.

But the defense is, in a word, terrible. And this was my fear when Bobby Petrino was hired. I really never was interested in watching Louisville play when Petrino was there but one need only look at the scoreline to see the prevailing trend.

Petrino's teams are not big on defense. It seems like their defensive philosophy is to put up enough points offensively to where it won't matter if the other team scores 45 because Petrino's team will score 50.

Well, that won't work in the SEC. Defense wins championships, and the reason the SEC keeps winning national titles is because they have great defenses. I knew it when he was hired that this style would be a problem, and we saw tonight why that was.

Obviously, they cannot go recruit better players in the middle of the season. However, they can make a few scheme changes that might help and there may very well need to be a coordinator change in the offseason.

Georgia has never really been known as a big play offense. But they put up as much on Arkansas as they did in their first two games combined. And this was at Arkansas...when Arkansas openly admitted to preparing for this game all summer and got a bye week to boot.

What's really frustrating is that, with the exception of one punt that was actually a "three and out," the other punts only happened because of setbacks in the Georgia drives due to penalties. Without those penalties, those might have been scores, too. And what about the turnovers. Give Georgia those drives back and they might have put up 70.

Perhaps even more frustrating was that they weren't really changing it up that much. They kept burning Arkansas with the exact same 4-5 plays.

Arkansas is going to score a lot of points this year. However, they're going to give up as many and maybe more. For Arkansas to have a 7-5 or 8-4 year (which may sound mediocre but, given the schedule, is actually quite optimistic), Georgia needed to be a win. This team is now going to have a hard time getting to a bowl game.

Texas A&M just became a monumental game. It may be the only one of the next five (Alabama, Texas A&M, Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss) that they can win. If they don't win that one, they'll be 1-6 after the stretch.

The good news is that all the road games become home games next year when Arkansas' offense will be just as hard to stop and the defense will have to be better (can't get much worse). So, at least by the time we get to 1-6 and start the familiar refrain of "wait until next year" there will be reason for that optimism.

Arkansas Vs. Georgia: We'll Know a Lot After This One

Donald Fincher — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:42:42 -0400

Arkansas gets their first real measuring stick of progress playing Georgia this Saturday. In reading some of the comments on the Atlanta Journal Constitution web page, a few things seem to be emboldening the ever-hopeful and oft-disappointed Bulldog fans.

They say that Petrino hasn't beaten a high quality SEC team yet (I suppose LSU was considered mediocre last year?) and that the Hogs are still too young and too green while Georgia has had years of top-flight recruiting. Furthermore, Mark Richt has also stated that Caleb King (their best running back) is returning for this game along with a star defensive back who has been out. Finally, they say that Arkansas only has one game under their belt and that against a cupcake where the Dawgs are battle tested at this point.

Those are valid points. However, also valid is that Georgia lost to a team (Oklahoma State) that just lost at home to a Conference USA team (Houston) . Furthermore, Georgia would be staring at 0-2 start coming into this game if they weren't gifted 19 points in the South Carolina game (10 off of turnovers, seven on a blown kickoff coverage, and two points on a safety). Without those 19 points, South Carolina beats Georgia by two touchdowns (given that the margin of victory for Georgia even with the free 19 points was only four). And that was a home game for the Dawgs where they had to have the game surrendered to win it.

Georgia has a tough schedule with a Pac 10 team (Arizona State), a Big 12 team (Oklahoma State), and an ACC team (Georgia Tech) out of conference, Florida, LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, and Tennessee in conference. No other school is playing three of their four non-conference games against BCS conference schools. And while Auburn and Tennessee are both on first year coaches, Auburn has looked pretty good. Bottom line is that, with one loss already in the books, you can make a case that Georgia is well on their way to a 7-5 type of year with many ups and downs. Which Georgia shows up at Fayetteville? We'll know Saturday.

Petrino has made no secret of the fact that the Hogs have been preparing for Georgia all summer. I don't know how much that helps the offense as Arkansas is loaded and Petrino's style will be to take what the defense is giving. But it should help a challenged defense a great deal. Arkansas has also had two games to scout Georgia and a bye week for extra preparation and to get some of the summer two-a-day injuries behind them. Yes, the bye week will cause some potential rust and lack of game experience. However, I think that goes away toward the end of the 1st quarter but I think the advantages this gives Arkansas lasts the whole game.

Arkansas has been a trendy pick among many to be the sleeper team of the SEC this year. This game is one of the more important ones on the schedule. The Hogs are a significantly better home than road team. There are 3-4 sure losses on the schedule. If Arkansas is going to reach their potential of being that sleeper, Georgia and South Carolina are must win games. Petrino has done a good job getting down to business when facing must win teams in the past.

This is truly a toss-up. While it may sound like a cop-out, I'm going to go with the team that wins the turnover battle, whoever that may be. That's because I don't think there is enough difference in whichever team is better to survive losing that part of the equation and still win. In other words, Florida is enough better than Arkansas that even if Florida lost the turnover battle, they likely still win. I don't think one of these teams, when playing each other, can lose the turnover battle and still win the game (unless it's a full moon). Therefore, winner of the turnover battle is the winner. Tie in the turnover battle, I'll take the home team...Arkansas.

Del Potro Seizes Opportunity Presented to Him

Donald Fincher — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:10:30 -0400

Roger Federer had 59 errors, 11 double faults, and had less than a 50 percent first serve rate the match. In essence, he gave this match away. However, having said that, Juan Martin Del Potro still deserves credit. It's not enough to have a match gift-wrapped for you, if you don't open the present.

Many players playing in their first major slam often don't take advantage of opportunities. They tighten up, make uncharacteristic mistakes, do boneheaded things. And Del Potro did do some of that as he double faulted not once but twice in a row to lose the third set on his own serve. After that, he could have thrown in the towel.

He didn't. And that's why he deserved this match. He could have just assumed that Federer would coast to victory after being up a set as Federer so characteristically does. He's the best frontrunner in the game.

If Del Potro assumed at that point that Federer would have to blow it for him to win, he would have been right. And who in their right mind is going to hold their breath for that? So it must have taken a Herculean effort mentally to stay in set four.

But Federer continued to miss serve after serve and make error after error allowing Del Potro the chance to go to a tiebreaker.

Once it got to set five, you kind of felt like Del Potro would win but your head kept saying that Federerer going to pull it together because we've seen this movie before.

Again, if Del Potro, who has also seen the same movie before, relinquished the momentum to Federer on the sheer belief that Federer was going to grab it back anyway, it would have been completely understandable for someone in their first major.

In the end, while Federer should get credit for an assist here, Del Potro had to do his part. And he did! Congratulations to Juan Martin Del Potro.

I'm still not sure that he would have won this match more than twice out of 10 times if they were to play that many in a row. After all, Federer was 8-0 against him going into this match so he had Del Potro's number.

And Del Potro got the benefit of not having a tough match yesterday and an uncharacteristic three days of rest before the Nadal match due to the rain delay.

Those stars may not line up again. Without that, his fitness would have probably played a role today not even allowing him to capitalize on all the gifts. So his ability to win another slam, to me, is in doubt.

If Federer stays healthy and Murray finds some offense to go along with his defense, it may be difficult for Del Potro to win another slam. He is gangly and there is a reason that nobody over 6 feet 5 inches has ever won a slam before today's alignment of the stars.

But, while Del Potro may end up being another one-slam wonder, that won't be known until later in his career. For today though, he has to be happy about his result.

Will There Be Solidarity Amongst the Fans of Big Ten Conference Teams Saturday?

Donald Fincher — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:26:37 -0400

Big Ten team fans have this expression. I'm for (insert team name here) and whoever's playing (insert hated rival's name here).

Therefore, it's been a point of constant wonder among fans of teams in the Big Ten why the SEC is so much like a brethren. I can still remember after LSU beat Ohio State in the national title game a few years back, the LSU players were standing around the ESPN desk after the game with the trophy chanting S-E-C.

Other fans just don't get this phenomenon. I wrote an article on that last year and may revisit it this year. But why the SEC fans and players act that way is not the scope of this article.

Instead, the scope of this article is whether or not fans from teams in the Big Ten will be doing likewise and pulling for Big Ten teams to salvage a little conference pride this coming Saturday.

Reams of paper and hundreds of cyber-articles have been written on the fact that the Big Ten is down and has been for years. The knocks include the fact that teams are slow and not innovative, that it's boring football to watch, and that they don't fare well when matched up against other conferences. Their bowl game records of the last decade are atrocious.

When I say don't fare well when matched up against "other conferences" I'm not talking about the creampuffs that populate the September schedules of most schools across the country including the Big Ten. I'm talking about bowl games where conferences finally have to play each other rather than cupcakes or their own intra-conference foes.

This is the time to shine. And the Big Ten has had trouble shining recently. Last year, the Big Ten was 1-6 in bowl appearances. The Big Ten representative hasn't won the annual Big Ten-Pac 10 Rose Bowl clash since 2000. In fact, the last few years have been fairly lopsided.

I've heard a number of rationales as to why this is—no bowls in Big Ten territory, Big Ten teams acclimated to cold weather and then has to go play in more moderate weather (I say moderate because no place can really be considered "hot" in January), etc.

However, Bear Bryant said it best when he said to one of his players "Son, people don't have to make excuses when they succeed."

There are a couple of examples of non-conference matchups every year that are intriguing though. And this weekend is when most of them take place. Ohio State plays USC, Michigan plays Notre Dame, Penn State plays Syracuse, and Purdue plays Oregon.

On paper, these are winnable games, except maybe one. The Notre Dame win over hapless WAC conference Nevada last week does not mean that Weis now has Notre Dame on any pinnacles.

Oregon will be playing their first game since the debacle that was "the punch" and the aftermath. That can cause a team to bond or to fall apart. We'll see.

Penn State should easily handle Purdue. If Minnesota did, Penn State should. This is a Syracuse team playing with a QB that hadn't played a snap in four years before last weekend and won one game last year.

Those three are all winnable games. The Ohio State-USC game may be another story. Even though Ohio State has the home crowd, we didn't see said home crowd help them much with Navy.

And while USC is playing a freshman at QB, they have others they can go to that aren't freshman if he falters. Besides, with the competition at QB at USC, if this guy wasn't a phenom, do you really think he'd be starting as a freshman???

So, realistically, the Big Ten should split or even go 3-1. However, THE GAME is the Ohio State-USC game...the one most likely to end in a loss. That's because the knock on the Big Ten is that they can't beat the elite. No offense to any fan of Oregon, Notre Dame, or Syracuse, but none of those teams are elite.

Notre Dame is storied and is a financial powerhouse but glory teams of yesteryear (or yester-decade) and the bulging athletic department coffers don't make a team elite on the field. Domers don't like it but it's the truth.

Eventually, players and fan bases have to get tired of hearing that they aren't as good as the teams from other conferences. Eventually, if the teams in the conference don't do something on the field to put an end to these rumors, they start to affect recruiting.

From the looks of the recruiting services class rankings, it appears that may already be happening.

By far the schools that recruit the best recruiting classes are scattered through the SEC, Big 12, and Pac 10 (particularly the California schools). Part of this is because Florida, Texas, and California put more kids in college programs.

But many kids from the midwest are skipping the home-grown schools and opting for these schools as well. And when the best players don't come, it's then hard to compete with the teams that get them.

So it's time the Big Ten started reasserting itself as a proud conference. Here's my question that will hopefully get answered by and commented from actual fans of Big Ten schools. Can you find it within yourselves and, if so, will you be pulling for the other Big Ten schools this weekend?

Notes from Saturday's Opening Arkansas Razorback Game

Donald Fincher — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:48:37 -0400

Here are some random thoughts to fill the space between now and the next Hog game.

I never thought I would write this in my lifetime but the Arkansas Razorbacks have the nation's leading passing offense so far this season. Yes, we're only one week in. But, it's never been true before, even at this juncture.

Arkansas did not allow a sack in the opener. While it was just Missouri State, I thought I'd be saying this after Western Illinois last year but I couldn't. So, that's progress.

What's with Arkansas receivers and broken collarbones. Not one but two receivers are out with this injury. Fortunately, they'll both be back this season and, because Lucas Miller's happen a few weeks ago, he's already practicing, albeit without taking hits.

Speaking of injuries, Coach Petrino is openly expressing concern at the receiver position. There are three guys out with injuries. One will be returning soon (Lucas Miller), one will see action again late in the season (London Crawford), and one is out for the year (Chris Gragg). All three were in the upper half of the depth chart. I'm pretty sure Arkansas can beat "open date" next week without needing any of them.

Miller could be back for the Georgia game. Looks like Petrino and crew will need to go to the tight end some and hit some receivers coming out of the backfield. Perhaps they'll even try a gadget play where the QB becomes a receiver. If I know Petrino, he's going to find a way to sling the ball around the field even if everybody gets hurt.

Finally, it's nice to see Petrino stays on top of such things as yards after catch (receivers) and yards after contact (running backs). There's apparently a contest between them each week. The receivers won this week with 150 yards after catch while the running backs had 100 yards after contact. Those are good stats from both groups but we must remember it was Missouri State. I don't expect to see those stats versus Bama.

One last thing, I'm tiring of using the same few pictures for my posts and you may be tired of seeing them. It seems like all the pics in the library Bleacher Reports has for Arkansas are of Darren McFadden, Mitch Mustain, Matt Jones, Felix Jones, Peyton Hillis, Marcus Monk, Houston Nutt, and the Texas game.

None of that is relevant for this year. I'm hopeful that with these next two games (Georgia and Bama), we'll see some current photos loaded. Thanks for your patience.

Why the Big Ten's Opening-Week Record Is Deceiving

Donald Fincher — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:54:21 -0400

The Big Ten really needs to make a statement this year.

Everyone is questioning the honor of this once-proud conference. Last year's bowl record of 1-6 certainly poured gasoline on an already burning fire. And while the overall record for opening weekend was very good on paper (10-1), one finds lots of concerns when one looks just below the surface.

Most of the conference dined on the usual diet of cupcakes that populate the schedules of teams nationwide during opening weekend. However, against Missouri, Illinois WAS the cupcake. They lost to Missouri by 4 touchdowns.

This is the Missouri team that lost it's starting quarterback (Chase Daniels), it's best playmaker (Maclin), and their offensive coordinator. This team is picked to finish no higher than third in the Big 12's less competitive North division. Yet, they made Illinois look silly today.

If there is a way to lose a game while still posting a win, Iowa surely qualifies. After trailing Northern Illinois for most of the game, they have to block not one but two field goals to preserve the win...at home.

Are we sure this is the No. 22 team in the land? I'm having my doubts.

Ohio State survived Navy. No, that's no misprint. The team that Notre Dame beat 43 times in a row just about tied the game if not for some boneheaded play calling on the two point conversion. Ohio State would have most likely won had it gone to overtime or could have prevented overtime if they marched down and kick a field goal to end it in regulation. That's not the point. The point is that to have any chance to beat USC next week (something the conference badly needs from a PR standpoint), they needed to be able to beat Navy convincingly.

Minnesota needed overtime to hold off Syracuse. Never mind that Syracuse has a new coaching staff, is playing a quarterback that hasn't played football in four years, and lost 11 games last year. This win certainly didn't inspire much confidence in the prowess of a Big Ten team away from home.

Congrats to the Michigan team that could have been very distracted by recent bad headlines but took care of business early on. There was a letdown in the second half after the flurry of first-half scoring. But if you get up big on a team, you can afford a small letdown...but only if you get up big.

The rest of the conference held serve in a way that was more expected...in other words, not nail-biters.

When the year is over, when people look back at the records of Iowa, Ohio State, and Minnesota, people will forget how close these games were. They will just see a win on these teams' resumes.

But the fans of the teams of the Big Ten (as well as the brass in the conference office) are tired of hearing how the Big Ten has taken a back seat to other conferences. And this type of collective performance is a warning sign of what the bowl season might hold. When the out-of-conference teams they are up against are of a higher caliber, some of these close wins will instead be losses.

That would be bad news from a conference PR standpoint...especially in light of the current school of thought vis-a-vis the conference's place in the hierarchy of the college football landscape.

Is ACC Football Going Backward?

Donald Fincher — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:55:53 -0400

The ACC has picked up right where they left off in the bowls last season...as losers. Seven (that's right, seven) of the 12 member schools will have lost their opening weekend games by the time Miami and FSU play on Monday.

Keep in mind, opening weekend is when schools normally play their cupcakes. And while not every team played a cupcake, the collective firepower of the ACC opponents this week will be much less than your average week. And the ACC still couldn't get it done.

Maryland lost by 39 points to Cal. Granted this was an away game clear across the country but that was no excuse for Maryland to look like a cupcake themselves. By simply looking at the scoreline, you would have thought this was Central Maryland or Maryland State or the University of Baltimore versus the flagship University of Maryland.

Virginia lost to William and Mary. William and Mary! With the way they played, they might have lost to Peter, Paul, and Mary. This is enough to get Groh fired now rather than at the end of the year. I mean, what is really left to salvage for the season if you're losing to William and Mary? This team is destined for a 3-9 or 4-8 year.

We all know that means Groh is gone. So they should make it official early and get the inside track on the successful mid-major head coaches or top flight coordinators that are looking to upgrade from their current positions or become the head man.

Duke is supposed to be getting better under David Cutcliffe. The guy's been both a head coach (Ole Miss) and a coordinator (Tennessee) in the powerful SEC. He's supposed to know a thing or two about football. Today, Duke loses to Richmond. The Spiders! For those that may not be aware, like William and Mary, that's an FBS school.

Wake Forest, the team with that "awesome" head coach that gets Wake Forest to "overachieve," lost to perennial Big 12 cellar dweller Baylor. I've long contended that Wake Forest wasn't overachieving (which is why I put quotes around it) but simply playing weak competition. There certainly seems to be merit to that theory lately.

North Carolina State opened again with South Carolina. The positive was that they didn't allow South Carolina to score 34 again. However, in an ugly, boring game, NC State managed to score...drumroll please...one field goal. For those keeping score at home, that's less than 1 point per quarter of offensive firepower. They had 8 months to prepare for this game offensively and they gave us a field goal.

Finally, Virginia Tech held the conference's sole opportunity to make a statement in the now annual Chick-Fil-A sponsored opening game at a neutral site (Atlanta) featuring an ACC "power" versus and SEC power. Alabama dismantled Clemson last year and exposed them as pretenders.

This year, due to some gifts Alabama gave (kickoff coverage breakdown, fumble on their own 15 yard line leading to a field goal, etc.) Bama spotted Virginia Tech some points. As the game went on though, Bama pulled away and showed that it could have been much worse than the score indicated.

I was really hopeful when the ACC expanded. After all, if they were going to cause that much of a landscape shift in the college football world, they should make it count. Go big or go home, right?

And the trappings were there, theoretically. But, just as every year is supposed to be the breakout year that the conference finally turns the corner, the dream of that dies before the leaves turn colors and fall of the trees.

It's getting to be a tired refrain at this point. The ACC needs to step it up pronto outside of conference. There are other schools that think they deserve the BCS bowl slot that is reserved for the ACC winner (Boise State and BYU both beat ranked teams this weekend).

It's getting harder to explain to their fans that there can't be more than one non-BCS team when the BCS automatic-qualifying conference known as the ACC is putting up the collective performance of this year's opening weekend or last year's bowl games.

Razorback Fans Should Keep Perspective After Big Opening Win

Donald Fincher — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:44:58 -0400

Last year, like most Razorback fans, I was mystified as to how Arkansas needed a late fourth down conversion to keep a drive alive and best Western Illinois in the final minutes. So today's 38 point win margin was certainly a better result than that.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's try to discuss apples to apples versus other teams winning margins in their openers. Missouri State is an FCS school. Yet Arkansas "only" beat them by 38. The reason I say "only" is because several BCS conference schools (some that didn't even do that well last year) beat their FBS foes by similar or wider margins. Here are some examples...

Texas A&M beat New Mexico by 35
Cal beat Maryland by 39
Kentucky beat Miami (OH) by 42
Tennessee beat Western Kentucky by 56
Notre Dame beat Nevada by 35
Missouri beat Illinois by 32

So the win wasn't as impressive as it should have or could have been. I had to go to a Buffalo Wild Wings to get the game given that I don't pay for the ESPN Game Plan package. Therefore, I only got to see about 2/3 or the game. But here are some observations that I believe will need to improve once we start seeing real competition.

There was too much yardage given up on kickoffs and two kickoffs were penalized for kicking out of bounds.

Arkansas had some trouble running in short yardage situations. I thought Petrino had his "big back" now. Against a line that is obviously inferior to all the others we'll see this year, that's disappointing.

Arkansas should be scoring touchdowns and not field goals in the red zone...especially against a team of this caliber.

Against an SEC defense, Mallett will be picked off some because he doesn't look off his receiver once he has locked on.

There were a few other minor things. But overall, Arkansas is definitely better than last year and their ceiling is so much higher in most positions all over the field. With an off week before the next game, there will be actual game experience to work on rather than just practice field experience. That will help.

Things are looking up but let's just not get too excited over just one game and over an opponent that didn't provide much resistance.

A Sad Day For Andy Roddick

Donald Fincher — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:49:12 -0400

What a horrible way to lose. Andy Roddick won more points in today's match against John Isner, was the net winner of service breaks, fought back from two sets down to force a fifth set and even a tiebreaker...and still lost.

But it wasn't just any loss. This one won't be shaken off like the one in Washington a month ago or Cincinnati two weeks ago. That's because this was the U.S. Open, the only major he's ever won and thus the slam he enters with the most confidence.

Andy was becoming a near afterthought as the season was winding down last year. But in what little off-season that tennis players have, Roddick really worked. He lost 15 pounds, made every part of his game open to instruction, and developed himself into a more rounded player.

And it paid off. He made the quarterfinals in Australia, the second week in Paris (his first time to do so), and beat Andy Murray on the way to the finals at Wimbledon. He had set himself up with some momentum heading into the U.S. hard court season culminating in the U.S. Open.

I was pulling for Andy to win the U.S. Open so I've been paying attention to his matches. And I have to say that there has been a drop-off since Wimbledon. Something mentally or emotionally may have just cracked on the grass courts in London.

I tried to write off a loss to Sam Querry, two losses to Del Potro, and the fact that Andy was having real issues winning tiebreakers to the hip injury he suffered at Wimbledon. But, he's moving too well for that to be that much of a factor. Besides, injuries don't just show up in tiebreakers.

I think the tiebreaker in the second set at Wimbledon, where he choked after being up 5-2, has haunted him. Roddick won another set that day (the fourth set) meaning that the fourth set would have been the deciding set, had he not choked in the second. Roddick was clearly beating Federer that day.

Roddick has only beaten Federer twice so I'm not saying he was actually better than Federer that day, just that he was performing better. Part of that could have been because of Borg, Sampras, and Laver in the audience and what was riding on the outcome. No doubt the gravity of the situation was weighing on Roger that day. But whatever the reason was, Roddick had the chance to go up 2-0 and blew it.

After he lost, I believe that he realized at that point that he will probably never win Wimbledon. And he already knows he's never going to win Paris. That meant there would be more pressure on his performance in the U.S. Open...especially since Nadal was entering with a question mark hanging over him. This may have been Andy's Waterloo.

As we've seen, things can change fast in tennis. For a year, Nadal was winning everything. He won the French, won Wimbledon, rose to number one in the world, won Olympic Gold, and won the Australian Open in an eight month span. And Federer was being discussed as if his glory was behind him.

Now Federer has won the French, recaptured number one, won Wimbledon, tied and then passed Pete Sampras, and is playing as well as he ever has. Finally, this time last year, everyone was talking about Murray as he reached the finals at the U.S. Open. Four slams and a year later, he still hasn't won one.

So there is no reason to believe that things can't turn for Andy. But the window is certainly closing. Del Potro is coming on strong, Murray looks destined to win a major at some point, Djokovic has taken on a second coach, Federer is back to his 2005-2006 form, and though most people believe that Nadal might have to alter his game but he will be back.

Of the top seven players, only Roger is older. But the way Roger plays, so lightly and effortlessly, and the fact that Andy has had shoulder issues before means Roddick is more likely to have to retire from physical issues sooner, or have his prime cut shorter.

As players like Murray and Djokovic and Del Potro enter their primes from an age standpoint, Roddick will be entering his sunset.

All of this has to be entering into Roddick's mind. He was obviously distraught after Wimbledon and was once again today. The difference was that after Wimbledon, he knew he had another slam opportunity in two months. Now, he'll have to wait until 2010.

And the next slam tournament, the Australian Open, has not been his best tournament. Roddick's made the finals at Wimbledon three times and has won the U.S. Open. But his best result at the Australian has been three losses in the semifinals.

Andy's actions after the match today sure seemed like someone who was grappling with his tennis mortality. When he is losing to the "next generation" and not even to the best and brightest stars of that next generation, he has to be doing some soul-searching.

The 2009 year may have been his last really good chance and, today, he realized that it had closed on him without a major title.

Arkansas Razorbacks Quarterbacks Preview

Donald Fincher — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:08:49 -0400

In my article on receivers I mentioned the degree to which Arkansas has become known as a "run-first" team throughout the years. It's not easy, therefore, to get a "rocket arm" kind of guy to come to Arkansas.

If you look at NFL QB draft results, you will not see it littered with QB's from Arkansas. Most of the quarterbacks that have passed through Arkansas have been known for their ability to hand the ball to someone else.

Sure, there are quarterbacks that had greater potential. Quinn Grovey was athletic. Matt Jones was certainly athletic and creative on the fly but his form was terrible. Although he was a starter for four years, he was never developed.

Clint Stoerner was pretty good but never realized his potential due to the slant in play-calling towards the run. Mitch Mustain could have been a star at Arkansas. Pettiness, bad guidance from his mother, and an inflated sense of his talent drove him away. He now warms the bench at "Quarterback U" (USC).

The Arkansas QB situation was so poor over the last few years that running back Darren McFadden, who occasionally played QB in the Wild Hog formation, was more productive on a per pass attempt than the starting QB.

In fact, had Ryan Mallett not grown up in Texarkana and had the Razorbacks not given him hope of a passing attack by bringing in Petrino, he might automatically have been added to the list of former QB's.

But things are apparently changing in Fayetteville on this front too.

Arkansas has really never been known for having a great backup QB. They simply didn't need one to just hand the ball to someone else.

Petrino, however, is developing Tyler Wilson as a very able backup. So not only will Arkansas have a top notch starting quarterback this year, which has been missing, but they will also have an effective backup.

Who knows whether Mallett will be mentioned by the ESPN talking heads alongside names like Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, or Sam Bradford. However, if he lives up to his potential he will make Arkansas more of a passing threat in the eyes of recruits.

The Razorbacks will then have the cache to land a guy a year or two down the road that will be in that type of conversation.

Arkansas Razorbacks Wide Receivers Preview

Donald Fincher — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:49:16 -0400

Arkansas has always been known as a run-first team.

This was true during the Broyles era and the Holtz era. During the Hatfield era, it seems it's all Arkansas did. Between Hatfield and Nutt, Arkansas floundered around with three coaches in six years, but even still, they weren't known for their passing attack during those years either. And Nutt spent most of his offensive resources on the run game too.

For that reason and some others, Arkansas has never really had truly great receivers. I know Marcus Monk was good and so was Derek Russell and Anthony Lucas. But overall, Arkansas has had precious few receivers taken in the upper rounds, or any round for that matter, of the NFL draft.

That may be about to change given better recruits and a higher emphasis on the passing game. I mentioned in my article on the Razorback running attack that Chris Low of ESPN's SEC Blog rates Arkansas' stable of running backs the second best in the SEC.

Well, coincidentally enough, he ranks Arkansas' receivers as third. As such, Arkansas joins Florida as the only schools with both their running backs and receiving units in the top three of the conference. That's some powerful potential.

If the offensive line does half of a job this year, Arkansas will score at will and other teams will have to worry about keeping up.

But, unlike years past, there really isn't a go-to guy that's clearly head and shoulders above the others...yet. It's more of a committee thing at this point. But here are the players:

Joe Adams—This guy is rumored to be Arkansas' answer to Julio Jones of Alabama or A.J. Green of Georgia. He is a breakout guy and had a dynamite spring and fall camp.

Gregg Childs and Chris Gragg—These two both caught clutch fourth down passes early in their careers (they were both freshmen last year). They are two of the better receivers from Petrino's first recruiting class.

London Crawford—He had a tendency to drop the ball through the early part of his career. However, Petrino's emphasis on improving the pass game helped Crawford with both route-running and holding on to the ball. Catching the game winning pass on the last play of the season against LSU last year will bode well for him as he enters his senior year.

D.J. Williams—D.J. is considered by many experts to be the best tight end in the nation. He catches, blocks, shows good sportsmanship, and is just what you want off the field in a student-athlete. The community loves him.

Ben Cleveland—Ben's had numerous injuries in his career but his ceiling is as high as D.J.'s. With him healthy, Arkansas has the best tight end tandem in the nation.

Arkansas Razorbacks Running Backs Preview

Donald Fincher — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:04:33 -0400

Chris Low of ESPN's SEC Blog says that Arkansas has the second best stable of running backs in the SEC. Yes, the Razorbacks are stocked at running back for seasons to come.

It's hard to believe that I'm writing that sentence so quickly after the departure of Darren McFadden, Felix Jones, and Peyton Hillis. Last season was, after all, the first season without them in the backfield. With the Nutt situation, the coaching search, the Cotton Bowl debacle, last year's growing pains, etc., it seems like much longer ago.

Fortunately for Arkansas, with these first two seasons of Petrino recruiting, Arkansas' stint with not having a loaded backfield will indeed be a short-lived one.

While Michael Smith is a senior and will be departing after this year, he is the only one of about seven high quality running backs on the roster. Arkansas backfield includes the following names...

Returning Backs

Michael Smith - stepped up last year after McFadden and Jones left to contribute 1000+ yards on the ground

Dennis Johnson - really came on strong late in the year (see the LSU game) but has been known to fumble

DeAnthony Curtis

Recruits/Transfers

Broderick Green - transfer from none other than USC and can be that "big back" Petrino likes to use

Ronnie Wingo - chose Arkansas among many offers and can catch swing passes out of the backfield well

Kniles Davis

Arkansas indeed had a wealth of talent in the McFadden/Jones/Hillis era. The duo of McFadden/Jones was the most prolific backfield in NCAA history other than the Reggie Bush/LenDale White years at USC.

And while that sounds impressive, the problem was that, during the Nutt years, Arkansas was not known for or very prepared to be a passing attack and would have truly suffered had any of them gotten hurt (as was illustrated during the time when Hillis went down for so long with a deep thigh bruise).

Petrino is a better recruiter and strategizer than Nutt. One such example of this is that in just his second season, Tyler Wilson will be the most able backup QB that Arkansas has had in a long, long time.

Furthermore, for the first time in a long time, Arkansas is going to be a true passing threat. And another example is the breadth of available running backs with different strengths (big back, swing pass catcher, small elusive back, etc.).

Is There More to The Michigan Story?

Donald Fincher — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:46:43 -0400

On it's face, the violation that the players are accusing the coaching staff of; abusive practice times way beyond the NCAA allowed time frames, are not that much of a bombshell. Assuming this is the only violation and that more doesn't surface, it will most likely be met with only minor sanctions. However, I don't think the violations are necessarily the big story.

Think about it... UCF had a player die last year in practice. Anyone that knows anything about Bear Bryant or who has seen the movie "The Junction Boys" knows how hard he worked them. Several were hospitalized and at least one had to quit football.

This was prior to heavy NCAA regulation and before it was politically incorrect to question someone's manhood. So excessive workouts were very common then and still are. So that is obviously not the entire story.

I believe the real story is in the timing and the source of the story. I understand that every journalist is about making a name for himself and a bombshell story like this one is good for one's journalistic career. But for Michigan's largest newspaper, the Detroit Free Press, to voluntary do this expose' and release it to coincide with the week of the first game where it will wreak the most damage smells of something much beyond some some players practicing long hours.

There are those that think that Lloyd Carr still hasn't taken his hand off the program and that he didn't agree with the Rodriguez hire. Many of the Michigan faithful are still upset that they could have had Les Miles and blew it. For this reason, there are boosters that weren't happy with this hire on day one and they have gotten even more disgusted with it. And Rodriguez has done plenty to make the fanbase and some very prominent boosters very angry. Let's check off the litany, shall we.

He spent the first 6 months on the job being a part-time coach (while still drawing full salary) and part-time legal case participant against West Virginia (his former school) in a case that had no merit to start with. He drug Michigan through the mud and they finally settled.

It was later learned that he left because of demands that West Virginia would not meet such as allowing him a website to communicate with paying patrons (which got Coach Fran at Texas A&M fired), allowing students to sell school textbooks and keep the money (which just got Alabama put on probation and cost them scholarships and prior wins), and some facility upgrades that turned out to be grandstanding as they have been completed as promised. One of the things Michigan offered him was more control than he had at West Virginia. Well, it turns out that West Virginia knew exactly what they were doing when they didn't allow him the control he sought.

He cast aside a tradition of awarding the #1 jersey to a well-deserved receiver...even though there was a scholarship and benevolence program associated with this that Rodriguez didn't even bother to learn about.

He has had some of his recruits convicted on drug charges and have to leave the team.

He has had players such as Ryan Mallet and Justin Boren and others leave the team and complain about Rodriguez creating a negative environment for the players. For a star quarterback to leave when Michigan desperately needs one and a legacy player who had other family play at Michigan transfer to none other than Ohio State speaks volumes.

So, what am I getting to here?

Rodriguez is abrasive and is not being accepted well by either the players or the fan base. He was a bad fit. Had he come in and had a great year, some would look the other way. That's no knock on the character of Michigan's fan base any more than it is a knock on anyone else's. Winning cures a lot of ills and ills is what Rodriguez left at West Virginia and brought to Michigan. They seem to follow him around (which is no surprise considering he is a man of no character or integrity).

But instead of winning, Rodriguez had the worst year in Michigan football history. Now he may land them on NCAA probation for the first time in their history. This in a short season and off-season.

And this year looks like it will only be a slight improvement. That was before this story broke. Now the team and the coaching staff will be dogged by it all season. It could well cost them a game due simply to distraction which might spell the difference between a bowl game or not. This story was certainly unnecessary but, given its terrible timing, it could be argued that it might be an intentional assault. There is almost no other way to explain the timing.

Although I'm sure one could look up the exact terms of Rodriguez contract, I will admit that I haven't because I don't really know where to look, I find that kind of thing somewhat unseemly, and I really don't need to know specifics to continue my line of reasoning.

That line of reasoning is that most contracts have language that calls for a school to be allowed to fire a coach without paying the buyout if he brings NCAA sanctions or investigations or jeopardizes the good name of the school. Alabama fired Mike Price for his strip club escapades before he ever coached a game. They cited that his behavior was unbecoming to the University and they got away with it.

The bottom line here is that I believe that the timing of this story is a setup. If Rodriguez has another losing season or even a 6-6 or 7-5 season, there are powers that have ties to the program that want an excuse to fire him without consequence.

The ink is hardly dry on the University's check to West Virginia to pay for that buyout. The last thing they want in this economy, especially in Michigan where the economy is much worse, is to write another big check barely a year later. I believe this is a setup to exchange very minor NCAA sanctions that won't do permanent damage for a way out of the Rodriguez hire and allow the University to save face and save the money they'd have to pay Rodriguez for their next coach's buyout.

This is pure speculation on my part, I admit. But while I'm speculating, let me go full circle with it.

Les Miles had a disappointing season last year at LSU. They lost 5 games after winning the national title the year before. Some of this was just the ball bouncing the wrong way a couple of games and some was because Miles suspended the troublemaker star quarterback because he was a cancer that Miles saw just wasn't going to get better so Miles cut his losses. One has the goodwill to do that even when one knows it will cost the team 4-5 losses when one has just won the national title.

This year will be a better year for LSU but there are many in the LSU fan base that are very vocal about the fact that Miles won with Saban's recruits but isn't winning as much with his own. This will be compounded if, as expected, LSU loses again to Saban's Alabama squad.

The SEC is a very tough neighborhood and, even though Miles is a great coach, he is going to have trouble winning against Florida and Alabama as long as Meyer and Saban are there. Ole Miss beat LSU last year and is on the rise. Arkansas has beaten LSU twice in a row and Petrino is probably a better coach so this may become problematic for Miles. There is writing on the wall to be read and Miles may thus be looking for a way back to Michigan where he will be at his alma mater and only face 2 tough teams a year and start each year in the national title picture.

I believe that there are people in the power structure at Michigan that think Miles is vulnerable to an offer and that the athletic department might not otherwise fire Rodriguez if he shows a little improvement. Therefore, they've come up with a way to force the AD's hand and give the AD cover simultaneously.

Time will tell if this is the real motivation going on here and if it works. For Michigan's sake, I hope it does. My wife's a huge Michigan fan and has been distraught since they hired Rodriguez.

Miles would be the perfect fit there. And all of college football would be better off seeing the "sweatervest" (Tressel) and the "hat" (Miles) squaring off at the end of every fall. If we could just think of a clever clothing-related name for Joe Pa, we'd have an entire coaching wardrobe in the Big Ten.

Arkansas Razorback 2009 Outlook

Donald Fincher — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:26:32 -0400

Here is the current schedule for the 2009 Arkansas Razorback team...

9/05 Missouri State
9/19 Georgia
9/26 @ Alabama
10/03 vs. Texas A&M
10/10 Auburn
10/17 @ Florida
10/24 @ Mississippi
10/31 Eastern Michigan
11/07 South Carolina
11/14 Troy
11/21 Mississippi State
11/28 @ LSU

With teams like Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and LSU on the schedule and with three of those four on the road, it's certainly enough for fans to keep their expectations in check. So just what should be the over/under on wins for the Hogs this year? Here's a game by game breakdown as well as my prediction. However, as they say, this and a couple of quarters will buy you a cup of coffee (so long as it's not Starbucks).

Missouri State - Arkansas had trouble in their first two games last year and those games were the usual out-of-conference "warm-up" games. They had to have late 4th quarter heroics in both games to win them. But this team, and especially this coaching staff, made great strides as last year went on. This one should be out of doubt early on. Hogs are 1-0.

Georgia - Georgia is replacing a lot of firepower that was lost to the NFL. They may also be licking not one but two wounds before they meet Arkansas as they open with top 15 Oklahoma State on the road and follow it with South Carolina. Georgia will have growing pains this year and, if they lose both of those first two games, they may very well have a case of shot confidence by the time they arrive in Fayetteville.

Richt is one of the best road coaches in the college game, but Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso among others have picked this as a very likely upset. The Razorback defense was porous last year, but Georgia has never been an explosive team and they lost a lot of offensive weapons. Therefore, I just don't see Arkansas having to play lights out defense as long as they can score significantly.

And if Petrino has proven one thing in his previous stints and even at Arkansas, it's that his teams can score. The Razorbacks were 4th in the SEC in total offense in Petrino's first year...with Casey Dick as the QB and no "big back." Just imagine what the prospects are on offense now. This will be close, but I see Arkansas getting the win at home. Hogs are now 2-0.

Alabama - This one is tough. Bama lost some key players last year. We saw what happened when their All-American Smith was not playing (due to suspension) in the Utah game. They couldn't move the ball. Well, he's not gone for just one game but forever to the NFL. Sure, Bama has had time to replace, but there are other pieces missing too. And for those Bama fans that berated former QB Wilson, he was steady, experienced, accurate when protected, and a good game manager. Breaking in a new QB is never easy.

Bama's defense will be tough as usual but Arkansas will be tougher to stop this year too. I think Bama overachieved last year and may fall back down to earth. However, I just don't see Arkansas beating them at their place this year. Hogs are now 2-1.

Texas A&M - This team has underachieved for years. I personally don't think they hired a very good coach last year. And the coyotes will be howling if Arkansas State beat this team last year and Arkansas doesn't win this year. This is Arkansas' chance to be spotlighted in an inter-conference game at a neutral site that is supposed to have a long, perhaps permanent run in Dallas. Texas is vital to Arkansas recruiting. That makes this a near must win game.

I do believe that Petrino is a better coach than their coach, and I think he will impress the importance from a program standpoint on his coaches and the players. I see the game close in the first half and Arkansas perhaps even having to dig out of a small hole but pulling away as the game goes on. Hogs are 3-1.

Auburn - Gus Malzahn will want nothing more than to beat Arkansas and show that he was the reason that Arkansas was so good and won eight straight during his year at Arkansas. However, for those of us fans that are objective, we already know that. That's because when Malzahn was involved, McFadden and company won more games than the next year when Arkansas started off 0-3 in the conference with roughly the same group.

However, their new coach, Chizik, was 5-19 as a head coach at Iowa State. Auburn fans are hoping this is because it was Iowa State but Dan McCarney did OK there and had a couple of bowl-eligible seasons. Auburn has had a lot of turmoil and I think Arkansas will be clicking by this time.

Petrino showed that Arkansas' defense, though last in the league last year, could still slow down Malzahn's nation-leading offense at Tulsa. This year, even if Malzahn does better with more quality players at Auburn than he had at Tulsa, Arkansas is going to score more to offset that. I see Arkansas getting a close win here. Hogs are now 4-1.

Florida - Arkansas gave Florida all it wanted for three quarters last year and that became a blueprint that Nutt used when Ole Miss played Florida. Arkansas will be better and Florida can't get much better than they were. However, last year the Hogs were aided by the fact that they played at home and Florida didn't take them seriously. If Arkansas is 3-1 and has beaten Georgia, Auburn, and Texas A&M by this point, I don't see Florida not taking them seriously.

In the swamp, this will be Florida's game. However, I don't believe that they will be able to name the score. They might score a lot but Arkansas will too. Hogs are now 4-2.

Ole Miss - This is the first year that Nutt will have some of his own players in the system instead of the loaded cupboard that Orgeron left him. Nutt has shown himself to be a below average recruiter. Had McFadden not wanted to be a Razorback his whole life, we probably would have never seen him in red/white (unless Oklahoma had gotten him). And Ole Miss loses several key pieces from last year's team. Even with last year's team Nutt inherited, the Rebs won by two points and that win was on a disputed call.

Truth be told, this was the point in the season that Arkansas started clicking under Petrino and should have won this game. I see this being the year that Nutt under-performs (as is his history) and Arkansas resumes their winning ways over the Rebs. Hogs are now 5-2.

Eastern Michigan - The only thing that will keep this from being a blowout is if Arkansas has lost numerous starters to injury by midseason. Even still, I can't see it being close. Hogs are now 6-2 and bowl eligible.

South Carolina - Every year is always the "breakout" year for the Gamecocks. And every year something happens. History says that this year will be the same story. Arkansas has a very good record over South Carolina, the team that entered the league at the same time and became Arkansas' permanent cross-divisional game. Arkansas could have had a much tougher perennial opponent.

Spurrier is always a wild card. He is the only coach in South Carolina history to have beaten Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia as the South Carolina coach. But, those wins have been few and far between and losses to Vandy and Kentucky have also been in the mix. This one is a toss-up, but I give the edge to Arkansas if they have remained fairly injury free and for home-field advantage. Hogs are now 7-2.

Troy - This is a team that should never be overlooked. They have hung with the big dogs and absolutely clobbered Oklahoma State two seasons ago. That game nearly got the OK State coach fired. It was embarrassing. However, Arkansas has a tendency of letting teams like this play closer than they should, but they also have history of not losing to them (Jack Crowe's lone game as head coach excepted). Hogs are now 8-2.

Mississippi State - There are prediction services that are predicting that Mississippi State won't win a single conference game. That sounds about right to me. They are a paycheck game in the conference. They get paid a lot of money to get beat up on every week. Yes, they beat Arkansas last year. And that's only the second time in the last 13 years that's happened. Petrino's offense will be way too good for this team.

Mississippi State is in trouble with a revitalized Ole Miss team collecting most of the "big time" talent coming out of high school there. When both Mississippi schools were down, State had a chance on the recruiting trail. Now they will be at a serious disadvantage with Ole Miss being relatively good again. Hogs are now 9-2.

LSU - I would not have picked Arkansas to beat LSU either of the past two years but they did. I would have picked Arkansas to beat them the year before but they didn't. So what I'm saying is that, with Miles at the helm at LSU, you just never know what to expect but whatever that is, it usually goes the other way. However, again going with logic, I expect LSU to win this game. Hogs are now 9-3.

Bowl Game - I'm predicting Arkansas to go 9-3 but, since I'm predicting them to be 4-0 outside of conference play, that means I'm predicting 5-3 in the conference. That will not be good enough to win the West. Therefore, Arkansas will play in one of the second tier bowls affiliated with the conference.

The top bowls are the national championship game, the Sugar Bowl, and the Capital One Bowl. Below that are the Cotton Bowl, Outback Bowl, and Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl. One of these is the destination I foresee for Arkansas. Bobby Petrino is good in bowl games. It gives him a chance to game plan for several weeks and to get all possible players back to healthy (unless they've had season ending injuries). I can't predict the opponent or analyze this game but I think Arkansas wins. Hogs end the year 10-3, ranked in the top 15, and fans are thrilled.

Novak Djokovic's Incredible Show of Sportsmanship

Donald Fincher — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:16:37 -0400

Last year, in the Olympics, James Blake complained (to no avail) that a ball had nicked Gonzalez's racquet before sailing long and being called out. The chair didn't see it and Gonzalez refused to own up to it so Blake lost the point. Even though it wasn't match point, it essentially ended the Olympics for Blake because he just couldn't get over it.

Afterwards, Blake spoke about it in a press conference and said he was disappointed in his opponent. Blake said tennis is a gentlemen’s sport and the Olympic spirit should reflect the highest integrity of the game. He spoke about the values he received from his parents and that if he had ever behaved in such a manner his father would have pulled him off the court.

This kind of thing is why golf and tennis are popular among those who value sportsmanship while pro basketball (where showboating is very much en vogue) is losing ground among that group.

But, what I saw from Novak Djokovic in tonight's match against Roddick went beyond sportsmanship. Some might call it crazy. It's one thing to admit that your racquet might have hit the ball on its way out. Serena Williams had a similar instance this year when the ball hit a player's elbow (also considered interference even if they tried to get out of the way) and bounced back into Serena's court for a "winner."

But, when Djokovic told Roddick to challenge an out-of-bounds call it seemed different to me. First, if Djokovic was wrong, it costs Roddick a challenge. Secondly, there was nothing to confess to.

Given that the reversal ended up squaring the match when Djokovic was up a break and Roddick went on to win the set and, with it, the match, it seemed beyond sportsmanlike and almost self-loathing. While I can say that I have a newfound respect for Djokovic now, I can also say that I agree with those that might be wondering if he's half-crazy.

Perhaps sportsmanship should not go to this length. However, it would certainly be great if more athletes at least started moving toward this direction.

After Another Loss to Federer, Where Does Andy Roddick Go From Here?

Donald Fincher — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:51:22 -0400

One has to wonder about Andy Roddick's psyche right about now.

He has to feel like he had the Wimbledon title in his grasp and was about to put Roger Federer in a deep hole of two sets to zero, when the wheels began to come off that wagon.

Could Roger have won three straight off of Roddick today had he gone down 2-0?

Well, given that he didn't even win fourth set, one would have to say that the match would have been Andy's.

And that has to hurt.

Also, it's just embarrassing no matter how well you play, no matter how much improvement you've made, and no matter whether you're playing the greatest player ever to lose a 19 out of 21 times to the same guy.

It all sounds like some bad Soderling yoke (um, I mean joke).

Can't you just hear him wanting to scream, "nobody beats Andy Roddick 20 out of 22 times."?

From what I can tell, Andy seems to recognize that the tennis community in general was happy about the passing of a milestone and watching history being made.

The fact that Pete Sampras is okay with it makes it okay for us to also be okay with it.

But, I think Andy would have liked to have heard Roger, be in on court or in an interview, say that Andy should have won this match.

Roger always says he got some "lucky breaks" as a way to deflect and dispel any hints of arrogance. So, when he gives us that tired line again, it's not enough to leave it at that because we've heard it before.

Andy is too classy to come out and say it for Roger, but the truth is that Roger was beat today...and I say that as a Federer fan and someone who wanted him to break the record.

For Roddick to know that he had Roger beat and he let him off the hook—it has to sting a lot.

After all, this isn't some guy that stole one from him that Andy otherwise has a stellar record against. He needs every win against Roger that he can get. But the fact that Roger hasn't (and probably won't) admit it, and instead keeps saying things like "it was crazy," "it was incredible," and "I got a couple of lucky breaks," just doesn't get it done.

Now, Andy is having to deal with the actual outcome, the elephant in the room that he had the match won, and fact that it looks like bad taste and sour grapes for him to point out the obvious himself.

So, where does Andy go from here?

First, I think it benefits him from a mental standpoint that he will see his ranking points rewarded for this effort.

If he can pass Del Potro and eventually Djokovic, that will take some of the sting out. It will help him fare better in future tournaments as his seed will be higher and his path a little less filled with potential landmines until later rounds.

Secondly, I think he takes away from this that he beat Djokovic soundly at Australia, beat Murray at his "home" tournament, and had Roger beat too. To beat (or at least outplay) the top players consistently like that has to give him the hope he needs to keep working hard.

Finally, he gets to go back to the hard courts.

Having recently beaten or outplayed the list of players I just mentioned and knowing that even though Nadal has won a slam on hard court, it's his least preferred surface, puts Andy in a great place as he returns to his best, and most preferred surface for the rest of the season.

I think Andy, with the help of his coach and his wife, will step back from the ledge and eventually focus on the positives of his run at Wimbledon in its entirety rather than this one match.

And I think he will defer his own assessment of himself until after he sees how he performs in the US Open on his home soil, with the crowd more fervently behind him this year because of this recent performance.

If Andy can make the semis or finals of the US Open, he will know he is back and among the consistently elite, and this loss can be viewed as more of a bump in the road rather than a last chance that was blown.

Obviously, if he wins it, he won't even have to lick old wounds, because he'll be treasuring his new trophy instead.

Ultimately, Roddick has had a lot of disappointment in his career. He has had to learn to deal with it.

Is today the straw that breaks the camel's back, or will he realize that he played the match of his life and that the old Roddick would have been smoked, so he should keep things in perspective?

I guess that's the $64,000 question that will be answered in the days and weeks to come.