Thursday, July 29th, 2010
The Razorbacks will kick off against Tennessee Tech in 2010-9-4 18:00:00 GMT-05:00
What Bobby Petrino accomplished at Louisville means absolutely nothing in the Big Boy World of the SEC.
By Andy Hodges
The Hog Country Blog
Bobby Petrino better be as good as many of the fans in Hog Country hope. The reality here is I hope he is, too. Wins are much more fun to write about than losses.
Despite what some in the media will tell you, there is absolutely no track record in The Great Playcaller’s past to think that the future is bright farther than what should be a banner year in 2010 (at least 10 wins should the minimum expectation for fans with the offensive firepower).
Some like to point out that Bobby has a track record of developing talent, which is a serious error in the basic premise of most football programs. Assistant coaches are the key to developing talent. The head coach these days, if he plans to be successful for the long term, had better be a CEO type. Even Bobby says he delegates some of the offensive gameplanning and input on playcalling to his offensive coordinator, which this year will be Garrick McGee (who hasn’t proven anything in the SEC yet).
The only coach on this Razorback staff with a proven track record of developing players at the SEC level is newly-hired defensive ends coach Steve Caldwell. It’s no secret the defense is the potential Achilles heel for this Hog team. After covering teams for a few decades, I’ve learned to pretty much ignore most of what coaches tell me about their own teams. Since only a small percentage have ever been correct. Bear Bryant told me he didn’t know how his “Alabama boys were going to be able to stay on the field with Arkansas’ before the Sugar Bowl after the 1979 season whereupon the Crimson Tide went out and just physically beat the Razorbacks down.
What Bobby did at Louisville was nice. He inherited a pretty solid team from John L. Smith, who then proceeded to prove making the leap from Conference USA to the Big Ten doesn’t always work out too well. Let’s face it, Bobby’s trying to make a much bigger jump than that. But the bottom line is what he did at Louisville doesn’t mean spit in the SEC. Different league, different time. Most experts said in 2006 that the Cardinals would have been lucky to be 8-4 in the SEC, but more than likely 7-5 or 6-6.
Louisville only faced three ranked teams during that 2006 regular season. First was a badly-overrated Miami team at No. 15, then six weeks later No. 3 West Virginia. They won those two games. A week after beating the Mountaineers, though, came a 28-25 loss to Rutgers. Their out-of-conference schedule consisted of Kentucky, Temple, Miami, Kansas State and Middle Tennessee State. None of them particularly good at that time with the Hurricanes the best of the lot, but on the heels of imploding around Larry Coker.
Winning those games was great, but not exactly awe-inspiring. Not a single one of those teams could have beaten four teams in the SEC that year. Because the Big East is granted an automatic BCS berth because their commissioner worked with Roy Kramer of the SEC to create the current stranglehold on college football, Louisville waltzed into an automatic bid and got the Orange Bowl against Wake Forest from the ACC. The Demon Deacons got there because, as usual, everybody else in the league managed to fall flat on their face at some point. Wake Forest did it less.
This is not a knock on Bobby’s accomplishments at Louisville. Not at all. He didn’t create the league and he played the schedule, winning darned near every game.
But don’t begin to compare it to a 12-1 run through the SEC.
In two years with Bobby, we’ve noticed a trend where he doesn’t do a particularly good job with extra time to get a team ready. If anything, they appeared over-prepared following bye weeks and for a Liberty Bowl matchup against an East Carolina team they probably should have beaten by four touchdowns.
His teams have appeared to get better as the season went along, but that is due in part to getting the big boys early (Alabama, Florida, Georgia) and LSU playing fairly uninspired two straight years at the end of the season. Oh, and he hasn’t beaten Ole Miss yet which is going to start sticking in the craw of some fans sooner or later.
This is supposed to be THE year. Arkansas will start the season ranked for the first time in years. Expectations will be for at least 10 wins and maybe a run at the West title if somebody (even the Hogs) can knock off Alabama.
But based on what we’re seeing recruiting-wise, the red flags are for 2011 and 2012.
That is when the results of this recruiting disaster will be felt.
And we find out if Bobby can develop players in the SEC.
Tags: Achilles Heel, Assistant Coaches, Banner Year, Bear Bryant, Coach Steve, Conference Usa, Country Blog, Crimson Tide, Defensive Ends, Football Programs, Garrick Mcgee, Head Coach, Hog Country, John L Smith, Minimum Expectation, Offensive Coordinator, Offensive Firepower, Proven Track Record, Razorback, Steve Caldwell
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
