[quote="fis"][quote="jlow"]i'll agree with your point about the bcs but it's not like virginia tech really deserves to be there with 4 losses either. unfortunately, it's the system we have.
whether you like him or hate him, most reasonable people will agree that petrino is an offensive genius. the main knock on him is will he stay?? it's gotten to the point now that i think it's a non issue. he can't afford any further hit to what reputation he has left and i read on another board that he'd have to pay out like 8 million dollars if he left so i seriously doubt he has a foot out the door. he'll be there at least 5 years probably and it should be interesting to see. it'll take him a couple years to build up the talent levels as the cupboards were bare to say the least but it appears he's doing a pretty good job. it should be interesting.[/quote]
I assume you are an Arkansas fan, or atleast watched a few of their games. First, the cupboards were not left as bare as Ark fan wants to think. Three of your main defenders, Fairchild, Ernest Mitchell, and Antwain Robinson, are the equivolent or almost to their Hardy, Jerry, and Palmer. Unfortunatly these upperclassmen whom were big contributors even in 06 did not buy in to Petrino and that was a major problem. Early in the Bama game 1 of those guys was getting in the backfield quicker than Ole Miss's line did.
Petrino never adapted the offense to the players strengths but rather installed his system. I was concerned with his inability to get a second tailback ready. Do you think Nutt would have only had 1 dependable tailback by Kentucky game? I also don't think if Nutt coached Ark for 08 he gets blown out in a name your score game at home against Bama or TExas, wins by combined 5 pts to two d2 caliber schools, loses to Mississippi state or even Ole Miss had anyone other than Nutt gone to ole Miss. Had Petrino gone to Ole miss his top 2 defenders may be non-factors like at ark, as well as Oher going NFLing last year (according to Oher, he came back b/c he wanted to play for Nutt).
Petrino made several rookie coaching errors but I think the worst was the fade pass with 3:20 left up 7 in the Tulsa game from their 25. He went for the Td, got the interception on 3rd and 1 with Tulsa no timeouts. Had Petrino elected to go for firstdown, the game is over, yet a touchdown in that situation still gives a quickstrike offense like Tulsa the ability to get the ball back with 3:20 left and score twice. Petrino has a long way to go to prove to me he's a competant SEC coach b/c running the table in a shi+ conference against highschool defenses and inexperinced or can't hack it at the SEC level coaching staffs is not enough.
In closing, I guess when you compare coaches and their strengths some are better for certain situations than others. Louisville, you can see by looking at their bball program, a decent coach means they easily win their league, or at least did in the last conference they were in. Same goes for football. They had geographical access to the talent, and a coach that could run a certain system sort of like you see at Tulsa that you can recruit well to and punish inferior competition. Now, Petrino is in an underdog role at Arkansas b/c recruiting base and resources considered Ark should normally be in the bottom 1/3 of the SEC if all other coaches in the league are doing a good job. Nutt proved he was a good underdog coach and could keep scores close against the league giants even in losses and so far Petrino has yet to prove it.[/quote]
yep i've watched a few of their games.....just like i watched a few of ya'lls games. i love how anyone who isn't drinking the koolaid is a ark. fan. regardless of what you say, fairchild, mitchell, and robinson doesn't equal hardy, jerry, and palmer. absolutely no way. also, no one was getting into bama's backfield when those teams played cause bama ran the ball at will. the secondary was even worse.
as for petrino's offense, he had what he had. a qb that was never taught much at all about anything other than handing off the ball, a line that didn't know how to pass block, poor depth and experience at reciever, and one good running back. i don't think that any other running back was ready until the end of the season when that freshman ran well against lsu. smith's backups were freshmen. some of these things would have been ok under nutt. everyone knows that he likes to establish the run. the main knock on him is he can't pass the ball. regardless, there wouldn't be another running back ready for the kentucky game that you brought up.
with nutt, he did some good things and definately left ark in better shape than when he came. what got him fired (or one thing) was that he would win games that he shouldn't but he'd also lose games he shouldn't. overall, he was barely above .500 in the sec at arkansas and most of his nonconference wins came against "high school defenses" as you put it. personally, i think arkansas has the ability to recruit fine even though nutt didn't do as well in his time there. they have great facilities (i've seen them a few times) and though the state doesn't have great h.s. football, it appears to be getting better and petrino seems to be pretty intent on going into texas, louisiana, and florida. overall, i think both schools made a step up. should make for some interesting games over in the west.
p.s. good luck in dallas
