Reality Catches Up with the Razorbacks: One Fan's Perspective
By Jacob Cooper
It sounds like a teaser for an episode of HBO’s True Blood, but Arkansas fans found out just how true it is on Saturday against the University of Louisiana at Monroe in Little Rock: You can’t outrun what you really are.
In the Hogs’ case, there were a lot of things they—we, I guess I should say as a lifelong fan—had been outrunning for the last four years. Bobby Petrino’s karma, mediocrity, and the fickle nature of fandom. However, as I sat in the stands in the south end zone of War Memorial Stadium, watching the eighth-ranked Razorbacks lose to a middling Sun Belt team, reality finally came crashing down.
All fans are delusional. Some more than others. But Arkansas fans took delusional to another level this offseason. We truly believed that the Hogs still had a chance—heck, some fans even thought a better chance—of competing for a national championship after Bobby Petrino’s fateful motorcycle accident and subsequent firing in April. Somehow losing arguably the sharpest offensive mind in football, not just college but all football, was going to be a positive. He was too hard on the players, we said. He didn’t pay enough attention to the defense. Nick Saban was in his head. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. None of that mattered, though.
The ironic thing about Petrino’s departure was that it wasn’t his decision. The national media lambasted Arkansas for hiring Petrino away from the Atlanta Falcons. He’s just going to leave for a better job in the next couple of years, the media told us. The Razorbacks were supposed to be just another stepping stone in Petrino’s journey to the pinnacle—which is hard to say now whether the pinnacle for Petrino was a fat contract, prestige, or an attractive side piece. Call me gullible, but I believe that Petrino found a home in Arkansas. Yet, in the end, the media was still right; Petrino found a way to screw the Hogs.
With Petrino the Hogs were a top tier program, Arkansas fans told anybody who would listen. Probably the third best program in the country behind Alabama and LSU. It only made sense. In the last two full seasons, we had lost games to Alabama, LSU, Cam Newton, and a team full of ineligible players. Three of those teams played for the national championship during that same span. This was the year that something special was going to happen.
The ironic thing about Petrino’s departure was that it wasn’t his decision. The national media lambasted Arkansas for hiring Petrino away from the Atlanta Falcons. He’s just going to leave for a better job in the next couple of years, the media told us. The Razorbacks were supposed to be just another stepping stone in Petrino’s journey to the pinnacle—which is hard to say now whether the pinnacle for Petrino was a fat contract, prestige, or an attractive side piece. Call me gullible, but I believe that Petrino found a home in Arkansas. Yet, in the end, the media was still right; Petrino found a way to screw the Hogs.
With Petrino the Hogs were a top tier program, Arkansas fans told anybody who would listen. Probably the third best program in the country behind Alabama and LSU. It only made sense. In the last two full seasons, we had lost games to Alabama, LSU, Cam Newton, and a team full of ineligible players. Three of those teams played for the national championship during that same span. This was the year that something special was going to happen.
Whether it was Petrino’s reputation or other coaches stressing to recruits what we couldn’t see, that Arkansas was building a glass house solely on the genius of one man, the Razorbacks’ on-the-field success never translated in recruiting. Despite its impressive win-loss record, Arkansas’s talent was falling further behind other teams in the SEC, not just Alabama and LSU. With each double-digit win season, the Hogs were inching closer to mediocrity.