“My guardian angel – she wears a hardhat.”
Rockin’ Horse
Warren Haynes and Gregg Allman
As a lifetime Razorback addict, I am firmly aware as to the intensity to which the beast, that is SEC athletics, can ferociously buck and shake off every middle-of-the-pack football team like water off a duck’s back. The current, upper echelon of SEC gridiron squads – Bama, Georgia, LSU and Texas – remain on top, because they always have rosters fulla more bigger, faster and stronger athletes.
I am not trying to say that those middle-of-the-pack teams with fewer superstars don’t/can’t compete with Georgia, Bama and the likes, for they certainly have and continue to do so. And it’s therein, within this disparity, that the root of college athletics’ broad appeal over professional sports resides. The Mardi Gras-like atmospheres of packed, major-college football stadiums across the country on game days and nights are powerful gatherings, kinda like a powder keg. Where emotion can and does override talent.
KABOOM!
Not only that, but there are other influences that can flip the script and turn pretenders into contenders and zeros into heroes. Sometimes it’s a coach, while other times it is a player or two. In this case, the main Razorback difference maker on the Hill today is Bobby Petrino and his highly prolific offense.
The year was 1991 when the U of A bailed outta the drowning and dated dinghy of the SWC and climbed aboard the luxury yacht of the Southeastern Conference, joining a bigger and better league, fulla bigger and better athletes and a decidedly steeper learning curve. Fittingly enough, when the Alabama football team was dispatched to Little Rock to usher us into the league on that crisp autumn afternoon 32 years ago and did so with a walk-in-the-park 39-11 thumping, unbeknownst to Razorbacks fans, a precedent was set. They dominated the Razorbacks so soundly from the jump and on both sides of the ball, that Tide coach, Gene Stallings, kindly took his foot off the gas midway through the third quarter in a show of much-appreciated mercy.
So you could say that the Hogs were somewhat eased into fold, cuz after the christening, there were a coupla seasons during Houston Nutt’s tenure, when little Mikey Shula ran the sidelines at Alabama. Those two clowns perfected the late-game choke in their own, special ways, utilizing a dizzying combo of serial clock mismanagement and abysmal play calling. Oddly enough, Nutt, the eternal, crab-pinching clown, could never out choke Shula, and the Hogs had early success against Bama, due to his ineptitude. Sadly for Hogs fans, he left Tuscaloosa long ago and was promptly replaced by Saban.
If Arkansas was ever to truly compete again against Bama and the other SEC elites, the winds of change needed to blow and blow a gale. Thankfully, they blew Bobby Petrino back to Fayettenam. As everyone’s favorite son-of-a-gun, Petrino is back, armed with a buncha great plays and a sense of peace and purpose not seen during his previous stint as head coach of the Hogs.
Then they blew Nick Saban completely outta college football and into retirement, as he hung up his whistle after dominating the scene for a good, long while.
Back to Petrino. I’ve never been shy about my fondness for him and the style of offense he brings to town. What style is that? A style that moves the ball up and down the field at will and scores points with impunity. You know, an effective style, a proven style – a straight up G style.
Oh boy!
Football season can’t arrive quickly enough.