After 164-or-so-grueling months, the king is back.
Bobby – Mr. Football – Petrino, everyone’s favorite prodigal son of a gun – has been re-named HC (interim) at the U of A and re-asked to re-evaluate all things on the Razorbacks football front. Pretty much, “please work the same voodoo/hoodoo you pulled 16ish years ago.”
As MF1.0, he showed up in Fayettenam like a boss on the heels of Houston Dale Nutt’s final season and immediately cleaned house (Tim Horton was the only asst. coach retained). Within a few daze, his new crew rolled in, re-set up shop, started over, started re-educating and slowly started re-versing the losing trend.
The transition was rough, after all, he was re-vamping a basic, handoff-heavy team into a high-caliber, omni-faceted, scoring machine. Since many of the previous regime thought pass blocking was a dam in China, initially instilling MF’s offense was challenging. Not only was the nomenclature foreign to most, but many pieces of the puzzle had also not even made it to campus yet, much less gained eligibility from the almighty NC2A to complete. It wasn’t until year three, after Ryan Mallet (RIP) finally got permission to play, that the install was completed.
By year two, it was apparent QB Casey Dick had kept his head down and ears open, and MF knew his stuff. Passes morphed from dead-ducks to dropped-dimes. He went on to re-write many Razorbacks single season passing records that year and re-establish respect, thanks to the recruitment of Joe Adams and a trio of elite receivers from Warren, Ark., among others.
No longer would Arkansas be whipping boys to bigger schools. Mallet is here. Let’s go!
Hello Sugar and Cotton Bowl dubs! It’s been a while.
“I am the last, winningest coach at this university.”
Guess who’s back?
“Also, my previous stint here has come up. If you talk to me about that, today is the day. After that, we’re going forward.”
Back again…
“You play for pay, and that’s your job. Some of you guys make more money than coaches. Some of you may not like the direction of your future coaches, but they have earned the right to coach you, and so have I.”
Don’t call it a comeback!
These quotes were taken from a team-only meeting Monday morning in Fayetteville after the majority of asst. coaches had gotten the sack from MF2.0. He covered it all sharply, maybe someday, someone will release it in its entirety?
A “seven-game season” is what he introduced going forward, everyone evaluated based upon those remaining Saturdaze. No small task as all are SEC match ups, and five of the teams are currently ranked.
Back to year one of MF1.0. RB1 Michael Smith was the brightest offensive star of all. He led the mighty SEC in rushing and did so weighing in at 167 lbs. Hoping to follow in DMAC’s cleats, Smith signed on ready to rack up yardage behind Nutt’s pound-it-out gameplan. Instead, he found himself scooping up chunks of it, and an indy conference trophy to boot, running behind one of the more innovative attacks in the land.
“Michael is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever met. To do what he does at his size is unbelievable,” MF said back in the day.
Remember, he has done this before, but this team is far better armed with the properly skilled players necessary to run the scheme than during the early daze of MF1.0. The only question that remains is can he rally them for the remainder of the season? He has his hands full, but I trust him.
“I owe it to this university and this state.”
GoHogs!!