My Sunday Feeling

It is likely that Saturday brought mixed emotions to the Razorback faithful. For years now, the radio talk shows and the Internet have dumped a ton of withering criticism down upon the head of Houston Nutt for his refusal to hire an Offensive Coordinator.  Well, Nutt finally hired one, all right.  But in hiring Springdale High School’s Gus Malzahn, Nutt is turning the keys over to a high school guy who has never coached at the collegiate level, much less in a cut-throat environment like the SEC.  It is a pretty risky move for a guy like Nutt who is generally thought to be risk averse.  But Malzahn is not without his qualifications.

He is widely described as a brilliant offensive tactician. He has even written a book about the spread offense (a fact that has not escaped the attention of noted bibliophile Wally Hall) and is said to give lectures on the subject to coach’s conventions and the like.  His teams at Shiloh Christian and Springdale High School resembled the wehrmacht in their ruthless efficiency.  Indeed, Springdale not only went undefeated this year, but the mercy rule (in which the contest is ended whenever a team leads by 35 in the 4th quarter) was invoked in every game they played but one.  And the only reason it wasn’t invoked in that game was because the team was from Louisiana where they do not have such a rule.  If they are not the best high school team ever produced by this state I don’t know who else it could possibly be.

And let’s be honest here.  Coaching football ain’t exactly brain surgery.  I mean, you wouldn’t know it from all the hyperventilating going on out there about the admittedly sorry state of affairs out there in Razorbackland, but it is just a game.  How hard could this be? Besides now is a pretty good time to give something as crazy as this a whirl.  The defense ended the year pretty much as good as anybody in the SEC.  They finally found a competent quarterback in Casey Dick.  They play most of their games at home next year.  If you are going to think outside the helmet, now is as good a time as any.

Still, it is hard to view this recent hire as anything other than Houston Nutt punching the panic button especially in light of the recent news that his star recruit, Springdale quarterback Mitch Mustain has rescinded the oral commitment he made to Arkansas back in August.  I say that because while it is not unusual for a recruit to hijack an entire program in basketball, it is virtually unheard of in football where one guy can rarely make or break a team.  It is for that reason that I would be inclined to tell Mustain to buzz off if he thinks he wants to go elsewhere.  Either this kid is as good as they say (Wally started touting him for the Heisman last summer.  He ain’t that good.) or there is a serious case of brownout underwear up there on the hill.

Unfortunately, if recent history is any indicator, this decision to hire from the high school ranks may not improve the anxiety level up there.  Maryland hired Bob Wade from the high school level upon firing Lefty Driesell after the Len Bias disaster.  Wade lasted a couple of years before getting into hot water himself with the NCAA.  But the most famous example was Notre Dame’s hire of Gerry Faust from Moeller High School in Cincinnatti where he was almost unbeatable.  He had one good season before the Irish completely fell apart his final 2 years.  The excitable Faust just couldn’t relate to older players.  Or as one insider said of those years “Rah-rah don’t block and rah-rah don’t tackle.”

You can get by with a lot more “rah-rah” with high school kids then you can with jaded college guys.   But what the hell.  This may work out just fine whether Mustain shows up for work or not.

But the potential for an absolute disaster cannot be discounted.  Suffice it to say, the 2006 edition of the Arkansas Razorbacks will be really interesting.