Arkansas Expats

'Til We Meet Again: My Retirement Announcement

2012-05-17T15:37:46Z

When my friend John and I started this blog in August 2007, our goal was fairly simple: to educate the American public on the countless benefits of our nascent brand of herbal supplements, which, as "clinical research" has repeatedly shown, offers powerful antidotes to everything from halitosis to diverticulosis.

Well, mission accomplished. As we watch Americans from coast to coast bask in the fresh breath and healthier colons caused by our medicinal plants in pill form, we know it's time to walk away from this site.

OK - so the first part of that is a joke, but the second part is not. After nearly five years of writing about our beloved Arkansas Razorbacks, John and I are hanging up our blogging shoes. Actually, as eagle-eyed observers are aware, John pretty much retired from the site about six months ago. I've decided to now follow him out the exit door.

While my Razorback fandom has not abated, the time and energy that I can devote to managing and writing for this site certainly has. About a year ago, I began to feel the pangs of blogger burnout. I kept thinking and hoping that I would recapture my earlier mojo and once again start cranking out the posts, but despite a few bursts of renewed enthusiasm, that didn't happen. Both my heart and my head tell me that now is the time to move on.

I don't know exactly what the future holds for this site. However, current staffers KevinHog, Doc Harper, beauwilcox and dxf04 will continue to post when they can, and SB Nation has begun looking for new contributors to manage the blog and provide daily (or as-close-to-daily-as-possible) content. I'm sure that when the 2012 football season arrives this site will be running at full steam again.

Before I sign off, there are some people I'd like to thank for making this blog such a great experience (apologies if this sounds like an award acceptance speech). First off, a big thanks to John; creating and producing this site with him was more fun than even I originally imagined. Another big thanks to the four contributors listed above: I can't overstate how much I appreciate their fantastic work on this site, and I look forward to their future postings. Thanks as well to others who have posted over the years: Whit E. Knight, J. Hawg 3, The Hog Blogger, aboynamedsooie, gargohawg and CharlieHog.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how much I've appreciated the way media members such as Chris Bahn, Jim Harris, Bob Holt and T.J. Carpenter have helped the site by either participating in Q&As and podcasts or by somehow featuring our work.

Tyler Bleszinski, Peter Bean, Joel Hollingsworth and Drew Dunlevie at SB Nation also deserve a hearty "muchos gracias" for all of their support and guidance these past few years.

Finally, a huge, huge thanks to you, our readers and commenters. In our introductory post, John and I wrote that we were aiming to create a site that talked about the Hogs "in a spirit of good humor, balance and perspective." The comment threads always displayed that spirit, and your intelligent and witty remarks were a huge part of what made this site so enjoyable for us.

I don't want to make this seem like a complete farewell - I will be an avid reader of the site and plan to pipe up in the comment threads (and John and I may return once in a blue moon for podcasts or to convey Rasputin's latest predictions). Still, you'll definitely be seeing a lot less of me. Thus, I offer the words used by Garrison Keillor to close each installment of "The Writer's Alamac":

"Be well, do good work and keep in touch."

And, oh yeah, Woo Pig Sooie!

Feel Good Movie Or Mayan Doom?

2012-05-16T20:09:58Z

If you grew up with a grandfather, like mine, who liked to watch Hee-Haw, you might be able to recall the poor farmers on the show singing how if they didn't have bad luck, they would have no luck at all. I can still recall the lyrics of "Gloom, despair, and agony on me." I've been thinking about those Hee-Haw farmers lately in regard to the Hogs. Players kicked off the team or transferring, head coach kicked off the team, players suspended for alleged thievery - likely to be kicked off the team, and we all hold our breath every time Knile Davis takes a walk down a flight of stairs. What next? Right? This all in the year that people thought the Hogs could contend for a national championship, what with both Alabama and LSU coming to Fayetteville, and Tyler Wilson back and ready to set more passing records.

FEEL GOOD MOVIE SCENARIO: In this scenario the Hogs overcome all their obstacles as mentioned above, including a few new ones most likely, to reach Miami and the national championship game - where they win it. All the news would be about how this program picked itself up, didn't ever give up, believed in one another, and in the end won it all, even having upset the 1980 Russian hockey team along the way in the form of the Crimson Tide. There's probably a scene before the credits of Tyler Wilson proposing to his girlfriend while holding the crystal ball trophy. Are the football gods setting us up for this type of scenario? OR

MAYAN DOOM SCENARIO: If the planet wants to survive, in this scenario it needs to root against the Hogs throughout the season. For a 13-0 Razorback team going into December 21st, what with our luck, "Gloom, despair, and agony on me," seems to only invite the possibility of the world ending in doom before the national championship game even takes place. Say a giant tsunami wipes out southern Florida entirely. Fayetteville and the Ozarks are flattened in some fashion. The poles shift and the states of the Southeastern Conference somehow end up in Bangor, Maine! But, the one positive is at least the Hogs would still be SEC Champions and likely to reign as such forever. For the last dog has died, and college football in the aftermath is played only in the memories of a few unfortunate survivors. OR

THE MORE LIKELY SCENARIO: The Hogs' defense isn't able to carry the magic and intensity of what it showed in the Cotton Bowl all season long. Paul Petrino doesn't do any better against Nick Saban's defense than his brother did. The Tide leave Fayetteville with a win on their way to another national championship game victory. Without the comfort of Jerry World, the Hogs drop a winnable game down in College Station. National Championship hopes are crushed. Hogs take another loss on the SEC road, but finish the season with a win over LSU. December 21st turns out to be just another shopping day before Christmas. At 9-3, the Hogs get to visit Arlington again for the Cotton Bowl or one of the Florida bowls, which are all well above water. They might even win the bowl game.

The future, as it always is, remains to be seen. But that doesn't stop us from pondering it here in May. Who could have foreseen at the end of the Cotton Bowl that Bobby Petrino would never coach another Razorback football game? One thing that is rather steady with Razorback football, and that is the fact that it is rarely boring, right? If you have some predictions for the upcoming year, please share them with us in the comment section. Hee Haw and Woo Pig Sooie!

Some Good News For A Change: Hogs Win SEC Outdoor Championship

2012-05-14T14:34:49Z

Admittedly, we are a football and basketball fan blog, with some attention paid to baseball. If we weren't such a bunch of masochists, I suppose, we would pay more attention to the track team, which has produced trophy cases full of championships, and over the weekend secured another by winning its 13th SEC triple crown since Arkansas joined the conference. This article on Arkansassports360.com has the details. From all of us here at Arkansasexpats to the track and field team, congratulations and thanks for representing the university in such fine fashion. Woo Pig Sooie!

A Round Of Applause For Marquel Wade

2012-05-12T20:48:01Z

Sometimes something happens to a player during a game or interview that gives said player an unfair label. The instances when observers around the nation cry foul and the people at home defend the player however they can. Sometimes it's "look at the entire context of the situation" or "everyone else does it and you don't hear anything". We've seen these before. Sometimes the homers are right and sometimes the outsiders are right. In fact, Arkansas just completed a solid round of it with Bobby Petrino. Razorback fans defended Petrino's character since the day he was hired only to watch in dismay as he decided to go ride a bike. Turns out, even if some of the criticism from his Atlanta departure was unwarrented, Petrino was, let's say, highly flawed.

Just over a month after Petrino was fired, we run into a situation with another Razorback the fans defended against the world, Marquel Wade.

During the Arkansas game against Vanderbilt last October, Wade was not only penalized but ejected after hitting Vanderbilt returner Jonanthan Krause before the ball was able to be caught. Here's video of it.

As you probably remember, Wade was crucified for it around the country. It was called the cheap shot of the year. He was labeled everything someone in that scenario gets labeled.

Of course, lots of Razorback fans defended him. It was called an innocent mistake. A heat of the moment accident. There was also a picture of a Vandy defender hitting Tyler Wilson head first during a play with no flag thrown. Wade did apologize publicly. Even his mother apologized to Krause via Facebook. Once the mom gets involved, that has to score some points, right?

Regardless, Wade was suspended. The incident has been largely forgotten. But lo and behold, Wade is in the news again. He was among a trio of Razorback players arrested for burglary.

I'm not one to advocate for any specific punishment for a player. However, at a certain point, it is impossible to defend them. Wade has been through the fire of public outrage before. He's been blown up on social media. He's been ripped by the talking heads on TV. And if the allegations are true, voluntarily put himself in another situation to go through it all again.

The common theme from these allegations and the Vanderbilt hit is decision making. Wade, a rising sophomore who just turned 20 years old (he spent a year after high school at prep school after initially failing to gain eligibility at Arkansas), is developing a pattern of making painfully awful choices. When people read his name in the stories set to come out about the alleged burglaries, the first thing people will think of is that hit.

Just this offseason, Wade has seen Bobby Petrino get fired. He's seen Jason Peacock arrested for burglary. He's got his own public scars from the Vanderbilt incident. How can he possibly be under the assumption he wouldn't get caught?

Wade may have just lost his last chance to straighten his life out as a Razorback. If he remains on the team, he must learn that his actions as a Razorback will be seen and amplified by college football fans everywhere. You'd think he'd have learned that after the Vanderbilt game, but it appears he has not, or, worse, simply doesn't care. Either way, I won't be able to defend him anymore.

So, cheers to you, Marquel. Looks like your mom's going to be spending Mother's Day typing some new Facebook apologies.

Doc Harper is a regular contributor to ArkansasSports360.com and ArkansasExpats.com. You can email him at heydocharper@gmail.com and follow his thoughts and observations on Twitter @doc_harper.

Some Razorback Trivia - Well, Just Because

2012-05-10T14:38:58Z

I am looking forward to kicking off the summer of Razorback trivia in earnest once the baseball season comes to an end, which I hope is after a long stop in Omaha. But I had a good trivia question come to mind the other day, so I thought I wouldn't sit on it and go ahead and share it. Our former coach's misbehavior made headlines each week in April. But bad behavior in Razorback history has not been limited to players and coaches. Our own mascot has a history of acting, well, like a pig. Here's a list of bad behavior. Can you pick out which one our live mascot didn't do? Vote and then find the answer in the comment section.

Poll

Which one of these did our live mascot NOT do?

A Few At Home Observations - Post-Petrino

2012-05-04T14:22:00Z

This past week I was in John L. Smith's Arkansas for the first time to visit family and was on the lookout for signs that the state was living in a post-Petrino world. As was seen when the scandal was relatively new, I didn't see guys with blowup blonde dolls on the back of their motorcycles. I also didn't see any Hog fans sitting in ashes and screaming to the heavens, why us? Could imagine it, but didn't see it. However, I did see one truck between Pine Bluff and Little Rock that had a Razorback license plate with the running Hog turned upside down. Like an upside down American flag, was this a sign of distress for Razorback Nation? I checked to see if there were any LSU or Ole Miss stickers anywhere. But, no. Just an unhappy Hog fan, I believe, expressing his discontent by turning his front plate upside down.

Between Little Rock and Fort Smith there has been a billboard celebrating the past king's rule. But I didn't do a good job looking for it, so I can't say if the huge billboard praising Bobby Petrino still stands or not. Maybe one of you who regularly goes down that piece of interstate can fill us in if that monument to the Petrino era still stands or not.

The sports broadcasts on the local Little Rock channels had some John L. Smith material about what a different personality John L. is from Bobby Petrino. The radio stations were running with the same theme. I am not saying that the new coach is already at the Houston Nutt level of colorful, but it does seem like as a program lately we have swung back and forth between Mr. Cold Fish (Petrino & Ford) and Mr. Excitement (Smith & Nutt). Suffice to say, the new head Hog was getting plenty of media attention, which is what you expect at the beginning of a new reign, short though it may be.

War Memorial is still standing. I know that is either good news or bad depending upon which fan you are talking to. The huge "Go Hogs Go" sign above the interstate outside of Atkins is still running high over the road. Though I didn't go to Fayetteville, I have assurances that all our structures there survived Petrino's downfall.

Bobby Petrino, just not too many weeks ago, was a rock solid part of the Razorback football program, and look how quickly that all crumbled. Before I left the state, I came across two other reminders of how you can go from adored to ignored in the world of Razorback sports. I spotted an old Lou Holtz doll, rather beat up, and looking unwanted amongst other clutter in an off ramp antique mall. A more recent example, I came across a Matt Jones doll, still in the package, in a Forth Smith junk store. Yeah, I didn't know such a thing existed. He was in his Jacksonville uniform, and the dealer was wanting over thirty bucks for him. I don't think Matt has rehabilitated his statewide image after the cocaine arrest and the undistinguished NFL career yet to the point of thirty bucks for his plastic image.

After the jump you'll find a very apropos poem by that follower of all things SEC football, haha, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 19th century British poet and insightful analyst of the plight of emperors, dictators, and college football coaches.

Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The feel-good story of the summer

2012-05-01T22:18:32Z

Four Razorbacks were drafted into the NFL over the span of several hours Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Obviously, ArkansasExpats.com sends hearty plaudits to Jake Bequette, Joe Adams, Jarius Wright and Greg Childs for being among the top 150 draftees. All found seemingly good homes in the pros, and Wright and Childs will continue their joined-at-the-hip careers together in Minnesota (selfish teaser here: my Arkansas Times column this week will be centered on the Warren duo).

The draft ended without DeAnthony Curtis having his name called, as expected. He would quickly sign a free agent deal with Tampa Bay, and while I readily profess my own bias here, I fully anticipate that Curtis will figure out some way to blossom in the pro ranks, whether in South Florida or elsewhere.

Curtis was, in the eyes of many, the crown jewel of the 2008 recruiting class, a four-star running back from Camden Fairview who was purported to be as well-rounded a running back prospect as any in the region. He had decent size, good speed and shiftiness, and the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. These skills, quite frankly, were almost never on display during Curtis' four-year run in Fayetteville.

Given an opportunity to log some carries as a freshman, Curtis could scarcely find space to run behind a suspect offensive line. Worse yet, he fumbled in a critical situation at Kentucky, which led to the Wildcats scoring a late game-winning TD. Curtis' playing time decreased and his confidence, presumably, was shot.

He transitioned to fullback in 2009 because the Hogs suddenly had a glut of tailback talent with Knile Davis, Ronnie Wingo and Broderick Green all arriving on campus to compete for carries. Dennis Johnson and Michael Smith were still around as well, meaning that Curtis suddenly found himself far down the pecking order. Over the 2009-10 seasons, Curtis got all of one measly carry for three yards and six receptions, including a TD in the first win over Texas A&M. That was basically it, but you never read any stories about him being a malcontent or a threat to transfer. He got his degree in 3 1/2 years, spent some time at receiver at cornerback when depth issues arose at those positions, and dutifully played whatever role he was asked to play.

As a senior, Curtis got a few more totes early in the schedule, but sat idly for weeks once the Hogs entered conference play. Finally, at the tail end of a 42-point pasting of Tennessee, he was summoned for cleanup duty, and in the waning minutes he broke loose for a 26-yard touchdown run. It was the first, and ultimately last, rushing TD of his career.

Curtis can draw some inspiration from undrafted success stories of the past, such as Willie Parker or Rod Smith, two guys who became Super Bowl heroes and Pro Bowl performers after never hearing their names called by the commish or any other NFL brass in April. He still brings the same skills he had four years ago to the table, but on the plus side, his body hasn't been beaten into submission and his versatility and willingness to contribute would make him an ideal special teamer or third-down back.

I hope all ex-Hogs get their due shot at professional glory, of course, but I really hope that Curtis gets a legit chance to showcase his wares. He's kept those skills mothballed for too long.

VIDEO: Chuck Barrett Chats with John L. Smith

2012-05-01T13:25:29Z

Things are a little slow on the Razorback front these days. To help pass the hours, here's a video of Razorback announcer Chuck Barrett chatting with new head coach John L. Smith.