Being a realist around these parts gets you a bad name especially during the offseason or when people think our team is better than it actually is....but there is the flip side as well
During the offseason when everyone else was predicting 9, 10, or 11 wins I was thinking more like 6-7 and looking at it now it is looking like we won't even reach that.
While everyone was acting like Bret was going to take us to the promise land soon and he was a tier 1 coach I disagreed and said for me the verdict is still out on how I think he would do here at Arkansas. I got
ed out by saying I needed more than 2 seasons to give an opinion on how I think he will do in the future.
When everyone acted like our defense was going to be one of the top in the SEC this year because of how we shut out a horrendous LSU offense and an Ole Miss offense struck with injuries, I said I wasn't so sure and that we were really going to miss our big 3 of Flowers, Philon, and Spaight.
And that brings us to today...
I'll start with saying....WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE PISSED OFF!! We deserve better than what we have seen the last two games. Not even the biggest haters and pessimist could have predicted back to back losses to Toledo and TT.
With all that said....
Now, after these two loses, I am seeing and hearing a ton of people saying stuff like "we will not win another game", "we should fire Bret and Smith", "Jeff Long should go to Texas", "Allen is the worst Ark QB ever and needs to be benched", and everything is so doom and gloom (and rightfully so).
Here are my thoughts on the rest of the year and our current situation.
-IMO we will win at least a couple more games this year and rather it's Auburn, A&M, LSU or even Bama, one of the wins will be against a ranked SEC team. The loss to Toledo was horrible no denying that but if you look around the country it's happening more and more. Power Conferecne teams are losing or coming extremely close to losing to these shitty programs and conferences. Us, Ohio State, Auburn, etc. There is more parity in CFB now than there has ever been and the gap ON THE FIELD between the great programs and the bottom feeders will continue to narrow. Yes I know Auburn and OSU pulled their games out but the fact still remains, any team can lose any given day if they don't come ready to play. That is more true now than ever.
-CBB is not going anywhere anytime soon so just get over it. While I do not think he is a great coach, he is a good coach and we are not firing him after only 3 years. I wanted a up and comer during the last coaching search but there were no guarantees during the last search we could get anyone any better and there would certainly be no guarantees this go around if we go rid of his this soon. Oh yeah and then there is that HUGE BUYOUT. Just like I think CMA needs more time I think CBB does as well. Again this coming from someone who didn't really want him in the first place.
-Jeff Long is a damn good AD. FB and MBB are king when it comes to D1 athletic programs and both of ours are looking down right now but we are not getting a better AD than Jeff Long. He is one of the best in the country. Money is rolling in and facilities are being built. And outside of the Big 2 sports the rest of the athletic programs as a whole are looking really good IMO.
People areing right now about the CBB and CMA hires but damn near 99% of our fan base wanted these guys at the time or were happy when they were hired. Every other AD would have taken then guys had they wanted to come as well. They need a little more time.
-On Brandon Allen there isn't a lot to say but that there is no one else. He is FAR AND AWAY the best guy we have for this year. He will start all year and neither of these two loses are all on BA. He shit the bed late but until then he played pretty damn well considering what he was working with. I don't have any numbers but I would bet the % of college QBs with game winning drives under their belts is not very good. Winning a ball game when the pressure is on is a hard thing to do. It's takes some PRO QB years to finally break through.
Yeah this is long and I doubt anyone read it but it's ok to be pissed off, to demand more, and not be happy with where we are at but from a realist I tell you YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO ME FROM THE BEGINNING AND YOU WOULDNT BE NEAR AS MAD!!!
During the offseason when everyone else was predicting 9, 10, or 11 wins I was thinking more like 6-7 and looking at it now it is looking like we won't even reach that.
While everyone was acting like Bret was going to take us to the promise land soon and he was a tier 1 coach I disagreed and said for me the verdict is still out on how I think he would do here at Arkansas. I got
ed out by saying I needed more than 2 seasons to give an opinion on how I think he will do in the future.When everyone acted like our defense was going to be one of the top in the SEC this year because of how we shut out a horrendous LSU offense and an Ole Miss offense struck with injuries, I said I wasn't so sure and that we were really going to miss our big 3 of Flowers, Philon, and Spaight.
And that brings us to today...
I'll start with saying....WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE PISSED OFF!! We deserve better than what we have seen the last two games. Not even the biggest haters and pessimist could have predicted back to back losses to Toledo and TT.
With all that said....
Now, after these two loses, I am seeing and hearing a ton of people saying stuff like "we will not win another game", "we should fire Bret and Smith", "Jeff Long should go to Texas", "Allen is the worst Ark QB ever and needs to be benched", and everything is so doom and gloom (and rightfully so).
Here are my thoughts on the rest of the year and our current situation.
-IMO we will win at least a couple more games this year and rather it's Auburn, A&M, LSU or even Bama, one of the wins will be against a ranked SEC team. The loss to Toledo was horrible no denying that but if you look around the country it's happening more and more. Power Conferecne teams are losing or coming extremely close to losing to these shitty programs and conferences. Us, Ohio State, Auburn, etc. There is more parity in CFB now than there has ever been and the gap ON THE FIELD between the great programs and the bottom feeders will continue to narrow. Yes I know Auburn and OSU pulled their games out but the fact still remains, any team can lose any given day if they don't come ready to play. That is more true now than ever.
-CBB is not going anywhere anytime soon so just get over it. While I do not think he is a great coach, he is a good coach and we are not firing him after only 3 years. I wanted a up and comer during the last coaching search but there were no guarantees during the last search we could get anyone any better and there would certainly be no guarantees this go around if we go rid of his this soon. Oh yeah and then there is that HUGE BUYOUT. Just like I think CMA needs more time I think CBB does as well. Again this coming from someone who didn't really want him in the first place.
-Jeff Long is a damn good AD. FB and MBB are king when it comes to D1 athletic programs and both of ours are looking down right now but we are not getting a better AD than Jeff Long. He is one of the best in the country. Money is rolling in and facilities are being built. And outside of the Big 2 sports the rest of the athletic programs as a whole are looking really good IMO.
People are
ing right now about the CBB and CMA hires but damn near 99% of our fan base wanted these guys at the time or were happy when they were hired. Every other AD would have taken then guys had they wanted to come as well. They need a little more time.-On Brandon Allen there isn't a lot to say but that there is no one else. He is FAR AND AWAY the best guy we have for this year. He will start all year and neither of these two loses are all on BA. He shit the bed late but until then he played pretty damn well considering what he was working with. I don't have any numbers but I would bet the % of college QBs with game winning drives under their belts is not very good. Winning a ball game when the pressure is on is a hard thing to do. It's takes some PRO QB years to finally break through.
Yeah this is long and I doubt anyone read it but it's ok to be pissed off, to demand more, and not be happy with where we are at but from a realist I tell you YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO ME FROM THE BEGINNING AND YOU WOULDNT BE NEAR AS MAD!!!
