In the beginning …

May 2018 become the start of something great

There’s hope in Hogville. But don’t hope too much.

That, fellow Razorback fans, seems to be the rhythm of the drumbeat coming from The Hill in Fayetteville and from all the other places fans of this “wild band of Razorback hogs” reside. There’s been a lot of University of Arkansas history, athletic and otherwise, since Coach Hugo Bezdek in 1909 casually made a reference that’s stuck around as a mascot for more than 100 years now. It’s such a strong image and brand the university will sue if you start printing up T-shirts without permission.

Hope is always in abundant supply for Arkansas fans, a tenacious bunch who will grouse, argue and get frustrated among themselves, but they’ll be ready to offer a thumpin’ to any outsiders who want to badmouth the boys on the field. It’s the realization of those hopes that’s been an elusive thing in recent years. Much of the UA’s task over the past nine months has been to manage hope, to build it up, but keep it contained.

Since that 2011 season when the team went 11-2 (6-2 in SEC play), the team Arkansans like to be rabid about has been … well … meh. Records overall showed some slight progress — from 4-8 in 2012 (the John L. Smith Experience) to the same record in what became Bret Bielema’s final season as head coach. In between, there were signs of slight improvement, the pinnacle of which was the 8-5 2015 season (5-3 in the SEC). The team made three bowl games — Texas Bowl in 2014, Liberty Bowl in 2015 and Belk Bowl in 2016 — in an ESPN-driven age in which going slightly beyond mediocre will earn a berth in the post season. Arkansas won two of those games, salving season records that, again, didn’t live up to fans’ hopes.

Perhaps even more than the overall record, fans long for days when the state’s top athletic program will break through to great success in the conference the late Frank Broyles led the UA into like Moses leading the Hebrews toward the Promised Land. The Southeastern Conference has, economically speaking, been a wildly successful venture. If you have any doubt, look at today’s Razorback Stadium compared to what was possible back in the Southwestern Conference days. Look at the wide swath of sports the University of Arkansas can indeed claim many great victories in. And, though we know what happens on the field is what REALLY interests fans, the university’s time in the SEC has promoted a better approach to academic success for student-athletes.

But the football Hogs’ record in the SEC in recent years has hurt. In 2012, it was 2-6. Bielema’s first year was tough at 0-8. He got it to 5-3 by 2015, but those numbers flipped the next year and became 1-7 in his final year as coach.

What’s the point of reliving all that? Because that experience resides deep in the hearts of Hog fans, who start every year the same way: They have hope that this year’s coaches will be able to train and inspire this year’s players to bring home a collection of victories the entire state can be proud of.

Those hopes rest on a new man in charge, a coach whose pride in serving as a high school coach in Texas not really that long ago resonates with fans. Sure, tomorrow’s game is “just” against Eastern Illinois. It’s a typical kind of game to kick off a season. But it’s the beginning of the Chad Morris era. Full of hope.

The newly expanded stadium and the big screens will be awesome. The food might even work, too. But the fuel of fans is hope fulfilled, between the end zones. When things are going right with the Razorbacks, the entire state can feel it.

We hope Saturday is truly the start of something special.