Teasing fans on the road insufficient
“Try to remember the kind of September” goes a song lyric from the 1960s, one written by a Tom Jones other than the Welsh singer or former Lou Holtzcoached quarterback.
Perhaps you lived through or have read about the 1960s, when, as Warren Beatty said in a 1970s movie, every time you turned around it seemed like one of the best people in the country was getting shot. And when on their nightly news programs, the three major TV networks conducted an ongoing National Geographic tour of a faraway place called Vietnam.
Closer to home, it was the decade that Arkansas embraced the Republican Party, sort of, and had a love-in, to use a then-popular term, with the Razorback football team. Unless it was against ancient rival Texas or in a bowl game (usually to a Southeastern Conference team), Frank Broyles’ Razorbacks seldom lost on fall Saturdays.
Making a ripple nationally, the Hogs created an athletic frenzy never seen before in this state. Broyles was so popular that he might have been elected governor or challenged one of the state’s Washington-based kingmakers: John L. McClellan, J. William Fulbright (a Rhodes Scholar and former Razorback football star) or Wilbur D. Mills.
One team Arkansas frequently rolled up then was Southwest Conference rival Texas A&M, usually in late October or early November after a midseason clash with Texas. As a child, not yet in my teens, I was at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, when Jon Brittenum, that quarterbackin’ man from Brinkley, flung a pass left-handed when trapped against the sideline. And when the unflappable Bill Montgomery, as a sophomore, beat the previous year’s SWC champion with a team that would top unbeaten Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
How remote that time seems, when Lt. Girard chased Dr. Richard Kimble in the classic TV drama “The Fugitive” and many thought that movies were going to pot with so much sex and violence on screen. The future of popular music also was in doubt with Elvis making movies, Frank Sinatra turning 50 [and taking a third wife, Mia Farrow, younger than some of his children] and Beatles songs played backwards to interpret supposedly hidden meanings.
Borrowing from yet another song of that period, those were the days, my friend.
And in 2019, they seem as distant as Pluto in the solar system. Pluto, alas, is now a dwarf planet, somewhere beyond Neptune — and the Arkansas Razorbacks are no more relevant in college football than the Rice Owls.
For example, Arkansas has not beaten Texas A&M since
2011. Both seem out of place in the SEC, first escaping the dying SWC and with the Aggies later bolting from the now mathematically challenged Big 12. Arkansas has lost eight straight to A&M, six in the Arlington, Texas, playpen built by Razorback alumnus Jerry Jones and in which the Hogs were 4-0 under Bobby Petrino.
The latest Arkansas-A&M game, following an old script, ended predictably with the winning margin under 7 points for the seventh time in eight years.
Losing 31-27 at AT&T Cowboys Stadium, Arkansas teased its fans after an especially unspeakable home defeat to San Jose State, for which the California-based Spartans received
$1.5 million as a parting gift. Perhaps the Razorbacks needed to get out of state, away from a fan base growing increasingly hostile and calling for the heads of everyone from the athletic director on down. Maybe leaving home for a weekend was all it took, though the Razorbacks could have used the win more.
This game offered the Hogs to right some wrongs from a decade that the UA program fell to a 60-year low. An historical intersection for a Texas-based coach [Chad Morris] and two former Texas collegiate players [Nick Starkel against his old team; Ben Hicks within driving range of SMU, from whence he and Morris came to Arkansas].
Starkel’s chance for redemption went awry when injured on yet another interception [five picks against San Jose State]. Hicks, the first- and second-game starter but not seen after a shaky first half against Ole Miss, was pressed into duty and almost pulled it off. Hicks stood to be a hero on Arkansas’ final drive with a key thirddown scramble, that after a procedure penalty backed up the Hogs while the Aggies, in the words of an ESPN broadcaster, “completely overwhelmed the line and turned up the heat.”
A&M, which after losing to Clemson and Auburn was getting an earful from coaches and fans, held on fourth and five from the Aggies’ 18. A&M got the “W,” the one both needed, although not by the predicted 23.5 points or with enough authority to foster hopes that the Aggies will beat Alabama, Georgia or LSU. Jimbo Fisher coached a national-championship team at Florida State and, in Year Two of a $10-year, $75-million contract with the Aggies, is under pressure to do the same at A&M.
Morris, meanwhile, sees his Arkansas record sag to 4-13 overall, 0-10 in the SEC, his team largely composed of freshmen and sophomores, taking baby steps in the front ranks of college football. And against a schedule that’s only going to get tougher with Auburn and Alabama back-to-back in October and LSU in November. Arkansas needed a record better than 2-3 before a bye week [followed by a road game against Kentucky] to mollify Morris’ critics.
Arkansas has enough talented young players, especially on offense, to give the Razorbacks a chance on the proverbial given Saturday. John Chavis’ defense, while inadequate in some areas, has three scoop-and-score touchdowns and might come around with leadership from veterans like McTelvin Agim, Da’Jon Harris and Kamren Curl. Western Kentucky is a beatable opponent and an SEC team or two might overlook the Razorbacks.
One caveat: Arkansas is too strapped financially paying off ex-coaches to consider firing Morris. Expect a third season for Morris but with the coach under pressure for a bowl game if not a winning season.
Until the dark ages of Razorback football are over, those of us with long memories will try to remember Sundays in Arkansas that the “Frank Broyles Show” was as popular as “Bonanza.”