Razorbacks playing a mental game

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Trying to pin down reasons why Arkansas is on its worst conference road losing streak since the Truman and Eisenhower administrations elicits more shrugs than firm answers.
About the only explanation players can agree upon is that last year's team lacked that nebulous but all-important ingredient when it went on the road -- focus.
"I don't know if everybody was there mentally," tight end Marcellus Poydras said. "We had good practices before those games so the problem had to be mental."
The problem grows with each SEC road loss, a string of six that started with the 28-24 heartbreaker at Tennessee on Nov. 14, 1998. It's Arkansas' longest conference road losing streak since dropping 15 in a row from 1949-53 in the Southwest Conference.
After five consecutive home games, the Razorbacks (4-1, 1-1 SEC) play their first road game Saturday against 24th-ranked South Carolina, and they know all about the baggage they're toting.
"It's been talked about, they read, they hear it all the time," said Coach Houston Nutt, who has tightened the travel rules this season. "The only time we didn't struggle was when we went to Dallas [to play SMU and Texas last season]. We know we can be a very good road team. It takes a tremendous amount of focus, a tremendous togetherness."
All those good vibes have faded shortly after kickoff in the past three conference road games. Kentucky, Ole Miss and LSU trampled the Hogs by a combined 104-46. In each loss, the opponent jumped to an early lead of a combined 73-6 (21-0 at Kentucky, 31-3 at Ole Miss and 21-3 at LSU).
Part of the problem is playing in hostile environments, players said.
Average attendance at the road games in Arkansas' losing streak was more than 70,000. A crowd of more than 80,000 is expected for the South Carolina game.
SEC teams usually draw capacity crowds whose thunder can unnerve a team when something goes wrong. Make a few mistakes and a team's confidence can evaporate quickly away from the encouraging cheers of home fans.
That's part of the mental side of road games where focus becomes important.
Loosely defined, focus means concentration and preparation. That means resting enough the night before, and if you can't sleep maybe you study the scouting report again instead of watching HBO until 2 a.m., one player said. It means obeying the team rules, keeping the clowning around to a minimum and looking forward to the game instead of the steak dinner.
"We definitely have to go into this as a business trip and not a vacation to see the United States," nose guard Curt Davis said.
The last time Arkansas left home to play -- at LSU last November, it started out as a pleasure trip and turned into a disaster.
Several players left their hotel rooms after curfew, some crossing the street to buy items at a convenience store. Others stayed up in their rooms until the wee hours of the morning.
The next day, LSU dismantled Arkansas 35-10. A few players were seen joking on the sideline in the game's final moments as if oblivious to the nationally televised whipping they'd just taken.
Nutt addressed the team about the problems and disciplined a few of the players.
It's the kind of situation that a coach would like his seniors to handle before it becomes a situation. Laying down the law wasn't a strength of last year's seniors.
Add the seemingly constant spread of family, friends and fans lingering around the team hotel, and the potential for distractions is huge.
"What's difficult is the way the hotel is set up," Nutt said, referring to the LSU trip. "Your rooms open out to the hotel and there's a big lobby with aunts and uncles and friends out there. Then you've got some of them going across the street with a 7-11 over there, where as at the Excelsior or in Bentonville [before Little Rock and Fayetteville games, respectively] you don't have that problem."
In an effort to reduce the distractions, Nutt has limited the time players can spend socializing with family and friends to between dinner and the 8 p.m. team meeting. After the meeting, about 9 p.m., players are to go to their rooms and stay for the night, Nutt said.
Usually, the team will watch a movie after dinner. But that has been eliminated this week so the players can go to bed early. Kickoff is 12:37 p.m. EDT.
Nutt started reigning in the team at the Jan. 1 Cotton Bowl when he took the starters and key reserves out of the headquarters hotel and to another hotel the night before the game. Nutt kept the location secret from family and friends and even surprised the players with the relocation.
The team went to sleep early for the 10:10 a.m. kickoff the next day and went on to beat Texas 27-6.
"You can't stay up all night and expect to be full strength for the game," junior guard La'Zerius White said.
White said he has a feeling that this team has better chemistry and a better chance of withstanding trouble on the road.
"A lot of people don't have faith in us on the road," White said. "But we know what we have to do. We just need to go out and focus and do it."

This article was published on Friday, October 13, 2000

RETURN to main page

Copyright and permissions
Copyright © 2000, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.