Like it is: Injuries no excuse, but only part of Hogs' problems

WALLY HALL
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

About three weeks ago, the first one came, then another and another.
They are e-mails and, basically, they have said:
"I'm sick of injuries being an excuse. What's really wrong with the Hogs?"
To begin with, injuries are not an excuse.
This season, the Razorbacks have had 28 players miss at least one game because of injury.
Eight players have been lost for the season and at least four of those were starters or projected to contribute.
But that is just part of why the Razorbacks are standing at 4-5, staring at 4-7.
When the Razorbacks take the field Saturday in Starkville, Miss., they will start six seniors, of which only five -- Quinton Caver, J.J. Jones, Randy Garner, Michael Snowden and Rod Stinson -- started with the program out of high school. Boo Williams came out of junior college.
Because Danny Ford didn't recruit as well as he should have his last two seasons, Clint Stoerner, Kenoy Kennedy, David Barrett and Michael Williams didn't get to redshirt.
They should be playing at the UA this fall instead of the NFL.
It would be a waste of time to say the Hogs would have been better with those guys.
To add to that problem area, Houston Nutt had just a little more than a month to put together his first recruiting class three years ago, and of the 25 signed, eight are no longer on campus for one reason or another.
Plus, of that entire class, only nine have worked hard enough to become starters (4) or contributors.
Compare that to the next class Nutt and his staff recruited, all but four are still there (Gary Brashears is the big missing piece), 11 of them have started sometime during this season and a few others have seen action.
J. Strain also was being counted on before being lost for the season.
Injuries and inexperience have been the main reasons for this season.
However, the reasons don't really end there. At this point, the problems require a little more subjective look.
To begin with, it doesn't appear there is much leadership on the field.
Two years ago, Russ Brown and Grant Garrett believed so deeply in Nutt, they became the senior leaders every program must have to be successful.
They patrolled the dorm, the sidelines, the field and even the dressing room.
They, along with Brandon Burlsworth, also totally devoted themselves to being the strongest and best players they could be. All three could bench press 500 pounds.
All three played with pain. They knew the difference in ache and injury.
When they left, Stoerner took over the leadership role.
No one wanted to blow an assignment and then come back and face the quarterback in the huddle.
This season, no one has stepped up.
Robby Hampton is a great, great person. But he's quiet and reserved. And in answer to another question, he is not good at throwing over the middle.
Zak Clark came in against South Carolina and showed a little swagger, but since then, interceptions seem to have dented his confidence.
John Rutledge has been a wonderful story, but he is about three months shy on practice time.
Truthfully, it may take Kenny Sandlin, Josh Melton and La'Zerius White to take charge.
Ken Hamlin tried to lead on the other side of the ball, but as so often happens with freshmen, it became noise instead of words of encouragement.
Lack of field leadership is why a team can collapse like the Razorbacks did against Georgia and Tennessee.
Next problem: The offense started slow -- and some of that may have been because Cedric Cobbs wasn't great enough to carry the whole team -- but it has gotten better with Fred Talley in the lineup.
The defense had basically carried the team until the Tennessee game, and either it took a weekend off or the early punt return to the 5-yard line was a knife to its heart.
What it all boils down to is this team has been racked with injuries and lacked experience.
Throw in a lack of field leadership and they are lucky to be 4-5.

This article was published on Friday, November 17, 2000

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