Taking out the trash

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Trash talking is as much a part of football as bootlegs and blitzes.
How noticeable the war of words is can depend on when it happens. Do it when your team is winning and it seems to blend in with the scenery. But sound off when you've just been beaten on a play or your team is losing and it stands out like banjo music at debutante ball.
Several Arkansas players have stood out for their talking during the five-game SEC losing streak.
The latest display of talking, strutting, chest beating, finger waving and head shaking came during Arkansas' 63-20 debacle at Tennessee on Saturday.
Players on both sides talked trash. One side backed it up.
The next day, Coach Houston Nutt told his players to tone it down and to recognize when excess verbiage is not appropriate.
"There's no place, no room for a bunch of trash talk," Nutt said. "I don't like it."
Tennessee led 35-0 in the first quarter and 42-14 at halftime.
Vols tailback Travis Henry is used to hearing an earful, and the main mouthpiece Saturday was free safety Ken Hamlin, a redshirt freshman. Henry, who rushed for a career-high 214 yards, responded on a third-quarter series by running over Hamlin on a 10-yard gain and then two plays later stiff-arming him to complete a 17-yard touchdown run.
"He was talking the whole game, but I kept quiet and I was just waiting for the time we'd be one on one," Henry said. "I got the chance and won the battle."
In a 21-19 loss Oct. 28 at Auburn, Derrick Johnson knocked tailback Rudi Johnson out of bounds, struck a pose and taunted him.
Nutt would prefer that the handful of players who trash talk would tame their tongues when they play 13th-ranked Mississippi State on Saturday at Starkville.
For an older generation of former athletes and many fans, it's difficult to understand all the trash talking that goes on when a team is losing and losing badly like Arkansas was against Tennessee.
All of the showmanship has a purpose, even when the team is behind, players say.
"You never want to be dead," Hamlin said. "If you don't have that emotion, then they've got you where they want you. Most of those people haven't been on the field and seen us play and understand the emotion we put into the game. Being down 28-0 doesn't mean you're out of the game."
Receiver Boo Williams, a chronic talker who backs it up with his play, agreed.
"It's different from the old days," Williams said. "I play off a lot of emotion. It doesn't matter if we're down 80-0, I'm going to be fighting to get my team back in it."
Emotion plays a big role in Nutt's program. He fuels it and the last thing he wants is for his players to become lifeless robots. Nutt said he just wants them to know when and how to celebrate.
"I've always told them, I don't want them to be pushed around," Nutt said. "If one of our guys gets slung under the bench or something, I expect four or five guys to go over and get him, a support deal. But just to sit around and talk, put your face mask in his face mask, it's wasted energy. You're asking for a penalty."
The Razorbacks will be playing against perhaps the league's premier talker in Mississippi State senior cornerback Fred Smoot. A website, which is not sanctioned by Smoot or the university, has been set up to tout him and his wisdom. The website address is www.SmootSmack.com
"I talk all day, four quarters," Smoot said earlier this season. "One guy even tried to spit on me, but I'm not gonna stop. You can forget it, I'm not going anywhere so they might as well get used to it."
Bulldogs Coach Jackie Sherrill said "hopefully" his team has not done much trash talking.
"I don't even know who has it, but somebody has a website that supposedly uses Fred's name to it that probably says some things that are not correct and are not authentic," Sherrill said. "We can't do anything about that. I don't [think] our players give the opponents very many quotes though."
Smoot, who The Sporting News has projected as a first-round NFL draft pick, portrays himself more as an entertainer and character than an antagonizer.
Hamlin and Williams said they don't cross into personal remarks.
"It's like basketball, you tell a guy, 'You can't hold me,' or 'You can't stop me, I'm going to be here all day long,'" Hamlin said. "Some people, you can get into their head."
Using trash talk as psychological warfare is part of the game, Williams said. He fires shots but tries to dodge the incoming ones.
"I don't even try to listen," Williams said. "I try to get my words out and go back to the huddle."
Nutt would like to see the going back to the huddle part emphasized more.

This article was published on Thursday, November 16, 2000

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