re: Arkansas is "Running Back U" - #1 ESPN

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But people only say that about us

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I think that is because Bama is the standard, and the only way recently to beat that standard is to go with an untraditional offense (OU and Auburn last year, TAMU in 2012).

It comes from the idea that the goal of everyone in the SEC should be to win it, which means knocking off Bama (and to a different extent LSU). I get it though, Arky fans would be happy with winning every other game except Bama and LSU. We would too for a while.

I think the other implied issue is that Bama, with all its talent, cannot stop these non traditional offenses with a traditional gameplan, so how can a team with less talent be successful trying to do the same thing?

The idea is that the SEC is turning into a mini Big 12 where half the games are a boat race, so the teams who practice in a permanent two minute drill will have the advantage when games turn out that way.

Same thing happened to A&M in the 00's. We didn't drop off on talent map immediately after RC, but we kept getting into "who scores last" games with less talented teams like Texas Tech which we would lose because we were less prepared.

I personally don't think this is a long-term problem for the hogs though. I mean yeah, I think Bert is going to get canned in two seasons when the fanbase gets sick of losing boatraces. But he is going to leave behind a solid oline unit that the next coach who comes in (who should be a HUNH coach with Texas connections if the Arky leaders have a lick of sense) can use to make progress quickly. Look at A&M in 2012- once you have the oline built dictating the pace of the game via your offense becomes much easier.