Is there any realistic scenario where we have sustained success?

If we were able to do it in the 60's through the 80's before there was a regional airport, an interstate that cut out the treacherous drive up 71 and there wasn't national TV games every week and the internet and streaming sites so that anyone around the globe could watch basically every game if they wanted to then there's not really much to complain about regarding the perceived disadvantages we have as a program. That is just excuse making.

It all boils down to who is leading the athletic department and the football program. We have yankees that do not understand the south and what it takes to win in the south among the other monsters in the SEC.

Maybe running from Texas sealed our fate as a has been, but it was the right move for the long term but we kinda sacrificed our football program.

Get an admin that is obsessed with winning and not just going through the motions with a halo over our heads.

Being sanctimonious among the middle of the pack isn't an enviable place to be.

I've suggested Arkansas adopt 8-man football so the small towns can field competitive teams and increase the quality of play across the state. No one replied to that thread so I assume everyone ignored it as Arkansas is known to do as a state just ignore things until they get too bad to keep turning a shoulder.

Get better coaches, get an AD that wants to win more than collect paychecks and give huge checks.

Gus was probably the right choice a decade ago but we screwed that up as always.

What is so hard about finding a guy who can at least try to replicate the template Oklahoma has set up and that is use your games in the state of Texas(and we have been playing a good number of them lately) as a way to help your programs recruiting efforts

Well the first thing to do is not panic. We had a bad game. It happens. Some changes are going to need to be made to our coaching staff. Should be an interesting off season.

As for our recruiting disadvantage, huge chunks of the state are effectively dead zones and LR just doesn't produce the talent they used to. The Arkansas Delta isn't going to come roaring back any time soon. Fortunately NW Arkansas is exploding in population so twenty or thirty years from now demographics might actually be on our side for a change. Which is cold comfort now.

Sustained success is possible. We will need coaches with ties to the South that can recruit here. We need to find a way to get the LR programs back from the dead. We need to stay the course of improvement, and if that means firing a coach that has hit his ceiling then so be it but I'm not ready to shite can Bert just yet.

We are not a quick fix program unless one of those golden generations of Arkansas talent poofs into existence in the next year or two. Recruiting the scum of the Earth is no guarantee for quick success either, Ole Miss has four losses this year and the NCAA getting ready to drop the hammer on them.

If we are going to make it back to the upper echelons of college football its going to take time to make that happen. It probably wouldn't hurt if one of the Walmart heirs decided to start pouring hundreds of millions into the program either.

YES!!! By cheating our asses off. But we'll still need decent coaching.

First thing's first, we need to drop the whole "we only recruit good men" shite. We were the best team we've ever been when we recruited dudes that could flat out ball no matter what their attitude was. Hate him for how he left the program all you want, but Petrino will always win more than Bert because he doesn't get hung up on stupid shite. He wants to win. Period. That has to be our mindset if winning big is the priority. Right now it seems like our graduation rate and "holier than thou" viewpoint on recruiting is the priority. We will never win that way.