Arkansas fans, let's come clean. Air this out once & 4 all..

I definatly do not mean to cause enemies with you guys/gals. I like your athletic programs.

When you set your expectations for your football program year after year you need to remember that status quo conference season for Ark is going to be about what you saw this year at 2-6 and it's what you'll see in 09. I think over a 20 year period you would have more 2-6's than anything else. A few 1-7's, a few 3-5's, a few 4-4's and a very few better than 4-4. You need to get an understanding of your conference competition and their recruiting base, how many guys within 50, 100, 200 miles grow up wanting to play for those programs or who move in there and end up there b/c they want to stay close to family or girlfriend etc ,who ultimately get drafted compared to Ark, compare fan following size, stadium size, there are alot of indicators you can point to to help tell you where you are. Most around the nation would compare Arkansas in football to kentucky. They both have about equal recruit base, and Kentucky has about 20 more million in it's annual budget. Kentucky does share with Louisville in recruiting. Another program to compare to outside of the SEC is Purdue. Not alot of tradition in conference, decent recruiting base, and in the lower 1/3rd of the conference in terms of potential. Purdue has 33 active NFLers after this draft and free agent signing. Arkansas has 25. so by that logic you would think if Bear bryant was coaching both programs Purdue would probabaly win 6 or 7 out of 10 matchups.

I'm tired of hearing this "he had dmac, felix, and Hillis, and that's all he could do" statement.

Most of you are football novices so let me break this down. It takes more than a backfield, some of whom where injured at various times of their careers, to win a national championship in the SEC. YOu also need a defense and when you had all those Little Rock defensive linemen, anchored by #1 round draft pick Jamaal Anderson in 06, it gave you a chance to overacheive. In 06 you would of been at or near the top of the SEC in rushing regardless of if Dmac and Felix were ever born b/c Nutt always was up there. Dmac was a safety in highschool and punt returner. He was somewhat of an emergency tailback. Felix wanted to play for Bob Stoops but they wouldn't recruit him. So, you could say Nutt had something to do with developing them into first round backs. Arkansas' biggest problem is there is not enough defensive size and speed in the immediate recruiting base to compete consistantly with SEC teams like their is at LSU, Bama, Auburn, MS, even MSU puts a DL or 2 in the NFL each year. How many players in the NFL right now grew up playing highschool defense in Arkansas? Harrison, Dacus? and that's about all I think and they were 08 draftees. Prior to that I think there were years where there were none. Anderson was a 200lbs wide out that they bulked up to 270.

So, that is why you should be happy with 6-6 and just a bowl game.