re: Arkansas's lack of recruiting

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No argument from me, but any team in the nation would be in close the same shape if...

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Before I even read beyond this, I'm going to say... "If Dennis Franchione and Mike Sherman coached your team for a decade".

It doesn't matter what happened in the past. Figure it out. Bad coaching hires happen. Either act like they were anomalies or learn from them.

The thing that strikes me about Arkansas is that their fan base doesn't get it. They don't get it at all.

My initial response was to someone saying:

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Bert was a solid hire when we got him. What went wrong? I honestly don't know. I mean we all see the results, but don't know why he wasn't successful here.

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I then spent about an hour laying out why he wasn't successful at a fundamental level. Sure. It had to do with him, but he perpetuated systematic issues, and didn't address others. And then a different Arkansas fan saw a tiny flaw in the argument laid out, as if to undermine the larger premise... jumping to that immediately. Like a travel agent bitching about a misnamed beach his clients won't pay to go to.

Y'all don't get it. It's not just the man in charge. It's systemic. It will take time to fix. It will take deliberate action. Once you acknowledge that you have larger issues, which will take swallowing some pride, you might figure it out.

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1. They had a Petrinoesque wreck of defining nature.

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You had an interim year and then hired away someone from Wisconsin. He sucked. Why do Bielema's failures relate to Petrino? Spoiler Alert: they don't. Petrino didn't recruit at an elite level anyway. But let's live out a hypothetical where he did. Coaches frick up. O well. You have to adjust. If the next guy knows what to do... "Petrinoesque wrecks" mean absolutely nothing. Nothing.

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2. They had a Smile interm for a season.

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Luke Fickel coached Ohio State between Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. This is the biggest bunch of bullshite ever. An interim means nothing. If Bielema knew how to win, John L. Smith would have been an after thought.

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3. They had a CBB, Big 10 style of football philosophy change, with such a crappy coaching and strength and conditioning program.

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"Strength and conditioning program" is such a message board whining mentality and is the perfect sign of someone looking for a convenient excuse. Under Bielema, the trap play of your offensive lineman, and how it wore on teams late in the season, is something that is widely credited Arkansas with wins. You had no problems in that area, in fact, you used strength and conditioning to your advantage. This point is complete nonsense.

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4. A power struggle between the AD and PTB constantly.

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Yeah. This stopped you from recruiting kids in DFW... why? Give me a break. An even bigger message board pussy excuse than the last.

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5. a weak recruiting staff with such a lack of local talent.

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So ridiculous. How many power programs mine the state of Oklahoma? None. In fact the state has two power programs, and Arkansas is 100 miles from Tulsa. Yet somehow they don't whine about the lack of local talent.

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It has been difficult as anything I have seen through the years for a non cheating program.

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How old are you? "non cheating program"... what does this even mean?

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I do believe we can, and will be competitive again but I am not sure how long it will take

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It will take someone in charge that doesn't view Arkansas football anywhere close to the way you do.

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Recruiting is the defining equation at this time.

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And it has been for a while. Arkansas hasn't won the SEC since they've joined. That's been a quarter century.

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If Morris is the O Guru we believe him to be, and he has the staff we seem to have, the facilities are definitely up to snuff... so... Recruiting must improve to fix the rest!

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It's not that simple, but yes. Recruiting must improve. Drastically. If you think a change in offensive philosophy is the only missing piece, you're beyond delusional.