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Why can't Arkansas be a football powerhouse?
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:40 am
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:40 am
Back in the old SWC days they had some epic games with Texas. Are they just happy being mediocre? Does the administration not care enough to put the resources into it?
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Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:41 am to panhandlebama
Bert ate all the resources
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:41 am to panhandlebama
We can. Had a terrible AD for most of this century. Hunter will lead us into a new era of dominance in all sports. Only been here a couple of years and you can already see the difference.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:43 am to V Bainbridge
The state don't produce enough cruits and we're not paying enough for the out of staters.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:46 am to Poker_hog
quote:
The state don't produce enough cruits and we're not paying enough for the out of staters.
Well we are the home of Walmart. We really like pinching our pennies.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:46 am to panhandlebama
The biggest problem is they don't have enough elite in state talent to recruit from. For them to be a powerhouse they would have to pull recruits from out of state consistently to add to the in state recruiting to be consistently great.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:48 am to panhandlebama
Too many high schoolers get distracted from football by attractive looking goats.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:50 am to panhandlebama
quote:
Back in the old SWC days they had some epic games with Texas
They weren’t a powerhouse back then either
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:51 am to ColdTurkey
quote:
Bert ate all the resources
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:52 am to Abstract Queso Dip
quote:Damn dog! How you gonna diss your mama?!
Too many high schoolers get distracted from football by attractive looking goats.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:53 am to Rawanduncut
quote:
they don't have enough elite in state talent to recruit from
While this is true I think it's just an overstated talking point. We have proximity to lots of talent. E Texas and Oklahoma produce a good bit of talent and are close. Have N LA and Memphis that aren't too far away either. We are a little far but it's not like we are light years away from talent hubs like Nebraska.
We aren't going to be top 5 recruiters but we can stay in the top 20 with the right staff. Portal is going to change the entire dynamic with recruiting and we can use it to make up the gap.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:54 am to panhandlebama
The biggest thing Arkansas has going against it is the lack of in-state talent. The University is lovely, Fayetteville is a great town, the stadium is impressive, and the fan support is there. But you can't fix the talent pool.
For example, for the 2022 class the State of Arkansas has just four four-star caliber recruits per 247 composite. The 2021 class had just one four-star caliber recruit. The 2020 class had just two. By comparison, Texas has 51 such players in the 2022 class, 51 in 2021, and 55 in 2020.
So Arkansas has to pluck a large portion of its recruiting class each and every year from talent-rich states like Texas, Mississippi, or Louisiana. And all of those talent pools are saturated by local SEC and/or other heavyweight P5 programs.
Even Mizzou (which is also the sole P5 program in its state) has eight in-state four-star caliber recruits in 2022, five in 2021, and five in 2020. Nearly three times the amount of in-state talent as Arkansas had to offer. Mizzou also has the benefit of having a lack of strong FBS competition in the neighboring states of Kansas and Illinois, and has a lot of success recruiting talent from those places. Arkansas doesn't really have that luxury, with Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi being its neighbors. True, they can recruit against Mizzou, but most of our talent does not come from the southern part of Missouri, where Arkansas has a solid foothold.
For example, for the 2022 class the State of Arkansas has just four four-star caliber recruits per 247 composite. The 2021 class had just one four-star caliber recruit. The 2020 class had just two. By comparison, Texas has 51 such players in the 2022 class, 51 in 2021, and 55 in 2020.
So Arkansas has to pluck a large portion of its recruiting class each and every year from talent-rich states like Texas, Mississippi, or Louisiana. And all of those talent pools are saturated by local SEC and/or other heavyweight P5 programs.
Even Mizzou (which is also the sole P5 program in its state) has eight in-state four-star caliber recruits in 2022, five in 2021, and five in 2020. Nearly three times the amount of in-state talent as Arkansas had to offer. Mizzou also has the benefit of having a lack of strong FBS competition in the neighboring states of Kansas and Illinois, and has a lot of success recruiting talent from those places. Arkansas doesn't really have that luxury, with Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi being its neighbors. True, they can recruit against Mizzou, but most of our talent does not come from the southern part of Missouri, where Arkansas has a solid foothold.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:56 am to V Bainbridge
Y'all need to put on a bunch of HS coaching clinics and camps and then maybe your talent will elevate at the local level.
This post was edited on 11/12/21 at 10:57 am
Posted on 11/12/21 at 10:59 am to Jrv2damac
quote:
They weren’t a powerhouse back then either
Ark/Texas was one of the biggest games of the year in the 60s and we absolutely were a powerhouse then. The "Game of the Century" term was coined from the 69 matchup.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 11:02 am to Abstract Queso Dip
NWA has been producing more talent lately but the amount coming out of Central Ark has gone down. We need the LR metro to start producing more. All the kids here just want to play hoops though. Which is why we produce a crazy amount of BBall recruits.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 11:08 am to panhandlebama
My son and I had a conversation about this recently at least in the context of a comparison to LSU. He graduated from Arkansas. "My response to him: 45 minutes south of Fayettevile, you find Fort Smith. About that far south of Baton Rouge you find New Orleans". Their football playing population doesn't provide for much of a recruiting base.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 11:12 am to panhandlebama
Arkansas was solid but not a true powerhouse
It’s just different playing against teams like Rice, TCU, SMU, and having the big game against Texas and maybe A&M (or 80s SMU). And typically Texas wasn’t as good as Alabama or Oklahoma/Nebraska
If they were in the Big8 they would’ve had 2 auto losses every year with Nebraska and OU. Obviously they’d beat them every now and then, but from 1970-1990 they’d normally be no higher than 3rd in that conference.
It’s just different playing against teams like Rice, TCU, SMU, and having the big game against Texas and maybe A&M (or 80s SMU). And typically Texas wasn’t as good as Alabama or Oklahoma/Nebraska
If they were in the Big8 they would’ve had 2 auto losses every year with Nebraska and OU. Obviously they’d beat them every now and then, but from 1970-1990 they’d normally be no higher than 3rd in that conference.
This post was edited on 11/12/21 at 11:12 am
Posted on 11/12/21 at 11:12 am to panhandlebama
Because there can only be so many football powerhouses
Posted on 11/12/21 at 11:13 am to Jrv2damac
quote:
They weren’t a powerhouse back then either
We were a top 10-15 program for about three decades from the 60's-80's.
Our problem is being a small state where most of our top athletes now are playing basketball (and giving us top 5 basketball recruiting classes). But other programs like Oregon and Wisconsin are able to field really good teams despite not having great in-state talent either so there is proof that it can be overcome. The SEC is just full of resources and a top 20 class can be in the lower half of the conference where it would be toward the top anywhere else.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 11:20 am to panhandlebama
quote:
Are they just happy being mediocre?
Well they are mediocre this year and they do seem happy about it.
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