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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 10:46 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 10:54 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 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 11:20 am to panhandlebama
quote:
Are they just happy being mediocre?
Well they are mediocre this year and they do seem happy about it.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 12:07 pm to panhandlebama
Teams that have sucked for years will continue to suck.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 12:18 pm to panhandlebama
Because they will never be as good as Alabama. And it you aren't as good as Bama, where does that leave you?
Posted on 11/12/21 at 12:28 pm to panhandlebama
They don’t produce in state talent. They’ll never be a championship contender, especially with Texas, A&M, and Oklahoma now in the SEC.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 12:42 pm to panhandlebama
There’s not that many of us. We only pump out enough talent to fill about a third of an upper echelon SEC roster. That means about two thirds of our roster HAS to come from out of state. Even with a staff that recruits well, we’re generally gonna settle on at least half of those guys.
In a situation like 2016-2019 where we go through a dry spell with the instate pool and our staff does a poor job of evaluating/developing talent, we’re completely screwed. We need the in state talent to be on the high end of the range and we need a staff that does a good job with what it has. On the other hand, LSU can lose half of its best in state guys, have a moron for a coach and still field a very talented team.
In a situation like 2016-2019 where we go through a dry spell with the instate pool and our staff does a poor job of evaluating/developing talent, we’re completely screwed. We need the in state talent to be on the high end of the range and we need a staff that does a good job with what it has. On the other hand, LSU can lose half of its best in state guys, have a moron for a coach and still field a very talented team.
This post was edited on 11/12/21 at 12:44 pm
Posted on 11/12/21 at 12:43 pm to panhandlebama
They've had too many years of being awful due to them hiring Jeff Long as AD.
They're happy now just to win 5 or 6 games per year.
They're happy now just to win 5 or 6 games per year.
Posted on 11/12/21 at 1:09 pm to panhandlebama
They could still be very competitive. All it takes is an amazing coaching staff, some big TX linemen, and a talented bunch, think Mustain/McFadden/Jones/Hillis/Monk
Posted on 11/12/21 at 1:26 pm to panhandlebama
Location. It's a tough sell to convince these OOS kids to go to Arkansas, and the in-state options that are elite tend to go elsewhere
Posted on 11/12/21 at 1:51 pm to panhandlebama
A&M destroyed their program when they made the trip over
Posted on 11/12/21 at 1:59 pm to panhandlebama
A weak instate recruiting base + ethical boosters = losing.
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