re: Say what you want about Cal

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Good grief, I just asked the dude a simple question. Not being derogatory towards your coach. Lighten up, get over it.

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Didn't go the way you figured, did it?

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Didn't go the way you figured, did it?

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Par for the course right now. A bunch of touchy feelings around here. It’s fun though.

Did you ever answer my question? I haven’t looked.

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Par for the course right now. A bunch of touchy feelings around here. It’s fun though.

Did you ever answer my question? I haven’t looked.

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Funny, you didn't answer mine:

What about Arkansas's situation do you feel was more difficult than what Pope inherited at Kentucky for this season?

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What about Arkansas's situation do you feel was more difficult than what Pope inherited at Kentucky for this season?

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I'd say they were pretty comparable. Lots of parallels, and I think Cal had it plenty difficult this year.

- Got to Arkansas with zero players on the roster. Recall Trevon Brazile was already in the portal. Cal had to re-recruit him to come back.

- Didn't get all of the people from KY to follow him that he wanted.

- Between the kids that followed from KY, High School recruits who switched their commitment, and the Portal, Cal entered the Summer/Fall with 9 players.

- By the time the regular season started, Jonas Aidoo was coming off of foot surgery (moving poorly and nowhere near 100%), and Nelly was hampered by a wrist injury what was much worse than anyone let on.

- About the time those two were finally getting healthy and starting to contribute, both Boogie Fland and Adou Thiero went down within 2 games of each other.

At no time between November and January was the team able to scrimmage against each other or experiment with lineups against directional schools, because there was never a full complement of healthy bodies. As a result, the non-conference and early SEC games were disjointed and difficult to watch.

Out of necessity, when Boogie and Thiero went down, everyone that remained had to play and everyone had to be as aggressive/selfish as possible in order for the Hogs to succeed. That's when the roles emerged and the team was formed. And to Boogie's credit, he understands what helped them form that team, so when he came back, he already knew how to rejoin without disrupting.

If you've watched every episode of "Razor's Edge" on Vice TV as I have, you'll know from the behind-the-scenes clips just how well Cal kept these guys engaged and positive through the difficult times while also challenging them to keep improving.

Cal stopped trying at Kentucky, and the fans knew it. There was no way he could redeem himself there after that. If he hadn't left, they would have fired him. They have very high expectations, and you better deliver or progress towards delivering, or you get replaced.

He either lucked into success when Boogie got injured, and the lineup shuffled, or he is trying to redeem himself in the sports world by coaching his arse off to prove he still has it.

Either way, I don't think he will be at Arkansas long. He will either fail or succeed, but whatever drove him to stop trying at Kentucky is still there, just below the surface. It will come up for air again.

Yeah but he doesn't rip his shirt off after every victory

Agree completely, it was best for all parties.

Wrong, Mitch Barnhardt wasn't going to fire him, his buyout was way to high. Plus he broke his contract by speaking to Arkansas without informing the AD Barnhardt, which in turn allowed him to be terminated and not ha e to pay his buyout. This backfired horribly on Cal.

He was thinking he would use the offer of another school that AD Barnhardt and the AA would build him a new practice facility and other things. Cal was pissed because he felt the football program was getting more $$$$, new training center and stadium renovation among other things, even though the bball program already had top flight facilities.

Barnhardt would not have fired him had he not talked with Arkansas without notifying and asking Barnhardt permission to do that. It worked out for us and it worked out for y'all too. We needed a fresh start and he did too, Cal had lost the fanbase but he is so arrogant he didn't believe that, yes there was a small % of the fans that loved and wanted him but the majority were ready for him to move on.

I like how tough Arkansas has been since they won in Lexington. The depth is worrisome but that is our problem as well. I think Arkansas has a better chance of advancing than Ole Miss. But we are both happy to be in the sweet 16.

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The reality is it was best for all parities but there will absolutely be folks claiming Kentucky was the problem.

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Honestly, all the sour grapes from you guys seemed to come not from us hiring Cal, but that Pope was demonstrably an underwhelming hire at the time for Kentucky's brand. It seems to be working out, but he was very much a B-tier name. It had nothing to do with us or Cal. The bitterness is/was played up drastically.

Cal didn't really suck for all that long at UK. He had like three underwhelming years, but it had started to look like a pattern. Maybe he would have figured it out this year even if he never left. Maybe he only could with a change of scenery. Maybe this year is fool's gold and he'll make the NIT the next three years in a row. It's like Tennessee with Barnes after Texas fired him. It was a gamble, but it turns out dude wasn't done yet, he was just done at Texas.

He's proven himself as a coach of the highest caliber and Musselman hasn't, but at this point in their careers, I'd have taken Muss over him ten times out of ten. But he seemed to not be happy in this region and there's nothing that anyone can do about that, so we put down the money to prove that, win or lose, we're at least serious about trying. I just wish we'd do that in football.