Eating Crow After the Razorbacks Lose to Toledo

Well Hog nation, its time for me to suck it up and “eat the crow” from my last article. Mark Beier, the voice of the Toledo Rockets, said in an interview earlier last week, Toledo wouldn’t be intimidated playing “a non-premier” SEC team. I then used the word “laughable” at one point in my previous article talking about how ridiculous Mr.Beier’s statements were. Well after watching the game Saturday in Little Rock, it turns out my article was laughable. Not only was Mark very correct in saying Toledo had no reason to fear Arkansas but the Hogs are in fact not even close to a premier team in all of college football much less the SEC.

Not only do I need to take my dessert of humble pie but I think we as a fan base need to all take a piece. Little Rock fans are upset about getting these “cupcake” games so they don’t support the Hogs when they play at War Memorial. Guess what? We lost. The stadium was not a sellout and the fans that were there, sat in their seats the entire game. The loudest it got was when the Hogs were trying to score and booing them when they didn’t. I am not blaming the L on the fans but I assure you, it doesn’t help to boo a group of young men on the field who are already struggling. I am now firmly in the camp of ending games here permanently.

Sep 12, 2015; Little Rock, AR, USA; The Toledo Rockets celebrate against the Arkansas Razorbacks at War Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

The absolute worst part of this loss is just how bad we were out coached. All week long we heard how much better the defense would be. Toledo was missing their star running back and still destroyed us. Another thing one might have heard listening to the media and coaches, was how we had great talent at receiver. My question is, where were they? We continuously put the same players on the field that quite frankly, were not working. For instance a quote from Bielema on Dominique Reed, “He has border line… Olympic speed.” Yeah? Where’s it at? I know he was suspended the first half but I don’t think he took the field one time in the second. The big time play maker Jojo Robinson was taken off suspension as well for this game and all I have heard is how good he is. Where’s he at?

I completely understand that these are young players and we didn’t want to overwhelm them. However, when you are loosing and continuously trying the same thing over and over, don’t expect anything to change. It almost reminds me of the feeling I had when I sat in the stands in Columbia to watch the Razorbacks loss against Mizzou last year. We had players not working out on the field with the talent behind them and never made the conscious decision to use that talent.