The future looks bright!!!

[AFWarrior83]

Arkansas has a great Freshman class!
http://arkansas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=484758

[Spurrierismyhomeboy]

So does SC!!!!

[jbuzbee]

I'd be willing to wager with you SPIMH that McFadden wins freshman of the year. He came very close to being the first freshman since Hershel Walker and Emmit Smith to lead the SEC in rushing yards in his freshman year. Over 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns...not to mention the receptions and kick returns.

P.S. Barthel requested to be released from his scholarship today. I think he did the right thing cause you have to assume that Dick and Mustain got that position pretty well locked up.

[JerryBeeds]

I'd be willing to wager with you SPIMH that McFadden wins freshman of the year.

Well, you'd lose. Rice was named national freshmen of the year today. The SEC crown can't be far behind.

[Spurrierismyhomeboy]

What is your wager JBUZBEE!!!! I accept your challenge, AFWarrior is already eaten crow I guess you will follow!!!

[AFWarrior83]

What is your wager JBUZBEE!!!! I accept your challenge, AFWarrior is already eaten crow I guess you will follow!!!

How have I eaten crow? I said he would win SEC freshman, and I still say he will! :rolleyes:

[jbuzbee]

Its B.S. Rice isn't even a true freshman. No freshman was more dominant than McFadden this year....he got less than 10 carries in 3 games and still ended up where he did.

[WooHawg]

Things are looking great for next year. I have faith, but I hope its not another one of those "We have turned the corner, just wait until next year" bits. Regardless of the coaching, I think we have the talent to put together a good year. So what is a good year for us next year as in wins? It looks like Nutt is keeping his job as of right now so like him or not, he will be back it seems.
Yeah I can't blame Bathel, just hope he gets to a school and gets some playing time.

[jbuzbee]

Well, you'd lose. Rice was named national freshmen of the year today. The SEC crown can't be far behind.

I just saw that....congrats to Rice....However, I do not look at Rivals.com as the primary source for selecting the freshman of the year. I look more to traditional media to be the selectors of the National Player of the Year. Its a good award to be sure but I think there will be other sources giving the same award that will be more renowned (e.g. USA/Today; ESPN; Sports Illustrated...ACTUAL COACHES etc.).

Also....in looking at the Rivals.com Freshman All-American team I see that McFadden and Fairchild made first team and Luigs and Felix Jones made second team.

[Neo]

Its B.S. Rice isn't even a true freshman. No freshman was more dominant than McFadden this year....he got less than 10 carries in 3 games and still ended up where he did.



Sour Grapes.... :cool:

[Jay_Lupo]

How does Felix make the second team? lol. He led the nation. Casey might've made it had he been put in when Witke first wanted to (Auburn). Congrats to Rice. That's a great honor. Nat'l FOY. I checked the message boards and Rice and McFadden were getting some serious love from fans around the country. Of course, there were some Clemson fans on there dissing Rice, but that shouldn't be surprising. I though it was cool that these two are not just on the SEC radar, they're getting National love from experts and casual fans alike.

I was definitely glad to see four Hogs on there. I'm glad Fairchild made it. Of course, everyone and their mom has reaped tons of praise on McFadden and Jones this year and it's much deserved. Luiggs has been praised for his versitility on the offensive line. Nobody's really said too much about Freddie. He's just kind of quietly gone about his business and, like the rest of our defense, has gotten better and better each game. I've always said that I think FF will be a beast. He's was a friggin scary, scary monster in high school. That whole Central team was. Look at Mustain and Springdale. Nobody can even come close to touching them now, but last year, oh no. Springdale went to the Rock and got destroyed. Was that at Central or War Memorial? Anyway, lot of Hogs on that D, namely FF. He's skinny now and was thrown into the fire, but if and when he puts on 10-20 lbs of muscle, I think he'll be a friggin hoss as he gets older.

I think our future is bright and it's obvious that we may the right move firing Wommack and paying Herring the Cheddar. After 11 games, our D ranked 38th in the nation. Not bad. In fact, very solid. But according to drivetime, had it not been for USC's 740 yards and 10 tds, our D would be ranked 16th in the nation. Our D impressed the hell out of me. It's so, so, so damn physical too and that's what I love the most. Not only do I like Herring's results, but I just flat-out like his style. We got more sacks than we have since I can't even remember when and we hit the QB a ton this year. From the Auburn game on, we were knocking the sh*t out of every QB we saw. Spencer Tillman wouldn't shut up about how physical our D was and about how hard we were hitting.
Considering we return 9/11 on D definitely gives you hope.

Offensively, we're babies man. Everybody is either a soph. or freshman. I guess we'll return 10/11 here, and if you count Tubbs, that's 11/11. Plus we're adding God, or as he's known in Arkansas, Mitch Mustain. Although I'll go ahead and tell you, Mitch will have to battle his ass off w/ Casey for that job next year. Casey Dick was very effective in four games. If we can turn into any type of legitimate passing threat, I think McFadden will tear up jack and our running game will be more potent. I'm also loving the fact that we return 99% of our O-line and all of our WRs.

With that said, this team still has something to prove to me. They remind me of our basketball team. Oh yeah, they played the hell out of some of the best in the land, but they also blew games when they outplayed their opponent. They lost close game after close game after close game. What was it? Something like 4 SEC losses by 13 points plus Alabama and Auburn, whose fans will tell you those scores (11 and 17) were closer than they looked. We were driving on Bama with under 4 minutes for the go ahead TD and led Auburn at half 10-6 after getting 3 points on 3 trips inside their 10. But we lost everyone.

The future is bright, I agree, but this team's gotta have a gut-check like they did against LSU last week every time they take the field next year. They need to play pissed off and with a chip on their shoulder. They need to make sure they do whatever it is they need to do to win the close ones. If we do that, then yes, I think the future is very, very bright. But we've got to prove we can drive for the winning score and win when it's tight.

[jbuzbee]

Sour Grapes.... :cool:

Just facts.
:)