Two careers ago, shortly after I began my time in newspapers, fresh-faced and blissfully unaware of the industry’s encroaching doom, I learned about the most dreaded day in the sports calendar.
It’s the day after the MLB All-Star game, when there’s little happening and even less to write about. These, I thought, were the times that tried the sport editor’s soul.
It’s when we would trot out our gimmicks. Legend has it, an intrepid editor at some far-flung locale once ran a headline proclaiming The Most Boring Sports Day of the Year, and left the rest of the front page blank.
It’s when the more duty-bound or less brave among us would finally get around to going to chat with the hometown bowler on a perfect game hot streak, or the 9-year-old who aced a local par 3.
Anything to fill the spools and spools of waiting, empty newsprint. That was one of the drawbacks of the medium; so many words to write, so much space to fill, even on slow news days.
That’s when I learned the value of the notebook column, a favored tool of many frustrated sports scribes. When you were short on subject matter, the idea was basically to empty the contents of the spiral-bound pad, and the beauty was that none of it had to amount to a full story. Just string a few topics together and before you knew it you had yourself 650 words of tidy, moderately interesting copy that an editor would grudgingly accept.
This week, though, I’ve relearned an appreciation for life in a daily news cycle. Before fatherhood shuffled my priorities, I loved my newspaper job, but the truth is, it’s often grunt work, thanklessly done in two-star hotels at Waffle House hours under too-tight deadlines.
But the stories never pile up on you when you’re shoveling them out everyday, and after the last week, I feel like I’d need a backhoe to move the accumulation of Razorback-related content worth writing about.
Lacking that, we’re pulling out the notebook column, which works equally well whether you’ve got too little to write about or too much.
Celebrating the New Year in style
Remember New Year’s Day? Even if a month’s worth of headlines have piled up in the intervening days, in Earth time, less than a week has passed since Sam Pittman stood, dripping with Gatorade under a warm Tampa sun, praising his team and the Razorback faithful in the aftermath of the Hogs’ 24-10 win over Penn State in the Outback Bowl.
It was the capstone on one of the most remarkable two-year turnarounds in program history and the best season in a decade, and it’s worth remembering.
Playing without Treylon Burks, one of the most gifted players in program history, the Arkansas offense sputtered badly in the second quarter, causing untold numbers of us to wring our hands raw and curse the invention of the wide receiver double pass.
But credit where it’s due: the coaching staff realized that our running backs averaged more than six yards per carry in the first half and wisely decided to find out what would happen if we also unleashed KJ Jefferson on the ground.
The result: more than 350 rushing yards for the game, 17 unanswered points in the third quarter, and a 14-point margin that felt more like 40 by the time it was done.
The defense was also worthy of praise, especially against the pass, where Penn State completed less than half of its attempts and was picked off twice.
But about that pass defense…
Why is everybody leaving?!?!
Shortly after the game was done, the Arkansas defense suffered its first setback of the offseason when Montarric Brown announced he was entering the NFL draft. Certainly a major loss, but not a surprise. Brown had a great career, a phenomenal final season, and will likely be on a professional roster next fall.
Running back Trelon Smith also announced he would be departing – either for the NFL or to take advantage of his extra year of eligibility elsewhere. That was only slightly more unexpected, as the running back room grew quite crowded this season.
But the first shocker landed Wednesday, when Joe Foucha, a team captain who had one of his best games in the bowl win, announced he was entering the transfer portal.
Then, as fans were still trying to come to grips with that departure, we got hit with another – starting nickelback Greg Brooks, who still has two years of eligibility remaining, announced he was leaving, too.
Before Thursday was done, backup quarterback Malik Hornsby was in the transfer portal, starting nose guard John Ridgeway was headed for the draft, and rumors of more departures were spiraling across the internet, gaining traction and speed – if not validity – with every retweet.
So what in the world is going on? I certainly don’t know, and I’m not sure anybody does. I’m not even sure there’s anything to know.
There are good and obvious reasons why Brown and Ridgeway are leaving. They’ll likely be drafted. And I can understand Hornsby wanting his shot and not wanting to wait another year (or two) for it.
It’s the Brooks and Foucha transfers that are genuinely baffling – and the real core of the metastasizing freakout happening on Arkansas message boards this week.
There were whispers of discord with a position coach, and unconfirmed rumors of an orchestrated raid by rival teams using promises of NIL money as bait.
Both or neither may be true. A few members of the Arkansas-based media have propped up the hypothesis that some players didn’t get along with an assistant coach, but none have come forward with a published story spilling details.
Whatever the truth — whether the players were lured away or couldn’t take tough coaching or a coach crossed a line too many times or whether this is just what college football looks like in 2022 — it’s worrisome for Arkansas’ prospects next season.
The Hogs will have to replace all three members of the starting defensive line, two of the top three linebackers, and now at least three of its top defensive backs from last year’s team.
Meanwhile, there’s a generational talent who accounted for nearly half of the team’s receiving yards to replace at wide receiver, and as of now, it looks like they’ll go into spring practice with only two healthy quarterbacks on scholarship.
Oh, and the 2022 nonconference schedule includes BYU coming off a 10-win season, Cincinnati coming off a playoff appearance, and Bobby Petrino making his first return to Fayetteville since that ill-fated joyride through the Boston Mountains in 2012.
Let’s check on the basketball team. Maybe things are rosier there…
Hogs drop four of last five, fall to 0-2 in SEC
…or maybe not.
Look on the bright side: This year’s team is ahead of last year’s, which didn’t drop four of five until the middle of January.
Mild attempts at gallows humor aside, it’s been a rough stretch for Musselman’s group and the angst is growing in all corners, and that includes the head coach, who is showing more strain than we’ve seen from him in the past.
And some criticism is certainly due. The most glaring need in the offseason, at least from my perspective, was for a point guard – or at least someone who could credibly fill Jalen Tate’s role as the grownup on the court taking control of possessions. But that hole in the roster has gone unfilled.
I think what we’re seeing is evidence that point guards are born more than they’re made. Some players see the court, some see the hoop. I don’t think it’s a matter of selflessness; it’s a skill, and I’m not convinced it’s one that can be taught.
They each have their strengths, but Devo Davis, J.D. Notae and Chris Lykes are not natural ball distributors and the offense has yet to function properly for a full game with them at the helm. Davis is still too loose with the dribble to penetrate effectively against aggressive on-ball defense, and while Notae is the Hogs’ most gifted scorer, he’s even more tunnel-visioned than Lykes and too often a ball stopper rather than a ball mover.
Barring some unforeseen reversal or the sudden emergence of K.K. Robinson, those problems in the backcourt are likely to persist and if the Hogs are to succeed this season, it’ll be something they have to overcome.
In the first half against Vanderbilt I actually thought we saw glimpses of them doing just that. For one of the few times this season, the offense had a form, a shape, a purpose. Extra passes abounded, leading to 62 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent from 3. For the first time in a month, this team had me out of my seat, and I filled two pages of yellow legal pad with excited notes and observations.
But the Hyde side of the Hogs’ two-faced identity reared its head again in the second half. The offense grew stagnant, the defense couldn’t cut off drives and got lost in rotations, the lead quickly slipped away, and my legal pad sat on the ottoman, mostly untouched.
Many fans seem to be on the verge of giving up on this group, but I’m not there yet.
The loss to Vanderbilt hurt. Badly. And while all this team’s problems aren’t necessarily fixable, most are.
I think they can shoot and defend better than what we’ve seen. I think an offense built around Umude and Notae, with Au’diese Toney cutting to the rim, Jaxon Robinson stretching the floor, and Devo and Jaylin Williams providing the glue, can be a formidable one. I think the effort was there against Vanderbilt; now the execution just needs to catch up.
I also think there are a lot of hidden ifs in the preceding paragraph, and that I’m sometimes excessively optimistic.
After all, once upon a time I thought newspapers had a bright future, too.
READ ALSO: 4th & 25: Hoop Hogs Still Learning to Cope with High Expectations
Arkansas native Brent Holloway is a freelance writer living in Gainesville, Ga. His “4th and 25” appears every other Friday at ARMoneyandPolitics.com.