Disenchantment is flying

Arkansas Business, Nov 5, 2007

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The 2007 Arkansas football season has put a new spin on the slogan "banner year." Houston Nutt has been the subject of the usual message board and sports columnist criticism, but now a few of the Arkansas fan faithful have gone to sponsoring a banner that has been flown over both Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium and Fayetteville's Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The first, in Little Rock, said, "There's Nuttin' Like Being 0-2 in the SEC." Before the Hogs became 0-3 in the SEC the next week in Fayetteville, the banner read: "Players/Fans Deserve Better. Fire Nutt." The reaction by most columnists and many fans was that the Banners were in bad taste. We'll add that they were poorly written, though the second one got a little closer to the point the group seemed to be seeking.

Nutt retorted to the criticism he's received of late by saying, following the 9-7 Auburn loss, "My contract says 2012." The symbolism of the statement was this: It's going to cost the fans and school a lot to run him off. It wasn't the same as Nolan Richardson's saying back in 2002, "If they pay me the money, they can have my job." It wasn't even close. Nutt appears to want to coach his Razorbacks no matter what is dealt him, and that's been a lot, both on the field and off, in the past year. While a lot of it may have seemed unfair, it appears he's brought on a lot of it all by himself.

In Nutt's defense, though, he's but 30 seconds from Being no worse than 5-1 this season, and a weird bounce or two and a costly penalty flag or two in the Kentucky game from probably winning that one and being undefeated. Last year, though, Nutt was the beneficiary of starting 2-0 in the SEC instead of 0-2 (and 3-1 overall instead of 1-3) when opposing kickers botched opportunities to beat the Hogs.