Nutt Vs. Tuberville When the Flames Were the Hottest, Tuberville Enjoyed a 13-0 Season in 2004 That Arguably Should Have Result- Ed in a National Championship
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
FEBRUARY 5, 2007 ARKANSAS BUSINESS 15 Auburn as well. Nutt Vs. Tuberville When the flames were the hottest, Tuberville enjoyed a 13-0 season in 2004 that arguably should have result- ed in a national championship. Razorback fans can hope the cru- cible will produce something approach- ing that level of success next season. However, with Malzahn gone, hopes for a more wide-open offense and a change in the status quo appear dashed. When Nutt was hired nine years ago, who could’ve foreseen the highly- regarded high school coach would join the Razorbacks as offensive coordina- tor? By a strange coincidence, the two shared the front page of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sports section the day after Nutt’s first day on the job in Fayetteville. Nutt is pictured at his desk Houston Nutt, 1998-2006 Tommy Tuberville, (1998-2006)* on the phone, and Malzahn’s photo Arkansas Razorbacks head football coach Auburn Tigers head coach and leading candidate for accompanied an article about Spring- 2006 Compensation: $1,049,644 Arkansas job in 1998 dale’s Shiloh Christian School making 2006 Compensation: $2,231,000 its first state football championship 38-34 in regular season SEC play game. 31-33 heading into 2006 season Eight years at Auburn (1999-2006): 45-21 (71%) Heading into Nutt’s 10th season, a Overall SEC record: 38-36 (51%) Overall SEC record (1998-2006): 48-26 (65%) favorable schedule and returning talent is expected to yield a healthy dose of WEST EAST WEST EAST wins. Last season’s somewhat magical, Auburn 5-4 Florida 0-3 Alabama 6-3 Florida 2-4 though angst-ridden, performance will Alabama 5-4 Georgia 0-5 Arkansas 4-5 Georgia 5-4 be tough to duplicate. LSU 3-6 Kentucky 2-2 Auburn 0-1* Kentucky 2-0 A question lingers for many fans: Is Miss. State 8-1 S. Carolina 6-3 LSU 6-3 Vanderbilt 5-0 the 2006 season as good as it will ever Ole Miss 6-3 Tennessee 2-4 Miss. State 6-3 S. Carolina 3-0 get under Nutt’s watch? And for some, Vanderbilt 1-1 Ole Miss 6-2 Tennessee 3-1 an even bigger question is will 2006 be as good as it will ever get, no matter the SEC Championship Games: 0-2 SEC Championship Games: 1-1 coach? (Georgia 2002 & Florida 2006) (2000 loss to Florida & 2004 win over Tennessee) A Wikipedia entry on Nutt included Bowl games: 2-5 (1998-2003 & 2006) Bowl Games: 4-3 (2000-2006) this entry, with the bent of a wise- cracking and frustrated fan: Two four-game losing streaks in 2000 and 2004 One five-game losing streak in 1999 “Nutt, however, has yet to fulfill his Five three-game losing streaks in 2001, 2003, 2005 (2) One three-game losing streak in 2001 promise to get Arkansas a National & 2006 Five two-game losing streaks in 2000 (2), 2002 & 2003 (2) Championship. Through the 2006 sea- Five two-game losing streaks in 1998, 1999, 2001 & *Achieved a 3-5 SEC record while coaching at Ole son, Nutt has yet to bring the 2002 (2) Miss in 1998. Razorbacks an overall SEC Title. Early predictions are that Nutt and Arkansas will win their first SEC Championship Winning solves many things, and the of Razorbacks football to take Ark- in 2021.” expectations remain high for the CEO ansas to the Promised Land. ■ ‘I Am Furious’ The late Orville Henry, sportswriting sage of the And that is why, when it became obvious a change Razorbacks, was not a happy camper with the selection would be made, I submitted in a column the name of process for a head football coach back in 1997. Here are Tommy Tuberville, the Ole Miss coach. This was done for some excerpts capturing his thoughts at the time. one reason only. Of all the obvious candidates, only Tuberville had, was doing all the things against the same USINESS: THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS SITUA- SEC competition, that Arkansas desperately needed to top tion about Arkansas needing to do something for off a program thought to be on the rise. … B someone else. This is a business matter, simple and FURIOUS: Also, my best wishes and congratulations to brutal. Arkansas needs a job done for its football program, Houston Dale Nutt, whom I’ve watched from his days as a immediately, professionally. To heck with friendships. toddler. He is not to blame because he has this very excit- Make enemies, if necessary, but acquire the man who has ing, demanding job. It is to his credit, and now he needs proved himself at this level, and win, and now. That has everyone’s help. He knows that I have always been fair to always been Arkansas’ mode of operation. Hiring to try to the head coach and that I will be still. sell tickets has proved to be a failure every time. Win, and I’ve covered the Arkansas football program since 1943, Arkansas fans will respond …. a long time. My readers know that, if no one else has, I We need a hired gun — not people with youthful enthu- have represented Arkansas fans from then until now. The siasm asked to see if they can make it at the highest level of program belongs to them. They need to be told when the their profession, from almost the lowest. As Joe Kines told program is being run properly, and when it is not. When us, the SEC is where, “They’ll slit your throats and drink people at the top mess up, I am furious. your blood.” And that is true, we now know. I am furious. ■.