Houston Nutt Quits!

[Conan71]

I really didn't see that one coming, especially after knocking off #1- ranked LSU.  I'd heard the comment from ESPN that he was one of the coaches on the "hot seat", but didn't expect this, nor the timing of it.

Apparently he's tired of the pressure and people wondering when Arkansas is going to win an SEC championship and return to being a consistent national contender.  75-48 record, I believe.  Lots of other colleges would have liked to have had that sort of run over ten years.

I guess this will give Neptune and I the opportunity to settle our argument over coaching or recruiting being the problem at Arkansas in the next couple of years.

Question is now, who's available that could coach them back into glory?

[RecycleMichael]

Houston Nutt already has a new job...as Head Football Coach at the University of Mississippi.

[cannon_fodder]

He didn't quit... he was fired.  Sunday he had a press conference saying he still had support and was staying.  Yesterday the AD announced he was being fired.  Today ESPN has him at Ole Miss.

IMHO, he is not a good coach.  

Exhibit 1:  Fire Gus Mazlahn for being a bad O- Coordinator.  This year Gus is at Tulsa... who has the #1 offense in the nation.  That is, of course, with whatever C-USA talent Tulsa had in the 3 months he had to prepare them with his new offense.

Exhibit 2:  A mediocre season for Arkansas, though they knocked off LSU at the end.  If you have the talent for that upset (it was not that LSU played horrible) you should have had a better season as a whle.

Exhibit 3: Darren McFaden will not get the Heisman.

[USRufnex]

If anybody in Fayetteville should be fired, I think it should be Frank Broyles.

But he ain't gonna fire himself, now is he?  []

[cannon_fodder]

The paper reports and Arkansas is now saying he "resigned."  Early reports in the gossip circles say he was fired.  Given that he was claiming on Sunday he was staying... seems strange that he resigned on Monday.  No pressure... Riiiiight.

[waterboy]

8-4, Defeats powerhouse LSU, then gets forced out? Prospective coaches take note. Stoops may end up 9-3 and stay confortably employed.

I agree that if Nutt had such talent to beat LSU then coaching was suspect in earlier losses. But his failures are longer term. Arkansas needs more a character as a coach to fit the identity of the state. A Switzer type guy.

[Neptune]

It's not talent per se.  It's depth, and a few stars.  Arkansas used to have killer recruits.  Like McFadden, only every single year.  

Got to hand it to Nutt really, IMO.  He's done relatively well with what he's had.  His teams, no matter how bad they are, have always been tough.  That is coaching.  

They just lack the extra two or three blue chippers to be the Arkansas of the good ole days, the Arkansas that would make the Alums happy.

I think he'll be a good fit at Ole Miss.  It's lower expectations over there, if he manages to make Ole Miss an every year tough team, one that makes bowls fairly often, they should be happy.

[Neptune]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

Exhibit 1:  Fire Gus Mazlahn for being a bad O- Coordinator.  This year Gus is at Tulsa... who has the #1 offense in the nation.  That is, of course, with whatever C-USA talent Tulsa had in the 3 months he had to prepare them with his new offense.

Oh just wait.  If Gus isn't able to get the right trigger man next year, it'll be a long long season.  That offense puts entirely too much pressure on TU's defense.  If it fails, it can be  catastrophic, even in C-USA.

[Conan71]

According to the World, Broyles is retiring this year.  Nutt had the support of Broyles and (I think) the prez of the U of A, but was unsure about Broyles' hand-picked successor.

Neptune, I think you and I are going to continue to disagree about the recruiting/talent/coaching issue.

Honestly, I don't see how you can't look at coaching as being an issue at Arkansas.  For instance, TU doesn't get the strongest recruits, they dumped Keith Burns and all the sudden Kragthorpe was able to turn the team around and leave it in good shape, starting with Burns' "so-so" recruits.  You don't have to sound like the boob that Burns was to be a second-tier coach.  Nutt is a second-tier D-IA coach and always will be.

U of A has a huge talent pool, as does Texas.  Mack Brown's days are numbered if he has another season like this one next year.  They were damn lucky to excape from OSU this year.

[Neptune]

So, now Houston Nutt, is Keith Burnes?

Nutt has done an excellent job over the years, without great QB's, without great RB's, and without marque WR's.  He's done it all with defense, power, and toughness.  Creating upsets and solid seasons, with mostly no names.

You'd have me believe that a power house school all of the sudden just got retarded and couldn't realize for 10 freakin years, that they had a bad coach.  That's exactly what you're saying.  That they were too stupid to figure out that they had Keith Burnes all along.  Maybe so, (insert Arkansas joke here).

The truth is, Arkansas wasn't stupid.  Houston Nutt was a difficult case.  

He was a good coach who could never reach the old Arkansas traditional level.  That ripped up the alums eventually, and they gave him hell for it.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g7Ggzv7QnURViJhp0yFfPRHy6lEQD8T6K8701

quote:
Nutt will be introduced as Ole Miss' coach at a news conference Wednesday in Oxford. He resigned from Arkansas on Monday after 10 years and accepted an offer from Boone less than four hours later.

Be as happy as you want to.  Nutt gave Arkansas the boot. Arkansas is a more prestigious program than Ole Miss historically, but with prestige comes crazy alums.

quote:Officials at Arkansas said they offered Nutt a one-year extension and an unspecified raise, but he turned them down to move to Oxford.

I hope Nutt is successful at Mississippi, kind of doubt it though.  The recruiting base is poorer at Ole Miss than it is at Arkansas.

[Conan71]

It's Burns, not Burnes.  Sorry that's just a petty irritation with me when names are mispelled.  When you have a name like mine, Morizsn Sphoophleman, you get sensitive about those things (the "S" is silent, BTW). LOL!

No I was not drawing a simile of Nutt being a Burns.  Keith Burns was one of the poorest excuses for a head coach I've ever seen.

I was simply pointing out that college programs have turned around in a year's time simply by changing the man at the top with the same recruits the program had the year before.  They have also slipped (like Miles to Gundy at OSU).  Usually the way a team gets turned around is by bringing in a new coach who adds a spark.  The w/l record improves, that attracts a better level of recruits, the record gets even better, and so it goes.  A team like Arkansas has tradition, and they play top-ranked schools every year.  They always seem on the verge of really breaking out the next year and being spectacular, yet it's never happened with Hou Nutt.

Time to move on, the alums are causing a stink and I'm sure he's tired of being criticized for putting out his best effort which doesn't seem to be quite enough.  

Sure there are born talents who are going to prosper under any coach, but the vast majority had potential and were coached to greatness.

I'm not saying that Nutt is a bad coach he's just never going to coach an SEC champion or national champion.  He's a second-tier D-IA coach, 7-5, 8-4, 9-3.  I look at it this way:  you don't lose by 10 points or less to three teams who finished in the top seven last year, knock off a #2 last year and a #1 this year with sorry talent.

Take a look at KU this year, there's a perfect example of a really good coach and motivator who got a bunch of average guys to step up and over-achieve.

[Neptune]

Texas Tech does basically the same thing, just with a few more stars and a little less depth.  Better to be a walk-on at Texas or OU, than a walk-on at Tech.  If you gotta pay for it, might as well go to a contender.

I'd argue that Matt Jones was probably one of the best QBs Nutt had in 10 years, and he was more of an athlete than a QB.

How many good QBs has Tech had?  How about RBs or WRs?  Arkansas may have had comparable RBs.  You go back to Spike Dykes, and Tech has had roughly the same quality athletes all along.  For at least the last 20 years.

How many times has Tech had a QB waiting for 3 years, only to start his senior year, then walk away?  I know of at least two times that's happened in recent years.

What's Arkansas's problem?  You're telling me that Arkansas with it's tradition just can't get the right guys anymore, because of Nutt?  That this "powerhouse" school hasn't been able to draw quality QBs, just because of Nutt?  That the best Arkansas can hope for is an athlete who can do a reasonable job for three or four years?

Arkansas alums may be looking for a trade-off.  They can't do it with the recruits they have, but if they get a new system in, your recruiting changes.  If they open it up, they'll be exciting.  Like Kentucky, only all of Kentucky, not just this year.

[cannon_fodder]

Nothing against Arkansas, I like their fans and they have a pretty good program...

but they have a tradition of being a middle of the road SEC team.  Recently they have had more success, but even then they either choked or only won their division because of a strange set of circumstances (2002 and 2006 SEC West).

1982 was the last time they squeaked into the top 10 at the end of the year, for a top 5 finish go back to the 1970's.  How about the fact that he has lost all but one bowl game - and that was against a week Missouri team.  I'm not an SEC worshiper so maybe I don't give a mediocre SEC season the same amazement as some.

Nutt had 3 losing seasons, 3 decent seasons, 1 good season (10-4), and a couple stuck in mediocrity.  Given the talent we know he has had the last few years and the rift has has caused with fans - I think its best for the program that he moves on.

[Neptune]

What talent?  McFadden?

Where's his QB's?  When has he had one that was a reliable passer?  A QB that was good enough to win a game with his arm.

Name a top program, any top NCAA program, that has to rely on a McFadden RB/QB-type to put points on the board.  Seriously.  I can't think of one.

OSU with Tony Lindsey, managed 6-0 one year, including knocking off Texas and Colorado, before their inability to pass was unmasked.  They finished 8-5, ending in defeat against Purdue in the Alamo Bowl.

Nutt's offenses have all been run-heavy, because he's never had a solid "conventional" QB.  Is that Arkansas's fault, or Nutt's fault?

They managed Mustain one year, who came and left with Gus.  Mustain will probably be the starter for USC next year.  I can't think of many decent QBs Nutt's been able to recruit on his own.

[Conan71]

Coaches who run offenses which don't match the skills of their core players aren't managing their talent properly.  

No, you can't coach a slightly overweight and out-of-shape 42 year old man with bad knees into a winning quarterback, but you can take a young kid with athleticism and desire and groom them into a winning quarterback.

Pat Jones often related that Rusty Hilger was the worst QB prospect he'd ever seen when he took over the OSU program, yet they coached him and developed him into a respectable quarterback who competed quite well in the Big 8.

It didn't take Stoops long at all to correct the indecision and mis-management of John Blake at OU and I don't think it will take long for someone with different ideas to turn Arkansas into a serious SEC title contender.

Let's revisit this thread at the end of next season and the following season and we'll see how Arkansas and Ole Miss are fairing.  Who knows it might be the right chemistry and Houston Nutt shocks everyone by leading Ole Miss out of being a perennial door mat and preferred homecoming opponent.

I just have a very hard time accepting that Arkansas has suffered for ten years due to lack of playing talent.  If they had a sub .500 record I might agree.