Nate Allen - Amazing Tales from Hog Heaven: A Collection of the Greatest Arkansas Razorbacks Stories Ever Told

AMAZING

TALES FROM

HOG HEAVEN

AMAZING

TALES FROM

HOG HEAVEN

A COLLECTION OF THE GREATEST ARKANSAS
RAZORBACKS STORIES EVER TOLD

NATE ALLEN

Copyright 2013 by William B. McCloskey Jr.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61321-610-1

Printed in the United States of America

To my beloved Nancy, the loving inspiration for everything about these Tales of Hog Heaven books including this combined edition, and to our son David and daughter Kym and her Odie and their children C.J., Jordan, Odie, and Olivia, the next generations experiencing then forwarding Arkansas abiding love for the Razorbacks that always will be the essence of Arkansas.

O ld grads reading the Tales from Hog Heaven books when they were first published could reunite today at the University of Arkansas and barely recognize the Razorbacks athletic department.

At the close of 2013, only baseball coach Dave Van Horn, who took the Razorbacks three times to the College World Series, including a third-place national finish in 2012, persevered at his same post from 2004.

Since 2004, many leaders in the athletics department have parted ways with the university. In 2007, Athletic Director Frank Broyles, after 50 years as either athletic director or the programs football coach, and in fact the only football coach with an undefeated season, announced his retirement. Broyles was the winningest football coach in Razorback history. The following year, 40-time national champion/84-time conference champion track coach, John McDonnell, retired.

In 2007, with the Cotton Bowl still to play, former football Coach Houston Nutt acceded to pressure to move on and went to Ole Miss. Nutt is now a CBS college football analyst.

Prior to Nutts resignation, basketball coach Stan Heath was fired in March, 2007 and returned to coach at South Florida.

The Razorbacks hired former Kentucky basketball star John Pelphrey from South Alabama after current Oregon Coach Dana Altman took the job for a day that ended with him returning to Creighton University, where he had long coached and would coach again until Oregon became available.

By 2008, Jeff Long was the athletic director. Long was responsible for the hiring of football coach Bobby Petrino and track coach Chris Bucknam and in 2011 replaced Pelphrey with an old Arkansas favorite, Mike Anderson.

Anderson was a 17-year assistant for Nolan Richardsons Razorback teams and then the head coach of Alabama-Birmingham and Missouri, leading them to sensational success. Bucknam completed his second successive triple crown of SEC Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor track in the same academic year last May and piloted his first national championship at the 2013 NCAA Indoor tournament.

Petrino, with an offense setting Razorbacks passing records even while inheriting a short stick for a 5-7 2008 debut, accelerated spectacularly. His Hogs ended 2008 with a 31-30 upset over LSU in Little Rock on a Casey Dick to London Crawford touchdown pass in the closing seconds. It was called the Miracle on Markham II as the sequel to the 2002 Miracle on Markham (Matt Jones to DeCori Birmingham) touchdown pass to nip LSU, 21-20 on War Memorial Stadiums Markham Avenue in Little Rock.

Quarterbacks Ryan Mallett (2009 and 2010) and All-SEC quarterback Tyler Wilson (2011) annually set and re-set Razorbacks records while the Hogs went 8-5 to the Liberty Bowl, 10-3 to the Sugar Bowl, and 11-2 to the Cotton Bowl. The 2009 Razorbacks narrowly defeated East Carolina 20-17 at the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2 in Memphis.

The 2010 Razorbacks Sugar Bowl matchup in New Orleans with Ohio State marked Arkansas first appearance in a BCS bowl since the BCS was formed in 1998.

Arkansas lost a 31-26 heartbreaker, nearly overcoming a slow start in New Orleans before Mallet threw a late fourth-quarter interception after Colton Miles-Nash had blocked an Ohio State punt.

Ohio State won the game, but the Buckeyes eventually lost their coach, Jim Tressel, in a scandal that began simmering before the bowl game.

Petrinos Razorbacks finished the 2011 season defeating Kansas State, 29-16 in the Cotton Bowl. With Wilson returning, they were projected to be a top 10 team for 2012 and picked by some national experts to win the national championship.

All that crashed with Petrinos motorcycle on April Fools Day. The accidents aftermath ultimately exposed Petrino, who was traveling with a woman who had worked for the Razorback Foundation and with whom Petrino confessed he had engaged in an affair. The UA could have overlooked the affair, but could not ignore that Petrino had just hired the woman in question to an administrative position on his staff.

That glaring violation of UA hiring practices dictated that Long fire Petrino, who started coaching at Western Kentucky in 2013 after an idle 2012.

Taver Johnson, the lone coach remaining in 2013 as a full-time assistant from the Petrino staff, had just been hired with the title of assistant head coach. He completed the 2012 spring drills as the coach nominally in charge.

Former Arkansas assistant John L. Smith was brought back as the head coach of the Hogs. Smith was hired on a 10-month contract.

It did not work out, to say the least. Upset 34-31 in overtime in the seasons second game by 30-point underdog Louisiana-Monroe in Little Rock, the 2012 Hogs crashed from preseason Top 10 to 4-8, never approaching the Top 25 rankings again.

In December, the 2012 disaster ended, bearing promise. Bret Bielema, 68-24 in seven seasons coaching the Wisconsin Badgers including three consecutive Big Ten titles and three consecutive Rose Bowl appearances, was nationally deemed a coaching coup for Arkansas upon his December hiring.

A big man, Bielema was an Iowa Hawkeyes nose guard and former Iowa linebackers coach and Kansas State and Wisconsin defensive coordinator. He immediately cast a large and engaging presence, whether recruiting prospects in the belated catch-up period between December and the February national signing date, or recruiting fans speaking at Razorback Clubs.

Arkansas met Bielema with open arms, as the whole state always does for all its new Razorbacks coaches.

Optimism rings anew, even with expectations sobered that the Razorbacks graduated much offensively, havent been strong defensively in awhile, and play not only in the nations toughest conference, but also the nations toughest division. The SEC West is loaded with reigning national champion Alabama and LSU. The conference also boasts Texas A&M, with its Johnny Football, Heisman Trophy- winning quarterback Johnny Manziel, all well as Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and an Auburn team that, while clobbered by Arkansas last season, won the national championship just three seasons ago.