My Thoughts - Missouri State

The season started a little inauspiciously. Missouri State, who was not trying an opening onside kick, busted a low hard one that smacked Freddie Fairchild ten yards away and popped right back to the Missouri State kickoff team. Everybody in the stadium was like, "What the hell???" If this season turns disappointing, we might point back to that fluke play as the first sign that the football gods were against us.

Robert Johnson's first completion of the year was to number 14...of the opposing team. A deep ball was never attempted again after that interception. Johnson completed two passes in seven attempts in the third quarter. His passes were low or delivered late several times. He was 12 of 22 passing against a Division I-AA team (although admittedly his receivers dropped some passes that were on the money). All in all, an average game against a lesser team that respected our very average passing game way too much.

Unfortunately, Alex Mortensen was mostly worse. Unlike the scrimmage, he looked every bit of a redshirt freshman by throwing balls well behind receivers. Cole Barthel was left to the mop up work and attempted no passes.

But there were some bright spots in the passing game. The fade stop route to Marcus Monk is "money," and was executed well for the only passing touchdown of the game. A Mortensen pass to Monk was well thrown as he stepped up and showed good pocket presence. Unfortunately the play ended abruptly with Monk's lost fumble. The Hogs first play of the game (pass out into the flat from near our own end zone) was thrown well and looked to be a big gainer...until it was dropped by Hillis. First game...first game mistakes. But if it's third down and six, we appear to have some ability to complete a "possession reception" and keep drives going. The ability to do anything other than that is still an uncertainty.

The running game was...well, outstanding. Kudos to the running backs and offensive line for a great game. I don't remember there being a single holding or illegal procedure penalty on the offensive line all night.

The fumbles were...well, the fumbles. Probably my biggest problem is that they were made by the now veteran "star" players. Freshman tailbacks Felix Jones (who fumbled two weeks ago during the scrimmage) and Darren McFadden didn't have any handling problems. We also had some bobbled snaps by both quarterbacks that don't need to happen again.

Reggie Herring's description of the defensive team's play as "the good, the bad and the ugly" was perfect. The team did seem to tackle much better. (Although I thought our best tackling last year was also in the first game against New Mexico State.) The middle linebacker position is probably up for grabs. The defensive line got a nice pass rushing push at times to keep us from having to blitz. At other times, however, our DTs were whipped creating some pretty big running holes. Vickiel Vaughn's improved tackling, Keith Jackson's improved stamina and Clarke Moore's improved speed were noticed. However, the lack of big plays by touted defensive end Anthony Brown was also apparent.

Our cornerbacks' press coverage is much, much, much better. To be honest, for the past few years I've blamed Bobby Allen for our poor cornerback play. However, if last night is any indication, it appears the issue wasn't necessarily with Allen's coaching. (What the combination was in the past of personnel, scheme and emphasis is up for debate.) Either that or Herring has gotten more out of Allen as a coach, just as he has gotten more out of almost all of the returning players on defense.

The only weapon displayed on special teams was punt returner Michael Coe. His elusiveness, shown at the fan appreciation day scrimmage two weeks ago on a 92 yard interception return, was confirmed again last night during his punt returns. Brian Vavra kicked off well, although he had no touchbacks on a night when the wind was not the factor it was expected to be earlier in the day. Jacob Skinner's punting appears to still be hit or miss. Unfortunately, he was also responsible for the only points taken off the board when, as the holder, he didn't get the ball snapped quickly enough on a delayed made field goal. On the second try, Chris Balseiro missed the attempt badly. We also played two players with the uniform #2 (Chris Houston and Reggie Fish) on a couple of punt returns late in the game. Not sure if that's legal... ;-)

The officiating crew was lazy and, at times, pathetic. An early phantom holding call on an interception, a missed delay of game on the first Missouri State touchdown, an inexplicable "running over the snapper" penalty, and the use of instant replay to confirm a made field goal were examples of ineptitude. I mean...is there anybody else in the world that has a better view than the referee standing under the goal post?

The new uniforms were okay (see photo here). Let's face it...any changes they make are never going to look as bad as the Danny Ford era "charging hog shoulder pads" Apex uniforms. Ugh.

The audio system at Reynolds Razorback Stadium is still lousy and, at times, inaudible. The athletic department should just drive right up the road to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City to hear what a real stadium system sounds like. As for the stadium itself, it's still as impressive now as it was when it was remodeled a few years ago. I liked the new solid wall banner on the sidelines compared to the "plain white wall and randomly hung banners" look from previous years. However, others that were with me at the game thought it looked "dirty."

The crowd of 66,424 was better and louder than expected. I think it takes a night game for a Fayetteville crowd to be more rowdy. It was hard to tell if the new ability to open the skybox windows helped improve the crowd noise.

As a regular listener to Sports Rap and the football radio broadcast, I was glad ARSN had Chuck Barrett join Paul Eells and Keith Jackson in the booth. I thought Chuck helped integrate sideline commentator Quinn Grovey into the broadcast better than in the past, as well as helping Quinn by setting up his reports with a question. He also did a good job of making sure they quickly went to the station identification without missing any game action, a problem that has happened a little too often on previous broadcasts. However, I still have to give ARSN a C- for missing some plays due to being late out of commercial (including Jones 80 yard touchdown run) and for having poor quality audio during post-game scoring replays.

Raising $21,535 for Hurricane Katrina victims was fantastic. The observance and moment of silence before the game were well respected.

Also, in case you missed it, HogBlogger had some good quick thoughts immediately after the game was over.