Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

FAYETTEVILLE — Shortly after it became clear that backup quarterback Tyler Wilson entered Saturday’s Auburn game in place of Ryan Mallett for good, my phone vibrated. It was a text from a good friend and one of the most well-informed Razorback fans I know, not the sort prone to knee-jerk reactions.

“This is trouble.”

Similar sentiments popped up on our Twitter and Facebook feeds during the game. And that seemed to be the prevailing thought among media types in the Auburn press box once it became clear that Wilson wasn’t just in for a series or two.

We’re all looking pretty silly at this point, of course. Turns out it was the Auburn defense that should have worried, not Arkansas.

Wilson proved us all wrong, finishing the game with 332 yards and four touchdowns. His two late interceptions arguably kept the Razorbacks from winning, but his superb play early on kept them in the game as the defense and special teams imploded. Wilson looked like the future of the quarterback position at Arkansas.

So what prompted the off-target responses when Wilson made it into the game? Why did folks automatically assume the worst when Mallett went down?

Wilson’s previous appearance in 2010 didn’t help the perception that he’d be in over his head against Auburn. He completed one of three passes for six yards and had one interception in mop-up duty against Louisiana-Monroe. For that, Wilson recorded a minus-16.53 pass efficiency rating.

Think about that. By drinking beer on the War Memorial golf course and sitting in the stands you got a higher pass efficiency rating against ULM than Wilson.

Other memories were also weighing into the snap judgment of how ready Wilson was to lead the team against an SEC foe on the road.

A lot of us still remember how little development there was at the quarterback position the decade prior to Bobby Petrino’s arrival. We are hung up on the images of Robert Johnson being totally unprepared for action when a hamstring injury sent Matt Jones to the sidelines in the fourth quarter of a loss to Georgia.

And there was that whole pulling a quarterback off the intramural fields nonsense. (To be fair, that was more about injuries than lack of development, but…) It didn’t help that the Razorbacks once cycled through five quarterbacks — none of them future Razorback great Matt Jones — in an awful win against UNLV in Little Rock.

Judging what Wilson was capable of based on previous quarterbacks or his previous performance were equally wrong. And here’s why: Petrino is developing players from year-to-year and week-to-week.