Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

NEW ORLEANS —Disbelief was easy for Bobby Petrino to spot on the face of Arkansas players. Doubt wasn’t hard for the coach to detect in their voices.

Petrino wasn’t shy when outlining his goals for the Razorback football program when he arrived three years ago. He didn’t hold back when outlining his vision for the future, which included making BCS bowls.

Players were initially skeptical, something Petrino recalled during a recent pre-Sugar Bowl media appearance. No. 8 Arkansas (10-2) faces No. 6 Ohio State (11-1) at 7:30 tonight in New Orleans.

“This is what we want from our program to be a Top 20 team every year, get in the Top 10 and find a way to win a national championship,” Petrino said. “I think all of our players now believe that. When you first start talking to them, I think they hear you, but they don’t really believe it.

“What’s fun about our football team now is they really believe it.”

It’s easy to understand where the doubt came from, initially. Arkansas’ first game under Petrino was a 28-24 nail-bitter against I-AA opponent Western Illinois. That same season the Razorbacks lost to Texas, Alabama and Florida by a combined score of 139-31.

Petrino took over a depleted and fractured roster. His demands and expectations were difficult for the Razorbacks to grasp. Arkansas played 16 freshmen — the highest of any team in the country that year — and repeatedly took its lumps during a 5-7 campaign.

A BCS bowl seemed crazy to consider at that point. Things got better last year as the Razorbacks improved to 8-5 and just missed out on big victories against Top 10 foes LSU and Florida.

Still, that didn’t stop Petrino from thinking big. And this time around players seemed to buy into his vision for how good they could be. They have an opportunity to clinch an 11-win season for just the third time in school history.

Naturally, the growth is a source of pride for players like defensive end Jake Bequette. He was among the freshmen forced into action a little too early in 2008.

“We were young, we were slow, we were small,” Bequette said, “We’ve really progressed.”

That progression is easy to see as the Razorbacks prepare to face the Buckeyes. Further proof of how far things have come is how Arkansas players handled early disappointment in 2010.