Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Bobby Petrino is rather guarded in his press conference answers, which is why it's fun to watch him open a bit on his weekly television show — it airs in Little Rock on Sundays at 10:30 p.m. (KATV, Channel 7).

He's so technical in his weekly assessment of a couple of handfuls of plays, it might turn off the type of coaches-show-loving crowd that so enjoyed Houston Nutt's dressing room antics and over-enthusiasm during that magical 1998 Arkansas Razorback season. It has me hooked, though, and I imagine so are a lot of folks who enjoy the in-depth inside details to football success.

Houston Nutt's show, as I recall, may have been the most watched program on Sunday nights when the Little Rock native came home to rejuvenate the football program, and proceeded to win his first eight games in '98.

Not too many years later, though, Nutt's act had grown old and his show was lagging far behind in the ratings, trailing the Sunday night tell-it-like-it-is "SportsWeek" with former Hogs Bruce James and David Bazzel. You won't see many shows that highly rated, in that time slot, unceremoniously dropped from the airwaves the way "SportsWeek" disappeared in 2007, Nutt's last season.

You can probably put two-and-two together and understand why the coach's show had to go in that 10:30 p.m. time slot in the middle of all that drama in Nutt's last two years, while a sports-talk program that took Nutt to task for calling the same running play over and over with little success wasn't allowed to follow it.

Anyway, it's hard to listen to Petrino break down eight or so plays on a Sunday night after a 38-14 romp over Auburn and imagine anyone finding fault with the head coach's strategy.

Not all plays work, of course, and not all plays follow the script perfectly, as Petrino isn't afraid to show to the viewers. And some that didn't follow the exact script still go for touchdowns, like the one during the second-half comeback against Texas A&M in which running back Ronnie Wingo didn't pick up the blitzer to whom he was assigned, yet still caught a short pass from the pressured Tyler Wilson and took it to the pylon for a touchdown.

Petrino minces no words. He points out mistakes but more often doles out accolades to his players. He knows them all by name and not just number, like another former Hog coach who was constantly apologizing for his program's lackluster displays. The UA cameras pick up little bits and pieces that the ESPN coverage might miss too.

For example, let's take the game-breaking play last Saturday night against Auburn: Joe Adams' 92-yard touchdown run down the left sideline in the third quarter that turned a seven-point Hog lead into 14 and made Auburn have to play a wider-open game that it didn't have the tools for.

The sweep play as run only works for big yardage, as Petrino showed with a Telestrator, if uncovered guard Grant Cook blocks the Auburn defensive end (which he did), wide receiver Cobi Hamilton takes out the Tigers' physical strong safety, Daren Bates, and fullback Keiro Small muscles a linebacker out of the play.

It only goes for a touchdown if tight end Chris Gragg takes care of Auburn's solid safety and leading tackler, Neiko Thorpe (now, to be fair, Petrino didn't mention that Gragg might have been getting away with holding Thorpe by the inside of Thorpe's shoulder pads before knocking him off-balance).

But, there was yet another factor in play: Arkansas knew from its scouting of Auburn and the way the Tigers had played the Hogs' I formation look in the first half that Auburn would blitz from one side (the one opposite where the play went on this call). Also, in terms of coaching technique, Petrino was willing to say, an opponent's tackle and end on the play side usually play it wider and box the sweep in. But Auburn's tackle and end had been playing the run exactly as they would on any other play, even with the blitz from the other side. In essence, they helped Arkansas' linemen take them out of the play. Hamilton and Small just had to get their blocks for a big gain for Adams, who leaped over a sprawling Auburn defensive lineman.