Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

HEBER SPRINGS — Understandably, Razorback Club meetings around the state don't have that "here comes the rock star" feel anymore. A year ago, the sparkling, relatively new Heber Springs Community Center north of the downtown area was overflowing with 600 Arkansas fans to welcome Bobby Petrino to town.

It was that way all over the state after a 10-win 2010 season, and it continued through a 2012 signing day when Petrino literally entered Verizon Arena in North Little Rock to acclaim and fog machine more befitting Tom Petty or Mick Jagger.

These days, in the wake of Petrino's sudden exit last month after the affair everyone would love to forget, Hog fans seem unsure how to respond. The football rock star is gone and the program is being guided on an interim basis. Mike Anderson's first season back home with the Razorback basketball program teased the fan base with a 16-6 start and a 17-game home winning streak before a 2-8 finishing fade.

After a couple of false starts Thursday night as several hundred members and supporters of the Greers Ferry Lake Area Razorback Club here waited for Anderson and football defensive coordinator Paul Haynes to arrive, the red-clad crowd gave it their best Hog call effort and waited for the special guests to light the fuse.

Give Anderson credit for maintaining his upbeat approach after March's disappointing finish and a recruiting class that delivered no players rated better than three stars by the so-called experts. At times, it seemed as if Anderson hadn't even coached the Hogs yet, that it was still the Anderson who had just arrived from a successful run at Missouri, the way he leaned on many of the lines he used last spring in his welcome-home march around the state to Razorback Clubs.

"At UAB in our second year, we made the Sweet 16," Anderson said. "My second year at Missouri, we made the Sweet 16. The, the third year, the Elite 8. See where we're headed here?"e

It was Haynes, who preceeded Anderson to the lectern and who barely anyone here seemed to know beforehand, who made the biggest connection to a crowd waiting to be energized.

"We’re not just going to be known for offense around here, anymore," said the former co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State who arrived in Fayetteville in time to coach the defense to an impressive showing in a 29-16 win over Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl.

"We’re going to be known for toughness. We’re going to be known for defense. We’re going to be known for championship football. That’s the bottom line."

Arkansas was known for its defense back in a run of football glory from Frank Broyles through Lou Holtz and Ken Hatfield a generation ago. But you can't say you heard Bobby Petrino say that in his four years as head coach, and we're not sure his former defensive coordinator, Willy Robinson, ever mentioned it either. Granted, Petrino and Robinson inherited as bare a defensive cupboard as Arkansas had seen in at least 18 years when they arrived, and it took three years to build up the defensive front; but it never looked like defense was the priority under Petrino.

Of course, Haynes' certainty about his defense this fall led to one of the loudest roars of the night.

"We will be simple, and we'll be sound ... When you simplify, what guys tend to do is they learn it, the know it and they play fast."