Petrino builds resilient Razorback squad
At 5-1 overall, the Hogs have moved into the top 10 of all major polls and more importantly are ranked ninth in the first Bowl Championship Series standings.
Things couldn’t be much better considering the 38-14 thumping the Razorbacks absorbed at Alabama on Sept. 24.
It would seem the season has fallen right in place for Arkansas. But, a closer look shows that hasn’t exactly been the case.
The Hogs have struggled to climb to current footing going into Saturday’s 11:21 a.m. contest against Ole Miss at Oxford, Miss.
They’ve struggled with injuries, stopping the run, giving up big plays, pass protection, run blocking and running with authority.
Plague most teams — particularly ones in the SEC — with those woes, and you wouldn’t find them ranked anywhere near the top 10.
But somehow, some way, the Razorbacks have overcome difficulties like falling flat against Alabama, a game the team admittedly had worked toward for a year, or,trailing Texas A&M by 18 points at halftime, only to comeback and beat the Aggies 42-38.
Credit has to be given to head coach Bobby Petrino and his staff for getting the Razorbacks to respond following the first half of the A&M game. Likewise the Hogs showed their own resiliency and pride by coming back with not only a game-saving but perhaps a season-saving second-half effort against the Aggies.
After getting hammered by Alabama and then falling so far behind the A&M, it would have been very easy for the Hogs to just roll over. But, that afternoon at Cowboys Stadium, the Hogs proved to themselves and the nation that they were made of sterner stuff.
That bond, that belief and that pride didn’t just spring forth following an emotional halftime talk. No, it came from deeper inside. Petrino and his staff had been building it within his team for the better part of four seasons.
Fighting back, not giving into the pressure, and continuing to grind despite the situation had been ingrained into these Razorbacks every since Petrino took over the program. It was a conditioned response.
The Razorbacks’ come-back victory over A&M coupled with their 38-14 pounding of Auburn has put the Hogs in an excellent position going into this last half of the season. The Razorbacks may not have arrived into the top nine of the BCS standings in the most conventional of ways, but make no mistake, they have earned their position.
Petrino outline how he and his Hogs think of their midseason ranking and how they plan to proceed.
“The way I look at that is all our players know that, all our coaches know it,” Petrino said. “It [No. 9 BCS ranking] needs to be a motivating factor to come to practice each day and get better. It’s something that didn’t just happen. Our players put a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication into it.
“We’ve competed extremely hard, we’ve stuck together when we could have fell apart, so there’s a lot of positives in it, but what it needs to be for us now is to really understand that if we’re tough enough mentally to focus one practice at a time, work on getting better one practice at a time, then we’ve got a chance to keep winning.”
Keep winning, that’s the expectation for the Hogs, and if they do, this could become among the top three or four seasons the Razorbacks have ever had.
National and SEC titles are likely out of the Razorbacks’ grasp, but the Hogs’ first top-10 finish since 1982 or their first top-five finish since 1977 aren’t.
That makes each game and each victory bigger and bigger. A top-five finish for this team could catapult the Hogs program to even greater heights.
Winning out might seem unlikely for these Razorbacks, but so did beating Texas A&M when they trailed the Aggies by 18 at halftime.
No. 10 Arkansas (5-1, 1-1) at Ole Miss (2-4, 0-3)
When: 11:21 a.m. Saturday
Where: Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Oxford, Miss.
Radio: Arkansas Razorback Radio Network
TV: SEC Network
2010 Football season information, news, and more! 
