Get Ready for Spring of Questions with No Quick Answers

There will only be a lot of guesses before games next year with all new faces
In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Less than a month ago, everything looked better for Arkansas football.

Now all we have are questions with no answers coming anytime soon.

Don't look for answers in the spring.

It takes years to find and develop players into a system. That can't be done in just a few months because the Razorbacks now have new coaches fast-tracking evaluations of new players and figuring out what system to use.

Great coaches modify their system to the players they have. The ones who can't do that end up somewhere else.

Let's start on offense, which is the most recent and still fresh.

Coach Sam Pittman got tired of Kendal Briles flirting with seemingly every semi-high profile and encouraged him to be Sonny Dykes' problem at TCU.

It's been entertaining to watch a lot of the self-righteous Horned Frogs' fans and especially the media complaining about the hiring. It goes back to the Art Briles-Gary Patterson feud nearly two decades ago and the fact Kendal was on the staff at Baylor.

Bringing Dan Enos back to be the offensive coordinator probably shouldn't be that surprising, considering he and Pittman worked together previously on Bret Bielema's staff.

Pittman left Fayetteville for Georgia and playing for national championships while Enos went down with the Bielema ship. It happens in the world of coaching.

Don't expect everything to suddenly flip to a completely different system. We'll see how it all plays out, but nobody really knows how players who have been around for a few years are ready to change systems completely.

It's a lot for KJ Jefferson to change what he's spent three years plus whatever he picked up from the previous staff to go to a style that's completely foreign.

There will be a lot of teaching for Jefferson along with newcomers Jacolby Criswell and Malachi Singleton.

How well they pick it up will provide one of the many answers.

There are also questions at wide receiver, tight end and the entire defense. They may be easily answered and exceed everyone's expectations.

We won't know that for nearly a year is the only problem.

Until then, it's just a lot of guessing and speculating. There will be the usual sunshine crowd predicting great things and, of course, the doomsday folks that never expect anything good to happen.

As usual, reality will probably land somewhere in the middle.

Arkansas divider

HOGS FEED:

PITTMAN'S PERFORMANCE IN ALABAMA ALONGSIDE SABAN, SMART BIG FOR RAZORBACKS' FUTURE

RELIVE THE DAN ENOS ERA AT ARKANSAS TO GAIN INSIGHT ON WHERE THE RAZORBACK OFFENSE IS HEADED

RAZORBACKS' ANTHONY BLACK RESPONDS PERFECTLY TO LSU SLAP

HOGS' COACH SAM PITTMAN HAS BECOME A TRUE HEAD COACH WITH MODERN ERA WISDOM

RAZORBACKS TAKE NEXT STEP IN EVOLUTION DURING WIN OVER LSU

RAZORBACKS FINALLY ABSORBING DEFENSIVE LESSON MUSSELMAN HAS BEEN TEACHING

HOGS TEAM WAS ONCE SO GREAT THE COACH SCHEDULED A 3-GAME SERIES WITH THAT GENERATION'S VERSION OF THE 90S BULLS WITH JORDAN, PIPPEN

IF NICK SMITH COMES BACK, HE MAY NOT BE A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR FOR RAZORBACKS

WHICH TEAM THAT STARTED LEAGUE PLAY 11-1 ENDS WITH NCAA BERTH

SCOUTING REPORT SAYS RAZORBACKS HAVE GOTTEN BETTER, BUT WHAT ABOUT LSU AHEAD OF TUESDAY NIGHT?

NEWEST ITERATION OF HOGS' BASEBALL EXPECTED TO BE LED BY PITCHING

LET'S NOT OVERLOOK ANTHONY BLACK, WHO IS LEADING THIS RAZORBACK TEAM RIGHT NOW

WALSH, DAVIS FINDING CONFIDENCE, DEFINING ROLES KEY TO HOGS' WIN OVER OLE MISS

BREAKING DOWN ALL 33 FOULS CALLED AGAINST ARKANSAS AT MISSOURI

DAN ENOS HIRED FOR REASONS OTHER THAN PLAY CALLING

WHAT MIKE NEIGHBORS LEARNED IN CLOSE LOSS AT LSU HE WILL PROBABLY WANT TO USE WITH HOGS

SEC ADMITS THEY MESSED UP REVIEW, BUT NOTHING ELSE AND NO MENTION OF CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HOGS

HOGS STILL CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO CLOSE OUT A WIN, FALLING TO MISSOURI

A COUPLE OF POSSIBILITIES FOR RAZORBACKS' OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR OPENING

BRILES REPORTEDLY HEADED TO TCU, BUT WHO MIGHT FOLLOW?

MUSSELMAN SAYS LARGE SEC CROWDS POSSIBLY THE ISSUE WITH HOGS

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR RAZORBACKS TO HAVE AN ARGUMENT TO REACH NCAA TOURNAMENT THIS YEAR?

Arkansas divider

Return to allHogs home page.

Want to join in on the discussion? Click here to become a member of the allHOGS message board community today!

Follow allHOGS on Twitter and Facebook.


Published
Andy Hodges
ANDY HODGES

Sports columnist, writer, former radio host and television host who has been expressing an opinion on sports in the media for over four decades. He has been at numerous media stops in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.