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Projecting Razorbacks' Offense Can't Use 20-Year-Old History Baseline

Petrino's second year this time around with Arkansas offense has entirely new set of variables in equation

Andy Hodges

Arkansas Razorbacks offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino on the field before game with the Texas Longhorns at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark.
Arkansas Razorbacks offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino on the field before game with the Texas Longhorns at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. / Ted McClenning-Hogs on SI Images
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Just over a month away from spring practice getting under way, the chatter is already starting about Arkansas' offense. A little patience may be required but it's hard to find anyone believing that.

"The offense will be dramatically better bcause this is Bobby's second year," they say about offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino. They remember how his offenses from 2008-11 improved each year.

Expecting it again this year based off that is more hope than anything else. If the Razorbacks suddenly explode with an offense as consistently breaking scoreboards it would be surprising.

Since the standard excuse in favor of that argument is the plalyers always pick it up in the second year a lot better, you might want to look at the roster this year. Petrino probably knows who is the likely guy taking most of the snaps from center and nothing else is guaranteed.

The playmakers on last year's 7-6 team are all gone. The leading receivers either ran outof eligibility or hit that blasted transfer portal. Now guys like Luke Hasz will lining up against them the third week of the season in Oxford against Ole Miss.

The first time Petrino was at Arkansas in 2008, he had a bunch of freshmen like Jarius Wright, Joe Adams, Greg Childs and Chris Gragg. They also had a sophomore veteran tight end in DJ Williams.

They figured things out, getting better pretty much every week thoughout that season and shocked LSU at War Memorial Stadium in the last game of a 5-7 season. The second year they were better, improving to 8-5 because East Carolina missed overtime chances to win the Liberty Bowl and Alex Tejada didn't.

The third season of keeping all these guys together is when it really became evident what had been developed. That team came within some mental lapses from a Sugar Bowl win over Ohio State. That team finished 10-3.

All of that is is to point out Petrino doesn't have a single receiver back that made big plays during the season for the Razorbacks. In fact over 80 percent of the guys that caught all of the passes from quarterbacks last year are gone for a variety of reasons. Some simply ran out of years eligible to play in about the only rule left in college football.

Back during Petrino's first run with the Razorbacks, they went from 4,477 yards of total offense in his first season to 5,595 the second year. The third was the best (6,273 yards) and it dropped off a little in 2011 to 5,696.

They still never beat Alabama and lost to the eventual national champion all four seasons. Make of that whatever you want and not all of it was offense, but there were games they still were shut down. Those were some of Nick Saban's best defenses with the Crimson Tide.

Just don't project Petrino's offense to duplicate that second-year success he's had before. It's a completely new world now with the portal and NIL cause lots of teams to have nearly wholesale changes every single year.

It may be a good gauge of what can happen going forward, though. Petrino has to show he can develop an offense in a fast amount of time with players that has never seen his system before.

That's the purpose of spring practice and this year may be as interesting as anything we've seen. Just be patient while we figure out who's who, but then Bobby may be doing that to a certain extent as well.

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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.

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