New Year's Goals for Arkansas Athletics

How the Razorbacks' programs can improve overall feel of 2024

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Jan 2, 2024 11:40 AM EST

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – While New Year's resolutions can be a bit cliche' and often lead unrealistic plans such as deciding to learn the trombone when the only available time a parent has is when the baby is sleeping, it is often helpful to simply begin the new year with reflection and a few achievable goals.

In this vein, let's look at a few goals that can be reasonably accomplished that would make the overall atmosphere around the Arkansas athletics program have a renewed feel. Succeeding in even a few of these could easily change the overall vibe across the state.

Marketing

It's always best to start with something that can definitely be achieved. While everyone can agree the promotional video currently run by the University of Arkansas was strong when it first came out, it has long since run its course.

This is no slight to the Arkansas graduate who reportedly wrote the "Dream On" song from the video. It's just time for something different. The song is slow and sleepy and associated with two difficult seasons for Razorback football, so things need to pick up in whatever comes next.

It needs to feel upbeat and fresh. The Chad Morris era is finally officially in the past, so something that feels bright, hopeful and energetic needs to come in its place. Arkansas graduates and Razorback fans need to feel like they can take on the world by the time the commercial is done.

Pace it like the beginning of Top Gun. Start off slow and revealing, but in a way that conveys something big is about to happen. Then shoot viewers off into something exhilarating. The clients Arkansas is trying to reach is a group from the fast cut video generation raised on YouTube and TikTok. Put some energy into this thing.

Basketball

Everyone knows returners Trevon Brazile and Makhi Mitchell aren't quite up to where they were last season offensively. However, they both have it in their games to break out at any given moment.

That's not something either should force for the sake of a small bump on the stat line. Instead, a goal of focused intensity on rebounding and relentlessness on the defensive end is where both need to go. Rebounding is an art that can purposefully happen.

Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace willed teams to NBA championships by being intentional in their knowledge, effort and execution in rebounding. Brazile and Mitchell can do the same, ruling the SEC on the boards if they truly make it a focused part of their games.

As for defense, it can't be about trying to make highlights. Blocks look nice on tape, but getting too carried away with trying to block shots leads to a lot of costly mistakes. The goal should simply be to make someone's life miserable.

Eat garlic, drink coffee and make someone miserable to smell your breath all night. SEC girlfriends should be jealous because of how much time their boyfriends' bodies spend smothered against Brazile and Mitchell's. The person they are defending should hate them so much from how suffocating things have been that by the middle of the second half he loses his cools and draws a technical.

Sneakily, while doing this, both players' offensive stats will increase, as will the Razorbacks' win totals. Second chance points, extra possessions and fast breaks created by the effort will inevitably open up more scoring opportunities.

Arkansas Football

This one is simple. Make the quarterback competition a fair fight.

Ignore NIL deals, past history, possible promises made during recruiting. Give everyone equal reps and don't name a starter until after the first two weeks of camp just prior to the season. This will allow guys to do their best to pick things up during spring and spend the entire summer getting better with the receivers and backs while picking up the Bobby Petrino offense.

The player who gets it the most in the spring isn't necessarily the guy who can run it best four months later after extra time to study and work. The best person for the job has to get it no matter what, whether that be Jacolby Criswell, Taylen Green or Malachi Singleton. Slates have to be cleaned.

Hogs' Baseball

While the concept is basic, this may be the hardest goal of them all. Don't get hurt.

The only thing that kept last year's team from being a national champion was injuries. What was to be the best starting rotation possibly in Arkansas history took heavy losses early in the season, as did the bullpen, and Arkansas never fully recovered. Plus, Jared Wegner went down to injury late in the year and never returned to his early form as a hitter.

Some things can't be avoided. Wegner's injury was a freak accident. However, care in making sure mechanics are correct and reinforcing players don't overwork themselves will go a long way in keeping injuries to a minimum, thus putting wins at a maximum.

Razorback Softball

The softball team just needs to be itself. Last year was plagued by the Razorbacks fighting their own identity.

Pitcher Chenise Delce built herself into a mythical monster the season before and spent the entire season trying to hold up to being that unstoppable force once again instead of settling into who she had become through another year of maturation. The unblinking cyborg from the year before evolved into a human and she never looked comfortable with that as the season progressed.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team completely lost its own personality once postseason play began. The steady, confident force that built a legacy of dominance by being a complete team looked like it became more individually focused once the regular season ended.

Together, the Razorbacks were championship material. However, when broken down into individuals, there was just no way Arkansas was going to stand up to the onslaught of quality teams running their way into Bogle Park in the postseason and everything collapsed.

If the players accept who they are in this particular season, understanding last year is last year, and use their new strengths to blend with the rest, there's a world series run in this team.

Administration

There was a time when there was one state, one Razorback. Frank Broyles understood it to the fullest and used that philosophy to create one of the largest, most loyal fan bases a football program in such a tiny state could possibly have.

However, as things drift further and further from Broyles' retirement, the Arkansas athletics program has drifted further and further from the rest of the state. There's a level of exhaustion from the phrase "nothing matters south of the Bobby Hopper Tunnel" that is wearing thin as the Hogs have evolved into the Northwest Arkansas Razorbacks instead of who they have always been.

Fans are understanding. They know there is good reason to no longer play football games in Little Rock. However, for every event that disappeared from the rotation in the rest of the state, it should have been replaced two-fold with something else to make sure fans who don't live in Northwest Arkansas know they matter.

Baseball and softball have tried to help by scheduling games in Little Rock and Conway respectively, but even that's not happening this season for baseball. Every Division I baseball team in the state is coming to Fayetteville to face the Razorbacks.

Basketball has its single annual game in Little Rock, a drastic cut from years past in the central Arkansas circuit that used to run through Barton Coliseum and the Pine Bluff Convention Center back in the day. Adding a holiday game in Pine Bluff while Arkansas students are on winter break would be a strong positive change to playing a meaningless game in front of an empty Bud Walton Arena that time of year.

As for football and the other sports, making a point to get coaches and players to events in South and East Arkansas is a must. That connection and relationship has to be there and it has to be meaningful.

The idea of one proud state can't keep getting taken for granted. This is an easy one to fix that would go a long way in easing a lot of the grumbling. The people of Arkansas aren't as quick to go ripping people apart on social media when they have met or seen them in person. The cultural change would be huge.