2 weeks ago, after the putrid offensive performance against Auburn, Hootie Nutt was quoted in the papers saying he had told David Lee "to get more creative" on offnese. Well, he could hardly get less creative could he? Lee was also told to "open it up". Hootie didn't say what "it" was. Was it a can of whupass, a can of worms, a can of 'nutts' (is that redundant?) or what?

Hootie Nutt's idea of "opening it up" on offense is to wait until 4th down to punt or run something besides the draw play on 3rd down.

Now, all we're hearing from the Hill is "it's a 'new' season", "we're 1-0" and Hootie's team meeting the day after the Auburn game has "saved the season". My question is: why did the Hogs wait until the 6th game to play with a sense of urgency? The bottom line is Nutt coaches not to lose, like Broyles post-1970, like Holtz after his first couple of years in Fayetteville, like Hatfield his whole time here, and so on.

The common thread is that every UA football coach since Broyles has gotten more and more conservative the longer they were here after being at least a little daring at first. That common thread is J. Frank Broyles. For all he has done for the football program and the University, it was past time for Broyles to retire, several years past time, actually. There needs to be a house-cleaning at UA from top to bottom, not only in the athletic department but the school as a whole. Here's hoping the hiring of Jeff Long is a start.

Houston Nutt is obviously starting to feel the heat with petulant comments the last 2 days such as: "the players and coaches want to win 10 times as much as anybody else" and " I put more pressure on myself than anybody else can".

Ok, let's address the first one. While it's true the players and coaches go through sweltering practices in August, etc., they don't have to pay to get in the games. They don't have to pay for a motel for at least one night per game, much less 2. They don't have to pay $4 for a soda and fight the traffic, walk a mile to their seats.

Mr. Nutt needs to be reminded that the FANS pay the freight or there would be no college football, at least not as we know it. We, the FANS pay his bloated salary whether in the form of tax dollars, ticket sales or contributions to the Razorback Foundation. If there were not 70,000 plus people in the stands for games, does he really think he would still have a job?

People from all corners of this state make the drive from places like McGehee, Paragould, and Texarkana, not to mention other states, to see the same predictable offense, the same boneheaded coaching decisions, and hear the same excuses after losses.

I don't think it's asking too much for a Head Coach making $1.2 million a year in one of the poorest states in the U.S. to level with the fans and tell us the TRUTH. We don't expect the man to tell us the game plan or info that would help opponents. We do have the right to hold the staff accountable when they give us mealy-mouthed used-car-salesman double talk about "there's no dissension on the staff, nothing could be further from the truth". Then we see coaches defect to smaller schools for less money. Then we hear "Mitch hasn't decided what he's going to do, he's just weighing his options" and he announces he's leaving almost immediately.

We're told Nutt knew nothing about the infamous Teresa Prewitt email until after the Bowl game, then we see evidence to the contrary. Why should we believe anything Houston Nutt says when he has been caught in so many lies? When he utters his favorite catchphrase "nothing could be further from the truth", hold on tight to your wallet, he's getting ready to tell a whopper.

You can get away with a lot with the people of Arkansas, but lying repeatedly over a period of time is not one of them.