Arkansas

#51
#51
volwindy said:
Hopefully! Sky high right now. I'd like to go, but not with those prices!
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Volwindy, I am serious about knowing where to find 4 together for face plus fees. I only need 2. Please let me know before they are gone. I will call him tomorrow to be sure he still has them. We can both pay for our own two using our credit cards.
 
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#52
#52
The Original Fade said:
AGREE! Arkansas is the most underrated state in the country when it comes to natural beauty, as long as you stay away from the delta in the southeast although it’s a duck hunting utopia. Northwest Arkansas is about as beautiful as it gets
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Agreed!! I drive through there a few months back and it was beautiful country
 
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#54
#54
supersmo18 said:
Just messing with ya. I've never been to Arky. I've wanted to go to the Crater of Diamonds park for a while and dig up some diamond dust and give it to my wife in small increments over the next few years though... LOL But honestly I would love to go spend some time outdoors and hike/camp in the Ozarks.
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I've always wanted to go there too.
 
#56
#56
photovol said:
If Only JG was all the problem
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Yep. From the staff on down, we have folks not getting it done. Year after year, we're fed the same lines from folks making decisions and doing interviews. Just flapping gums. Nothing ever changes. I view it in the same light as politics. They tell you what you want to hear to get your vote/money. Once they get that, it's business/losing as usual. We haven't looked like a functional program heading in the right direction in what....15 years? 20 years? Yet, we still put fannies in Neyland. Money keeps flowing in and losses keep coming. Did I mention nothing changes....ever.

This fan base is so damned loyal and the best in college football. Can't think of another fan base that would hang in as long as we have. We deserve better than this chit.
 
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#58
#58
I kind of empathize with Arky fans. They have a pretty good program historically, but given the current landscape of the SEC it is going to be very difficult for them to be consistently competitive. Must recruit out-of-state a lot.
 
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#59
#59
05_never_again said:
I kind of empathize with Arky fans. They have a pretty good program historically, but given the current landscape of the SEC it is going to be very difficult for them to be consistently competitive. Must recruit out-of-state a lot.
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Are referencing Arky or Tennessee?
 
#60
#60
Mightyvol said:
Are referencing Arky or Tennessee?
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Arky. They are kind of in a similar spot to Tennessee as a program. We have more history than they do, but are in kind of similar spots as programs. Far removed from their last successful period, a long series of largely self-inflicted bad decisions/hires that are just simply embarrassing, has to go out-of-state to recruit.
 
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#61
#61
05_never_again said:
Arky. They are kind of in a similar spot to Tennessee as a program. We have more history than they do, but are in kind of similar spots as programs. Far removed from their last successful period, a long series of largely self-inflicted bad decisions/hires that are just simply embarrassing, has to go out-of-state to recruit.
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I've compared Tennessee football to Arkansas basketball before. Both have all the resources to succeed and have proven they are capable of being an elite program but haven't been able to consistently get back to that level in a while. Neither program has really been awful but they're just kinda there. Under Mike Anderson we consistently finished around 4th in the SEC. Not bad but never good enough to really accomplish anything.

It's true that it's hard to get a recruiting class above the early 20's at Arkansas. Petrino of all people somehow got the #16 class here once but it ended up not being a very good class. Theoretically a top 25 recruiting class is very good but not in this conference. You have Ole Miss, Mississippi State and South Carolina that all recruit around the same area as us most years and those are usually in the lower half. I really wish we could copy what Oregon does. They don't produce a lot of in-state talent either but ever since Chip Kelly and Nike made them a "cool" program they get a ton of 5-stars out of California like I wish we could get out of neighboring Texas. But there is more competition for recruits in this area of the country than on the West coast I suppose.
 
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#62
#62
NWA or Hot Springs. Only two places worth visiting/living in Arkansas if you want a nice town + things to do. Hunting and fishing is great. If you like getting on the lake then Hot Springs is the place for you. Have a legit casino now and the horse races are always a good time
 
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#63
#63
gohogs14 said:
I've compared Tennessee football to Arkansas basketball before. Both have all the resources to succeed and have proven they are capable of being an elite program but haven't been able to consistently get back to that level in a while. Neither program has really been awful but they're just kinda there. Under Mike Anderson we consistently finished around 4th in the SEC. Not bad but never good enough to really accomplish anything.

It's true that it's hard to get a recruiting class above the early 20's at Arkansas. Petrino of all people somehow got the #16 class here once but it ended up not being a very good class. Theoretically a top 25 recruiting class is very good but not in this conference. You have Ole Miss, Mississippi State and South Carolina that all recruit around the same area as us most years and those are usually in the lower half. I really wish we could copy what Oregon does. They don't produce a lot of in-state talent either but ever since Chip Kelly and Nike made them a "cool" program they get a ton of 5-stars out of California like I wish we could get out of neighboring Texas. But there is more competition for recruits in this area of the country than on the West coast I suppose.
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Oregon is kind of a unique case. In their conference there is only one clear historical power (USC), and they've been down ever since Pete Carroll left. Washington has had some historical success too, but I wouldn't call them a traditional power. The rest of the schools in that conference kind of ebb and flow or simply have been downright bad for a while.

The opportunity was there for one of the other Pac 12 schools to kind of stand out and try and make a name for itself, and there are so many recruits in California that other schools can still go in there and get some, especially when USC is down.

Arky, in contrast, is in a division with Texas A&M, LSU, Alabama, and Auburn. Three of those schools have won at least one national title within the last decade and are all recruiting juggernauts. I think that A&M entering the SEC has probably made it more difficult for you to recruit. You used to be able to tell Texas kids that they had to leave the state to play in the SEC, but not anymore.
 
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#64
#64
Proud Army Wife said:
I've always wanted to go there too.
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I've watched a few videos on it and my understanding is that it isn't as common as you would think (finding a diamond). Evidently only about 1 in every 200 people find one. :-/ I'm not gonna drive from East TN for a special trip for it, but I'd probably stop there if I was passing thru.
 
#65
#65
supersmo18 said:
I've watched a few videos on it and my understanding is that it isn't as common as you would think (finding a diamond). Evidently only about 1 in every 200 people find one. :-/ I'm not gonna drive from East TN for a special trip for it, but I'd probably stop there if I was passing thru.
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Yeah I know. I don't mind. I've always just wanted to go digging for some gems. I also love any outdoorsy related activities so I added it to my bucket list of places to visit in the US.
 
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#67
#67
photovol said:
If Only JG was all the problem
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JG is far from the only problem but it sure would be nice to have a QB that didn’t stare down the WR, had decent foot work, could read a defense at least 50% of the time, didn’t throw behind the WR / over the WR / at the feet of the WR, and could make something decent happen with his legs or arm at least 20% of the time when the OL loses containment.

I have zero confidence in Weinke as the QB coach and Friend as the OL coach.
 
#68
#68
Just in my experience, Fayettville is a really cool college town. Loved the bars and atmosphere -People are nice as can be and at Christmas time their town square is something to truly behold.
Tennessee better bring their A plus game - will be very difficult to win.
 
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#69
#69
Lived in Springdale, AR (which is NWA) for 13 years. You can't base your opinion of Arkansas by driving interstate 40. Its a horrible drive and makes Arkansas look like sh!t. However, once you start heading Northbound on 49 it's quite scenic. If your going to Fayetteville I recommend checking out Dickson St. for adults and Gentry Zoo is pretty cool for kids. The Fayetteville and Bentonville squares have some cool shops and are family oriented. Bentonville also has Crystal Bridges and Scott Family Amazeum. If you have time, drive over to Eureka Springs for a funky experience. Plus, America's most haunted hotel (Crescent Hotel) is located there.

The stadium is nice but be prepared to listen to "Woo Pig Sooie" a lot and most of the fans are polite but just like everywhere else you will definitely run into a few that you will despise.
 
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#70
#70
05_never_again said:
I think that A&M entering the SEC has probably made it more difficult for you to recruit. You used to be able to tell Texas kids that they had to leave the state to play in the SEC, but not anymore.
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We're actually getting around the exact same number of kids from Texas that we were before A&M joined the SEC, but that's not a crazy amount. What hurt our recruiting in Texas was moving from the SWC to the SEC - we stepped up in competition but we used to get a ton of good players from Texas that we only sporadically get now. A&M's move has helped them in recruiting a ton though, I guess by proxy that hurts us. A&M now gets kids that were going to Texas or OU before.
 
#71
#71
gohogs14 said:
We're actually getting around the exact same number of kids from Texas that we were before A&M joined the SEC, but that's not a crazy amount. What hurt our recruiting in Texas was moving from the SWC to the SEC - we stepped up in competition but we used to get a ton of good players from Texas that we only sporadically get now. A&M's move has helped them in recruiting a ton though, I guess by proxy that hurts us. A&M now gets kids that were going to Texas or OU before.
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Didn't y'all always feel kind of feel like an outsider in the SWC though, being the only non-Texas school? Why did good Texas players want to leave the state and play for Arkansas? The SWC ended up folding anyway.

I guess I can see how that hurt recruiting during the period between leaving the SWC and the SWC folding, but given that the SEC clearly became the premier conference in the late 2000s it was definitely the better long-term move. I just figured that being able to tell Texas kids "Hey, if you want to play in the best conference you need to leave the state and come here" was a great sales pitch, but A&M joining the conference has made it to where you can't claim that anymore.
 
#72
#72
05_never_again said:
Didn't y'all always feel kind of feel like an outsider in the SWC though, being the only non-Texas school? Why did good Texas players want to leave the state and play for Arkansas? The SWC ended up folding anyway.

I guess I can see how that hurt recruiting during the period between leaving the SWC and the SWC folding, but given that the SEC clearly became the premier conference in the late 2000s it was definitely the better long-term move. I just figured that being able to tell Texas kids "Hey, if you want to play in the best conference you need to leave the state and come here" was a great sales pitch, but A&M joining the conference has made it to where you can't claim that anymore.
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Our fans did feel like the red-headed stepchild and felt like there was some corruption with Texas-based officiating but a lot of us feel the same way about the SEC sometimes too lol, plus we had more natural rivals back then while we don't in the SEC. Not saying it was better for us because the money in the SEC has allowed us to build some awesome facilities, but the SEC is definitely a different animal from every other conference competitively.

It's hard to quantify how much of an impact being in the SEC has on our recruiting, we may not get top 25 classes in the Big 12 today. But back in the SWC I think we got a lot of Texas recruits simply because a road trip to Houston or SMU is a lot easier for Texas parents to make than road games @ Georgia, Alabama or Florida when not every game was on TV. Plus back then we were probably the 2nd best program in the SWC behind Texas and were in the top 10 most years which we can't sell now. Constantly changing coaches every 5 years hasn't helped us either.

Don't get me wrong we still get plenty of difference makers from there but not at the level we used to, especially on defense. Teams like Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU now have a lot more to offer than they used to so they're getting kids to stay home more as well. We probably split 50/50 with TCU for recruits. If we could ever win at a high level I think it would take care of itself, we kill the state of Texas in baseball recruiting.
 
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#73
#73
05_never_again said:
I kind of empathize with Arky fans. They have a pretty good program historically, but given the current landscape of the SEC it is going to be very difficult for them to be consistently competitive. Must recruit out-of-state a lot.
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But Arkansas usually has a tougher team than the Vols..... the Vols have been soft for so long
 
#74
#74
I think Arkansas will take the Vols to the woodshed and make them black and blue


Pittman has the hogs hungry and make no mistake they are tough
 
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