Nutt returns, wins with Rebels
Last updated Saturday, October 25, 2008 10:59 PM CDT in Columns
By Harry King
The Morning News
FAYETTEVILLE -- No matter what happened on the field, the headset-wearing man on the sideline was embedded in the game story.
I kept thinking the competition between Arkansas and Ole Miss would subdue the Houston Nutt angle, but it never did.
For one brief moment, Nutt’s old team had a chance to stick it to his new team and the circumstances were ripe for reveling by those Arkansas fans who wanted him gone. When an onside kick pileup occurred a few steps from Nutt, the officials said the ball belonged to Ole Miss and Nutt began beating his chest — just the sort of thing that would irritate some.
But, a replay official awarded the ball to Arkansas, providing a sweet opportunity for those who celebrated when Nutt departed in last November and high-tailed it to Oxford.
The Hollywood ending was not to be and when the Rebels’ 23-21 victory was final, Nutt had a quick word with his successor, Bobby Petrino, before mingling with several of the Arkansas players in the middle of the field. Nutt was emotionally and personally invested this week; anxious according to a brother. “I love my team right now, but it is hard not to love players that you recruited and coached,” he said.
Petrino didn’t want to hear about the Nutt stuff back in August and he was not interested this week. He wanted to win because he is the Arkansas coach and because both teams were trying for 4-4.
When Ole Miss was trying to protect a 20-14 lead deep in the fourth quarter, Arkansas fans had to be thinking about times they believed Nutt was too conservative with the Razorbacks leading by a few points. If form held and Ole Miss ran the ball three times and Arkansas used its two timeouts, the Razorbacks could get the ball back with close to three minutes to play.
Maybe Arkansas had the same book on Nutt because the Razorbacks crowded the line of scrimmage on second-and-14 and Mike Wallace beat an isolated Isaac Madison for a 42-yard completion. In the TD drive that made it 20-7, Ole Miss did the same thing against a similar ganged-up defense for 34 yards to the Arkansas 11.
At Ole Miss, Nutt is in communication with coordinator Kent Austin in the pressbox and you know the head coach has a say in the playcalling. The Rebels converted 9-of-17 third downs and more than half of those conversions were via the pass.
After Joshua Shene’s 28-yard field goal made it 23-14 with 1:48 to play, Rebels fans and the Ole Miss pep band chanted Nutt’s name. Across the way, UA fans countered with Petrino’s name.
During the drive for the Rebels’ second touchdown, it was easy to imagine offensive line coach Mike Markuson in Nutt’s ear encouraging, “Keep pounding them.” Markuson, who has been with Nutt since 1993, and his offensive linemen enjoyed consecutive runs of 11-3-6-4-9 prior to Jevan Snead’s first big pass to Wallace.
Back in Razorback Stadium for the first time in almost a year, Nutt was booed emphatically when he first showed more than 40 minutes prior to kickoff and booed again when he departed the field at halftime.
Despite the boos, one reporter talked to more than a dozen fans and none of them had anything bad to say about Nutt. The Ole Miss fans the reporter talked with were ecstatic about his hire.
At the moment, the edge belongs to the Rebels.
Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
About this columnist
The dean of Arkansas sports writers, Harry King updates his column five days per week with the latest on the Razorbacks. A 35-year veteran of The Associated Press, King joined the Arkansas News Bureau in May of 2002. He's covered the Razorbacks since the Arkansas-Texas game dubbed the Big Shootout in 1969.
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