David Bazzel announced that he is coming for the physical hardware — trophies, awards, plaques — earned by past Razorback football teams but reportedly stashed by University of Arkansas brass in a Rogers storage locker, and former Hog great Madre Hill endorsed Bobby Petrino as permanent head coach. In other words, it was just another Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
Hill and another Hog great, Anthony Lucas, both members of the Arkansas all-decade team for the 1990s, were the guests of Bazzel, LRTDC founder, emcee and himself a former Razorback great, on Monday in downtown Little Rock. Hill and Lucas, who played together in the mid-1990s, talked about the transition from hard-nosed, old-school Danny Ford to motivational “players’ coach” Houston Nutt, but Bazzel unintentionally stole the show when he revealed that he had been told much of the physical hardware such as trophies, plaques and awards won by past Razorback teams was sitting in a Rogers storage facility.
Spurred on by Hill, who officially endorsed the removal of Petrino’s interim tag and spoke passionately about the uniqueness of the state and what it takes to win here, Bazzel said he felt as though everything that had been accomplished on the gridiron pre-2000 was being “diminished.”
Bazzel said the late Dean Weber, the former longtime Razorback football head trainer, told him that the UA administration had filled a storage unit in Rogers with hardware, jerseys and other memorabilia from past Hog teams. He noted how the trophy room in the old North End Zone Complex at Razorback Stadium, before stadium expansion, used to be filled with such things that helped Hog fans and even current players remember and appreciate the program’s history.
“Please don’t let them wipe away all the years of what we’ve done,” he said. “This is a call out to the chancellor [Charles Robinson]. We’re coming for that stuff. If you don’t want it in the facility, we’re coming for ’em. The history of this program is not being represented.”
Credit: DeWaine Duncan
Bazzel said he would round up a group of supporters and former players to join him on the Hill, clean out the storage unit and find a place to display the items, even if it had to be “on the walls of a barbecue joint.”
Before Bazzel’s revelation, Hill dropped his own “bomb” in endorsing Petrino, the current interim head coach who took over for the fired Sam Pittman in September. Hill, who set several school records as a running back his sophomore season in 1995 before an ACL injury suffered in the SEC championship game sidelined him for two years, said coaches could be sorted into three categories: those with the big egos who “want to take the wind out of the room,” the recruiters and the stabilizers. He classified Petrino with the first group and Pittman with the last.
Petrino, brought back as offensive coordinator last year, was named interim following Pittman’s dismissal in the aftermath of an embarrassing home loss to Notre Dame on Sept. 27. His successful run as head Hog from 2008 to 2011 still resonates with many Arkansas fans, but Petrino is 0-4 since taking the reins with the Hogs’ penchant for dropping close games a continued albatross around the program’s neck.
Hill argued that Petrino shouldn’t be judged on this year’s results.
“We’ve got to decide what we want,” Hill said. “We have to have someone who can take the breath out of a room. Coach Petrino is that guy.”
When Petrino led the Hogs to a 21-10 record in the 2010 and 2011 seasons and made Arkansas a top 10 fixture, Hill said, “We ate well.”
Using the analogy of letting someone else come in on Thanksgiving Day to prepare the meal, he said: “We have to let him cook his own Thanksgiving meal with his recipes and seasoning. When he did before, we ate well. We got fat. We ate second helpings. Let’s give him the right opportunity.”
Lucas, the two-time state-title coach at Pulaski Academy and all-American wide receiver best known for his game-winning “Redemption” catch against Tennessee in 1999, didn’t disagree with Hill but had reservations.
“I like Coach Petrino. He’s aged a little and [has gotten better] in relationship-building with players,” he said. “You have to have relationships with players. That’s the only little thing I worry about with Coach Petrino. When it comes to Xs and Os, he’s good. He’s very good.”
Credit: DeWaine Duncan
Hill said the program needs a coach who will take losses personally, a big ask these days.
“When Coach Nutt came in, it was a brotherhood, it was the state of Arkansas,” he said. “When we [as Arkansans] think about the Razorbacks, it’s personal.”
Lucas said the transition from the hardcore Ford to the motivational Nutt, dubbed the “Right Reverend” by ESPN’s Rece Davis, was dramatic.
“It was tough [under Ford],” he said. “We always knew we had talent. We just got beat down as players. We didn’t enjoy practice, and how can you enjoy football if you don’t enjoy practice? There was just a negative vibe. When ‘H’ came in in ’98, it was like Christmas all over again.”
The Hogs had suffered consecutive 4-7 seasons under Ford before Nutt, who taped a tribute message to both players, was hired in ’98. That year, the Hogs started 8-0 and were a part of SEC and national title talk before a fluke play in a top 10 showdown at Tennessee — in typical Arkansas fashion — reared its ugly head.
Both players lamented the current state of the game surrounding NIL. Hill said in his day, players were motivated by the love of the game and the Hog logo on the side of the helmet, not by NIL “checks.”
“That Hog meant something to us,” he said. “We wanted to represent it as best as we could.”
The full live stream can be seen here.
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