Harrison Stanfill

My freshman year at the University of Arkansas was Bobby Petrino’s first season as coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

That was a very weird season.

There were a lot of the remaining players from the Houston Nutt era and there were a lot of students that were disenchanted with the football program. You could walk up to the student gate, after a good spell of tailgating, 20 minutes before kickoff and find yourself with a pretty prime seat halfway up the student section.

This was my gameday ritual. Wake up, walk down to the festivities, tailgate, go to the game, wait until next Saturday. Repeat.

As I continued this tradition, I began noticing something. My seats kept getting higher and higher.

It finally hit me when I was sitting in the upper deck during the Missouri State game in September – the Arkansas Razorbacks are a football program.

During the Houston Nutt tenure the Arkansas Razorbacks were a football team, occasionally a good one, but when they were good it was because we would have a couple of really good players that were worth 2-3 wins just by themselves. (DARREN MCFADDEN!)

Here is the contrast.

The Hogs still have those types of guys on these teams. They just have a lot more of them – Tyler Wilson, Jarius Wright, Knile Davis and they keep on coming.

Petrino has done what Houston was not able to. He has taken a football team that would occasionally get major talent and turned it into a football program that fights for the top recruits with the top schools.

During the years of the Right Reverend Nutt whenever they would lose a good talent at a skill position there was nobody there who was able to step in and keep the team going.

When Matt Jones’ career was done there was nobody the Razorbacks had that could step in. There was Robert Johnson, Casey Dick and Mitch Mustain (I know some of you will argue that Mustain was good – he was capable).

When Arkansas lost McFadden, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis, there was nobody who was able to step in and keep the running game going. If anyone out there reading this is thinking “I don’t know man, that Michael Smith was pretty good” I might have a heart attack.

This is the biggest difference between the Razorbacks A.B. (After Bobby).

They now have the ability to replace good players with other good players. Lose Ryan Mallett, he is replaced with Tyler Wilson.

Lose D.J. Williams he is replaced with Chris Gragg. Lose Knile Davis and there is Dennis Johnson.

The Razorbacks have found themselves in a strange position. They now have the ability to replace good players, recruit players from all over the country and are becoming a perennial top-10 team.

Right now Arkansas is in the position that every Hog fan knew they had the ability to be in and the only explanation is coaching.

Nothing else has changed from Nutt to Petrino. They still play in the same stadium, the colors are still red and white and Arkansas is still written across the front of the jersey.

Petrino has rejuvenated the program. He has changed the expectations for Arkansas.

Fans are no longer happy with a Cotton Bowl appearance, the expectation is now a BCS game. The fans got a taste of New Orleans last year and another trip to Dallas just won’t satisfy them.

The bar has been raised for this entire program and Petrino is the one that set it. The Razorbacks are a team that is on the rise and they have a coach who expects nothing but perfection from them.

This football program has completely transformed over the past four years and expectations are only going to get higher and higher.

Times are A-Changing Fayetteville, but only for the better.

Harrison Stanfill is a guest columnist for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Monday.