It’s Over When It’s Over: Hogs’ Season In Review
Here are a few life lessons I learned over the course of this Razorback football season:
Count On Nothing
Bobby Petrino was not our coach. John L. Smith was not a competent coach. Knile Davis was not even a factor in the Hogs’ offense for much of the season. Tyler Wilson was not a Heisman candidate. Injuries can change everything.
Louisiana Monroe went to overtime with two Southeastern Conference teams and defeated one in Little Rock, Ark. Arkansas State got five votes in the latest AP poll; Arkansas has not had a single one since early September. Notre Dame will play in a National Championship game.
These are all facts about which I believed the exact opposite at some point during the off season. All of these are things no one could have predicted.
Adaptation and adjustment are the keys to human survival. They in turn are keys to survival in college football and not something the Razorbacks did well at any point — whether it be halftime adjustments or coaching adjustments, they just never happened for the Hogs.
Make the Best of the Situation You’re In
This applies to coaching staff, players, students and fans alike. Of course, there are always things coaches and players can improve upon from week to week to change the outcome of games, but the bottom line is that everyone was put into a very tough situation this season and making the most of it was all you could really do.
It was an easy season to become content with losing quickly, and that is not at all what I mean here. Cheer for those Hogs, cheer for them with all your heart, but make the decision that you can still go out on Dickson after a loss and that you won’t just go to your room and cry yourself to sleep.
Yes, yours truly is guilty of both and worse in previous seasons and at the beginning of this one. Complaining and moping and being a bad sport does no one any good.
I recall tweeting soon after the Alabama loss that “oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.” So the point is that John L. had it right early on — smile.
Smile and celebrate the sport we love and the college football culture that makes us who we are.
It’s Over When It’s Over
Dwelling on the past eight months is something no Arkansas fan is really trying to do right now, but the point here is to start looking towards the future and to see this season as an anomaly.
Think of it as something that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, the bad that sneaks in the middle of the good, just an aberration never to be repeated.
I vote we never speak of 2012 ever again. Deal?
Friday marked my final football game as a student at this school. A moment that I had always thought would be bittersweet was more sweet than bitter even in its outcome. It meant that 2012 was over, and that is something for which we can all be thankful.
Liz Beadle is a staff writer for the Arkansas Traveler. Her column appears every other Wednesday. Follow the sports section on Twitter @UATravSports.
