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Nov 19th, 2007 12:27AM
by: whatsshakinbacon

The Glass Slipper Fits
Volume LXXXI
November 19, 2007

After a run of bad luck, sometimes it’s hard to actually believe it when good things are happening to you.

Two nights ago I watched Cinderella Man. And let me warn you, if you have not watched the movie you best quit reading this column right now, because I will give away the ending.

Jim Braddock, played by Russell Crowe, is a depression era fighter who is down on his luck after his boxing career spirals downward. Out of money, he and his wife raise three kids in New Jersey during the depression. Their electricity is cut off and he resorts to working at the docks to earn meager pay. Failing miserably at earning enough money to support his family he swallows his pride by going on government assistance, getting just enough money to keep his kids at home.

I have never watched a movie and felt the depths of pain Braddock went through during his string of bad luck. You feel the sharp cold of the New Jersey winter as you watch his wife (Renee Zellweger) steal wood from the base of a billboard which she uses to heat their paltry home.

While not quite as life altering as Braddock’s situation, the string of bad luck can certainly be equated to the miserable pain of failure Razorback Nation has endured over the last five years.

It seems like every time our basketball or football programs begin to turn the corner and taste success we get knocked back down by the harsh realities of NCAA athletics. Our basketball program appeared to be ready to contend again two years ago only to slip back to mediocrity a year later. And a football program which whetted our appetite with 10 wins last year gave pre-season hopes for a Heisman Trophy and potential top ten finish in 2007. But this year’s campaign has fallen well short of expectations.

To make matters worse, our shortcomings have been largely self-imposed. Unlike Braddock, who simply got hit with the world’s bad misfortune, our football program has suffered from self-inflicted wounds at the hands of its own leaders. What could have been the most heralded glory days of Arkansas football in decades has evaporated into mediocrity due to mismanagement of coaching staff, players and strategy comparable to nothing this fan has ever witnessed.

But to my brothers and sisters in arms I send this message. The failures are over.

While he was no doubt a classy and respectable person, we have traded in Stan Heath for a new basketball coach who has cast a vision of hope where last year there was none. Coach Pelphrey has impressed fans with his no-nonsense style and passion. Our basketball team is in the best hands it’s been in since the early days of Nolan Richardson. We are not a good team…yet, but I see improvement and a work ethic that will push our program back to the lofty rankings worthy of the best fans in America.

I like the fact that Coach Pel has acknowledged our glaring weaknesses and is working overtime to address them in practice. He is building a long-term strategy of recruiting that focuses on the kinds of players needed to run a fast paced, limited mistake club and is having success going after some of the country’s best point guards and athletic play-making forwards.

Within the next few years this team will be back in the top ten, and I am excited to be a witness of the improvement on the radar.

From an administration standpoint our programs were stuck in the rut of “how it’s always done” as opposed to thinking outside of the box. Those who have met one on one with Jeff Long are reporting back that he is a visionary who will move our program into the 21st century despite the fact some hard personnel decisions will undoubtedly have to be made.

Frank Broyles has been an icon at Arkansas. In the last ten years he has been responsible for some incredible facilities improvements in all major sports areas. I have to give credit where it’s due, and there are few programs in this country with an enrollment like ours that can boast of equal accouterments.

However, in the last ten years we’ve seen the Ted Harrod scandal and subsequent NCAA penalties, a poorly handled Nolan Richardson termination, the underbidding of Billy Gillispie and a botched basketball head coach search wherein Dana Altman left the closing table while his suitor, Broyles, played golf at Augusta. Many close to the program complain of renegade employees who are not managed and even our track team has felt some ill-effects by hiring a questionable coach.

Truth is Frank Broyles has cared about two things in recent years: building shiny new buildings and giving directional advice on what type of offense our football team runs.

The changeover to Jeff Long is a fresh gust of wind into what has become a stagnant administration.

And finally, at the top of everyone’s list this week, the football program. In one week we will have a coaching vacancy. To break down the failings of the existing staff is an exercise in repetition. We all know what ails us and I can assure you that the fan base is being heard.

Within two weeks someone new will have accepted the Razorback head coaching job. That someone will be a name we are eager to follow and he will be passionate about the challenge and promise our program holds for him. He will be recruiting hard. Handcuffs that have held our program back for years will be unlocked and a wave of excitement will sweep the Razorback Nation.

Razorback fans, if ever there was a time to hope for a great future that time is now. We enter 2008 with no restrictions on where we can be. It is plausible to think that our football and basketball programs will ascend to levels equal to those of our fan support.

Jim Braddock got one more shot in the ring. In that bout he upset a major contender. At a time America was looking for a hero he filled the void, and his rise to become the heavyweight champion of the world wasn’t the stuff of fiction, it was true. I feel like Arkansas has just been given the same second chance.

It is a time to celebrate, and the fuse on our future has now been lit.

Bacon out…