Currently: - Game info: 7:00 pm EDT Sat Sep 1, 2007
Arkansas reached the SEC title game and saw running back Darren McFadden finish second in the Heisman Trophy voting during a memorable 2006. Heading into 2007, though, the Razorbacks are trying to forget a tumultuous offseason.
Arkansas looks to start building off its best season in 17 years Saturday night when it hosts Troy.
The Razorbacks were routed 50-14 by Southern California in their opener last season, but went on to win their next 10 games and become SEC West champions. They lost their last three contests, though, including a 17-14 defeat to Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl.
Despite the poor end to the season, Arkansas finished at No. 15 in the AP Top 25, its highest since 1989. The Razorbacks also won 10 games for the first time since ’89, when they went 10-2 and finished No. 13.
They enter this season ranked 21st and have McFadden back in the fold, but the team has been embroiled in off-the-field issues the past few months.
Arkansas coach Houston Nutt was involved in a pair of controversies - one involving quarterback Mitch Mustain, who has since transferred to USC - and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn left to join the staff at Tulsa.
Nutt also had issues involving his family.
He had to replace brother Danny Nutt as running backs coach when he resigned last month because of a persisting condition that involves bleeding in his brain stem, and Nutt and his mother were both unhurt in March when the landing gear collapsed on their small plane as it made an emergency landing.
“We’re just ready to show everybody that we can still play, and that it’s our own football team without whatever went on in the offseason,” quarterback Casey Dick said. “We just want to show everybody that we can still come out here and play football.”
Dick will be the starter this season with Mustain gone. Soon after Mustain - who went 8-0 as a freshman last season - left for USC, details surfaced about a critical e-mail he received in December from booster and Nutt family friend Teresa Prewett.
Nutt said he didn’t know anything about the e-mail, but an investigation into his phone records by Arkansas fans found contact among Nutt, his brother Danny and Prewett around the time Mustain received the e-mail.
Phone records also showed Nutt exchanged text messages with a female television news anchor more than 1,000 times over a six-week period. Nutt, who is married, said the woman is just a friend and a colleague.
“Coach Nutt ain’t perfect - nobody is. Everybody’s going to have troubles and problems,” fullback Peyton Hillis said. “But I understand he has to deal with the media and all kinds of people throughout Arkansas. … Him as a man, he’s taken to it very well I think.
“He has to work through a lot. We’re here to help him.”
One player who can certainly help Nutt move on is McFadden, who ran for 1,647 yards and 14 touchdowns last season, finishing as the Heisman runner-up to Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith.
Running back Felix Jones and wide receiver Marcus Monk are also back. Jones ran for 1,168 yards and six TDs, while Monk caught 50 passes and had a team-leading 962 yards and 11 TDs.
“We’re going to go to the SEC (championship game), we’re going to hopefully get to the national championship,” wide receiver Robert Johnson said. “We’re going to prove a lot of people wrong.”
Troy won the Sun Belt Conference and finished 8-5 last season, including a 41-17 victory over Rice in the New Orleans Bowl - only the second win for a Sun Belt team in the bowl.
The Trojans are led by quarterback Omar Haugabook, the 2006 conference player of the year. He threw for 2,401 yards and 21 touchdowns, and also rushed for 313 yards and five TDs.
Haugabook had four touchdown passes and ran for another score in the New Orleans Bowl.
“Omar, from day one, looked like the same guy, he just got better,” coach Larry Blakeney said of his quarterback’s performance in spring practices. “He is going to have to carry more of the load this year.”
Troy returns leading rusher Kenny Cattouse (837 yards) and leading receiver Gary Banks (603, 8 TDs), and the Trojans also have eight defensive starters coming back to help them repeat as league champions.
These teams last met in 2002, when the Razorbacks beat the Trojans 23-0 in Fayetteville.