Pee Wee league offense

This was written in the Montgomery Advertiser.

But hey, look at the bright side. You could be an Arkansas fans, and have two of the best running backs in the country, a solid offensive line and a decent defense and have all of it undone by a bad coaching staff.

And goodness, is Houston Nutt and staff ever pitiful. You can't help but feel sorry for poor ol' Darren McFadden. The guy runs for almost 200 yards and two touchdowns and loses. That doesn't happen at many SEC schools, especially at the ones lacking really good basketball programs.

But McFadden and his backfield mate, Felix Jones, are stuck in this Pee Wee league offense, where they try to figure out every goofy way imaginable to get these guys the ball. As if simply turning around and handing it to them isn't enough.

Really, it's like Pee Wee ball, where you have that one kid on the team who's clearly better than everybody else and you come up with every scheme imaginable to let that kid touch the ball. The problem is the guys on defense aren't in the Pee Wee league, so that nonsense only works every now and then, and often backfires altogether. But that doesn't deter Nutt and the boys.

The Arkansas coaches have McFadden playing running back, quarterback, kick returner and on-the-field offensive coordinator. You half expect him to trot out and knock through an extra point or two.

Then you've got quarterback Casey Dick, who must be wondering just what in the world he's supposed to do in such a setup. Every fifth play, he's on the sidelines. And then people wonder why he's not playing very well.

It's maddening to watch the kind of talent Arkansas has be wasted. And that's coming from me. It must be head-bangingly frustrating for Razorback fans.

So, maybe they were in the right place this weekend, because if there's any group who can relate to their situation, it's Alabama fans.

And as the Tide folks are now likely explaining to their pals from Arkansas, there's a quick fix for all that ails them -- dirty, stinking money.

Josh Moon is a sports writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached at jmoon@gannett.com.