LITTLE ROCK — John L. Smith forgot what state he was in Monday, making for a memorable appearance before the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
The Arkansas coach was in the midst of his opening remarks in front of more than 350 club members and guests at the Embassy Suites hotel in Little Rock when he uttered an untimely gaffe.
“I’m asking you as fans don’t give up on those players,don’t give up on us,” Smith said of a team that has lost to Louisiana-Monroe, Alabama and Rutgers in consecutive weeks. “It’s our program. It’s a state of Alabama program.”
The “oops” drew grumbles from the audience, but Smith, unaware of his mistake, kept speaking about the Hogs before stopping for questions.
That’s when master of ceremonies David Bazzel reminded Smith that he’s not in Alabama.
“I did?” Smith asked rhetorically. “I never even heard of the state of Alabama.”
Arkansas fans, reeling from the slide of a team that was ranked No. 8 in the nation less than three weeks ago, weren’t amused. But Smith wasn’t done making memorable sound bites.
When someone in the audience asked Smith if he thought former Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino would be the new coach at Auburn or Kentucky next season, Smith went where few coaches go.
Instead of dodging the question or simply saying he couldn’t answer the question because both teams have coaches, Smith acted as if Petrino had his choice.
“Kentucky or Auburn?” Smith said, pondering the choices. “I don’t know. ... Kentucky might be in there. Auburn probably is a better guess if I were to guess, to be perfectly honest with you.”
Auburn, which won the 2010 BCS national championship, is 1-3 in Gene Chizik’s fourth season. Kentucky is also 1-3, with Joker Phillips in the middle of his third season.
Smith’s Razorbacks are also 1-3, an unexpected predicament for a team that was ranked No. 10 in the preseason poll.
But Smith, who is working off a 10-month contract worth $850,000 after replacing the fired Petrino in April, tried his best to stay positive and look at things from a long-term perspective.
“When I came in and took this job, I knew this was not John L. Smith’s program or Bobby Petrino’s program,” he said. “This is one program with one goal, and that’s to win a national championship.Now we’re not satisfied and we know you fans deserve better, the players deserve better and we’re all working hard to make sure we become better. I take responsibility for that.”
Things have gone downhill fast for the Razorbacks, who’ve lost three in a row starting with a 34-31 overtime loss to 30 1/2-point underdog Louisiana-Monroe in Little Rock when quarterback Tyler Wilson was knocked out with a concussion. A week later, without Wilson, came a 52-0 loss to Alabama. Saturday, Arkansas lost 35-26 to Rutgers.
The Hogs travel to Texas A&M this Saturday for the first SEC meeting between both schools.
Smith said his team has maintained a positive attitude.
“We talked to them after practice Sunday and they seemed to be positive and were battling to the end against Rutgers,” Smith said. “Their body language was positive and we didn’t see any negatives.
“We have to continue to compete and battle, battle, battle. We have no other alternative. We can’t point fingers or take the cowardly way out. Quit is not in our vocabulary.” Arkansas’ defense has struggled, giving up 458 yards per game, with the secondary yielding 11 touchdown passes while intercepting one pass.
“We’re not where we want to be defensively,” Smith said. “We knew we were thin at linebacker and in the secondary and we couldn’t afford any injuries there. We also had to move Tank Wright to linebacker [from defensive end].”
Moving to offense, Smith said he expects senior running back Dennis Johnson, who has rushed for 148 yards and is averaging 6.7 yards per carry, to play a bigger role in the offense.
“I can see D.J. getting more touches,” Smith said. “I love Dennis and like what I saw in his body language.”
As for Knile Davis, averaging 3.2 yards per carry for a team-leading 208 yards rushing, Smith said the running back is healthy and doesn’t regret limiting Davis to a few plays of full contact during preseason practice after he missed the 2011 season with a broken ankle.
Smith said Arkansas’ rushing game, which is averaging 97.8 yards per game, needs help from the offensive line.
“The blocking has to be more consistent,” Smith said. “When you have two downs to pick up a yard, you need to do that and the offensive line has to take it personally.”
Sports, Pages 15 on 09/25/2012