A DAY OF RETURNING COACHES

Nutt: Hogs need another Lucas

Former Arkansas coach Houston Nutt speaks Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
Former Arkansas coach Houston Nutt speaks Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club.

When Houston Nutt coached the Arkansas Razorbacks, he had a run-first mentality.

Under first-year Coach Bret Bielema, Arkansas has returned to the mentality it had when Nutt was coaching the Razorbacks in 1998-2007. Bielema has two of the country’s top young running backs in freshman Alex Collins and sophomore Jonathan Williams, who have helped Arkansas start 3-1.

Through four games, Collins has rushed 86 times for 481 yards and 2 touchdowns. Williams has rushed 63 times for 418 yards and 3 touchdowns in his first-year as a full time player. He had 231 yards on 45 carries last season.

Nutt, who spoke at the Little Rock Touchdown Club at the Embassy Suites on Monday, coached Darren McFadden and Felix Jones in 2005-2007. However, he stopped short of comparing Collins and Williams to them, noting that Collins and Williams have only played four games.

“These guys are young,” Nutt said. “Collins is good and talented. Both of them are good, hard runners. They’re going to be fine. Hopefully, they get [quarterback] Brandon Allen back and stay healthy.

“[The SEC] is a tough league. It’s hard on young people because there’s a learning curve there. It’s very difficult. But I love those running backs. They run hard. They do a good job. They’ll get better as it goes.”

Nutt praised Bielema, who won three consecutive Big Ten championships (2010-2012) at Wisconsin before taking over at Arkansas in December, while acknowledging that Arkansas’ new coaches faces a stern challenge.

“He has his philosophy,” Nutt said. “He wants to be able to run that football. Good news? You’re in the SEC. The bad news is you’re in the SEC. What I mean by that is that it’s the best competition in the world, bar none. They can say what they want. From top to bottom, it’s the best. He’s been successful everywhere he’s been.

“But here’s what he’s going to need. When Clint Stoerner can turn around and hand the ball to Madre Hill and Chrys Chukwuma, you better have an Anthony Lucas out there. They’ll make you play left-handed. They’ll overpopulate that line of scrimmage. These defensive coordinators are good. They’ll run-blitz you. They’ll take what you do best away.”

Nutt finished 75-48 in 10 seasons at Arkansas, then went to Ole Miss for four seasons before being fired in 2011. He said he’s had offers to coach again, but he needed a break.

“Being in the SEC that long, it’s not easy,” Nutt said. ‘That was a good year off. I’ve got a lot of energy now. If the place is right, the time is right, I’ll look at something.

“Arkansas was home. I wanted to be there like Coach Broyles. I wanted to be there a long, long time. But in today’s world, it’s hard to dolike the Bobby Bowdens, the Joe Paternos. I was thankful for the 10 years that I had.”

Nutt works for the CBS Sports Network as an analyst, lives in Santa Fe, N.M., with his wife Diana. He said that he flies to New York, with a stopover in Atlanta, on Thursday to do SEC Tonight and then Inside College Football, the CBS pregame, halftime and postgame shows on Saturday.

Outside of the SEC, Nutt said Oregon and Clemson have impressed him so far. Both the Ducks and Tigers are in the Associated Press top 10 and feature Heisman Trophy candidates - running back De’Anthony Thomas at Oregon and quarterback Tajh Boyd at Clemson.

Nutt said he enjoys being an analyst at the CBS Sports Network, but there is something about coaching that never goes away.

“You always miss the first part when that team is coming down the ramp,” Nutt said. “Then I know how Bret Bielema is feeling on Sunday and Monday. That part hurts, when you have a game that you can win. Now you have to turn that team around. I was thinking about some of the things Bret has to do to get that team going and getting them thinking about Texas A&M.

“You love the competitive side. You miss that the most. When nobody gives you a shot, that’s what you love the most. But I get to watch a lot of ball. I get to be around a lot of so-called experts. It amuses me the things they say. But I love working with my crew at CBS. They do a great job of covering the games all across the country. There’s 14 screens I get to watch. We get to watch a lot of football.”

Sports, Pages 15 on 09/24/2013

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