Arkansas’ football team beat TCU 22 consecutive times between 1959 and 1980 before the Horned Frogs ended the losing streak in unlikely fashion.
TCU rallied at home to beat a 3-0 Arkansas team 28-24 on Oct.
3, 1981, overcoming a 24-13 Razorbacks lead with less than six minutes to play.
Sound familiar?
Rutgers rallied at home to beat a 3-0 Arkansas team 28-24 last Saturday, overcoming a 24-7 Razorbacks lead in the third quarter.
The 1981 Razorbacks team won 26-14 at Texas Tech and beat No.
1 Texas 42-11 in Fayetteville in the two games following the TCU loss, and it finished the regular season 8-3 before losing to North Carolina 31-27 in the Gator Bowl.
So what advice does Lou Holtz - the Razorbacks’ coach in 1977-1983 - have for Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema this week to try to rebound from such a disappointing loss?
Holtz immediately went into coaching mode while speaking Monday to the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club in Springdale.
“The thing we told them is: Rutgers beat us Saturday. Don’t let them beat us this Saturday, too,” Holtz said. “It’s over. You can’t change it. Just move on. Let’s learn from it. Let’s benefit from it.”
Holtz, a College Football Hall of Fame inductee who led six different schools to a combined 23 bowl games, said that after a particularly tough loss he usually had light practices the next week.
The idea was to avoid having players take out their frustrations on each other early in the week and to gradually get them ready to peak physically again by the next game.
“I think Coach Bielema doesn’t have much experience losing difficult games, because he’s usually won,” Holtz said. “He’ll figure it out.”
No tie this time
Lou Holtz had seven ties in 388 games as a college coach, including two with the Razorbacks, but he had no tie when he spoke Monday to the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club.
It was the first time he hasn’t worn a tie during a speaking engagement, Holtz said, and it happened because of a luggage problem when he flew into the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
Holtz wore white tennis shoes Monday along with khaki pants, a light blue golf shirt and a dark blue blazer.
“I get here, they say there was too much weight on the plane and I didn’t get my suitcase,” Holtz said. “I don’t have a tie. I’m in tennis shoes. I feel embarrassed by it.
“Whatever goodwill I established in Arkansas in my seven years, I ruined with the Delta Airlines people in five minutes.”
Well played, sir
Lou Holtz said he referred to Auburn University as the University of Auburn a few years ago while appearing on ESPN.
Auburn alumni and fans flooded ESPN with letters pointing out the mistake, which led Holtz to make an on-air apology. Sort of.
“I said, ‘I’m a quick learner, please don’t write me anymore. I will not make that mistake again,’ ” Holtz said Monday.
“Then I looked into the camera and told [host] Rece Davis, ‘I had no idea that many people from Auburn could write.’ ”He’ll be back
Monday’s appearance at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club marked the first of two speaking engagements for Lou Holtz in the state.
Holtz will be back in Arkansas as the featured speaker at the Little Rock Touchdown Club in January.
David Bazzel, who played linebacker under Holtz at Arkansas, was instrumental in arranging for him to talk to the Little Rock club.
“I told our players, ‘You give me everything you have for four years, I’ll give you everything I have for the next 40,’ ” Holtz said. “Thank God those 40 years are almost up.”
Quote of the day
“We’re going from big boy football to the Spread back to big boy football this week.” Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mark Snyder on playing Alabama, SMU and Arkansas in consecutive games
Sports, Pages 20 on 09/25/2013