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HogFever said...

Back in the 1970s, the Kansas City Royals started a program where they would sign pure atheletes and try and make baseball players out of them. Sounded like a great idea but it did not last long.

I thought of that when I looked at how, starting in 2008, Bobby Petrino came in with a plan to sign length in his Razorback recruits. That was exciting to the fans who always felt our teams looked small next to some SEC schools.

In 2008 he signed 6'10 Matt Hall, 6'8 Anthony Oden, 6'5 Austin Eoff and 6'5 Greg Childs.

In 2009 he signed 6'8 Ryan Calendar, 6'7 Colton Nash, 6'6 Austin Tate and 6'6 Neal Barlow

In 2010 he signed 6'6 Denton Simek, 6'5 Cam Feldt and 6'5 Brad Hefley

In 2011 he signed 6'8 Austin Beck, 6'7 Brey Cook, 6'7 Chris Stringer, plus these listed at 6'5 Jason Peacock, Andrew Peterson, Grady Ollison, Quinta Funderburke and Marcus Danenhauer.

2012 he signed 6'6 Jeremy Sprinkle, 6'6 Mekale McKay, 6'5 Brandon Lewis, 6'5 JaMichael Winston and 6'5 Deatrich Wise

As of today, the jury is still out on how he did taking tall guys and hoping to build them into something they might not be on signing day but I do know that when he brought in monster Ryan Mallett, Ryan made his teammates look small. I think today, we have an overall, longer more atheletic football team than we have ever had. I still enjoy the giants in Hog uniforms.

I also know that there are times when you have to look at a Dennis Johnson, Kiero Small or Rohan Gaines and say, dang it, the guy is not idea size but he is just a very good football player.

Has been interesting to watch the Petrino system come to Arkansas and I hope the new coach keeps getting us some of those Giants, sometimes they work out really well