by NATE ALLEN
It seems ridiculous to write this about a 3-2 Razorback team that's already played Texas, Alabama and Florida. But this last open date week brought Arkansas its first major adversity of the 2004 season. For on the heels of losing, 45-30 at Florida and losing freshman fullback/tailback Peyton Hillis indefinitely to three small fractured bones in his back during that Oct. 2 game, Houston Nutt's Hogs on Oct. 5 lost junior starting right offensive tackle Zac Tubbs for the season and permanently lost junior flanker Carlos Ousley.
No Hillis, Tubbs and Ousley. Not the ideal trifecta for a team beset with visiting nationally fourth-ranked Auburn and hosting nationally 12 th-ranked Georgia in SEC games these next two Saturdays.
Tubbs fractured his left ankle just hours after Ousley quit the team.
Of the Oct. 5 losses, Tubbs' absence is by far the biggest. And not just because he's 6-6, 351.
This observation is not to pile on Ousley, always fashionable among media whenever anyone exits prematurely.
With Tubbs, the Hogs lost a starter. They lost Ousley because he no longer would start.
Freshman flash Marcus Monk of Lepanto -- bigger, faster, better -- beat out Ousley. It cost Carlos the starting job he enjoyed for five games after two years of being a reserve and one year redshirting upon transferring from Wake Forest. He couldn't take being beaten out after paying those dues. "I didn't even want to be a part of that anymore," Ousley told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Scott Cain. "I wasn't trying to be a distraction. I was just trying to get out of there and let them play the guys who they wanted to play."
While quitting a team isn't something to advocate, football is a tough game made tougher if your personal goals seem so shattered you lose your spirit for the team.
Probably better for Ousley and the team to part company now rather than him possibly lingering malcontented.
Not that his talents won't be missed. He did catch 9 passes for 102 yards after all, and against Texas threw a wobbly, but certainly effective, touchdown pass off a flanker reverse. Ousley was a good possession receiver whose elusiveness made him dangerous after the catch though his raw speed was slow for a wideout.
However, receiver is one position where the Razorback well runs deep. Subtracting Ousley presumably creates more opportunities not just for Monk (12 catches for 201 yards and 4 TDs as a reserve), but potential gamebreakers like Cedric Washington, Osceola's Chris Baker and senior starting team leader receiver Steven Harris.
Losing Tubbs is another matter. Other than senior quarterback Matt Jones, there is nobody Arkansas can more ill afford to lose than Tubbs, junior left tackle Tony Ugoh and junior center Kyle Roper.
The Hogs didn't have Roper during the open date week, either, but he's presumably healed from the strained back and concussion suffered during the Florida game.
Roper, Ugoh and Tubbs are vital because the experienced depth behind them is virtually nil and their positions hard to master.
Redshirt freshman Robert Felton has sufficiently progressed to be a solid backup to starting guards Gene Perry and Stephen Parker. Tackle is another matter. Rangy redshirt freshmen Matt Gilbow and Nate Garner have only played mopping up two routs. Worse, neither got to lift weights most of their redshirting freshman year because of shoulder surgeries. The last time the Hogs faced such a similar predicament, Mark Bokermann, who would develop into a 3-year starting right guard, got thrown into the fray at tackle, and thrown around by Georgia, in 2000. He, too, was a redshirt freshman off shoulder surgery.
Bokermann got thrown into it during the game. At least line coach Mike Markuson had an off week and this week to prep Gilbow and Garner.
With De'Arrius Howard as a power back and DeCori Birmingham, Kyle Dickerson and Dedrick Poole as receivers, the staff by committee can at least somewhat cushion the absence of Hillis, not a starter but THE most powerful short-yardage back and best receiving back in the Hogs' stable.
If Nutt ever gets to glance up from the offensive drawing board this week, he'll notice defensive coordinator Dave Wommack and the defensive staff trying to solve problems even more glaring on defense.
The adversity from great comebacks fallen short against Texas and Florida may have seemed tough. This seems tougher.
(Nate Allen covers the Arkansas Razorbacks for the Northwest Arkansas Times.)