Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

A Preview of the Arkansas Razorbacks vs Louisiana Tech Bulldogs on November 23, 2024

What kind of person are you with maps and driving directions? Like before you go on a trip do you plug in your destination into your GPS or Google Maps? Or do you never look at them and give a bad estimate of when you will arrive?

Do you conservatively factor in a bunch of bathroom stops and traffic and arrive earlier than when you told someone you’d be there? Are you spot on to what Google says? Or are you like me and use the estimate as challenge? It’s like racing the ghost of myself on a Mario Kart time trial.

That’s kind of how the Razorbacks football team sits today.

We look at where the public says we are going to land and simply race against that projection instead of planning ahead and charting our own course of success.

The Razorbacks face the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs today as a 23 point favorite, but I doubt we cover and might not even win. La Tech is 4-6, but has lost 3 games in overtime.

They aren’t a bad team, but neither are we. And yet, somehow instead of winning out and getting to 8-5, I think the Hogs are still focused on that pre-season projection of only winning 5 games.

Beating expectations or being better than projected starts by planning and setting goals. Do you want to arrive in time for lunch? Do you want to win a national championship?

We all have limited resources so maybe you can’t fly private to get somewhere faster, but you could pack snacks and avoid so many stops. You could leave early enough to avoid rush hour traffic.

Arkansas’ basketball team is making plans for success by launching the ‘94 Club. It’s a John Calipari creation that mirrors something he did at Kentucky. There he got 16 donors to give him ~$5mm for basketball specific purposes. That could be for extra NIL money. That could be for a zero gravity treadmill to help his players recover.

The ‘94 Club members will be asked to give $250k, $125k, or $50k annually and are given different perks based on their contribution. The coolest part of this program though is the access Coach Cal is willing to give to this select group. Want to have dinner with he and Ellen; text him. Want to have a player come to your kids birthday party; just ask. Want to be in the room on Selection Sunday when Arkansas is chosen as a number one seed for the NCAA Tournament; well of course you’re there.

While I think this program is amazing for our basketball team, I think it will hurt our football team that is already struggling to keep up in the race to stack cash that the SEC has become. Hopefully the football team can find the right leader with a vision for the future and a mind for planning or we will simply continue to race against the expectations of others.

Maybe I’m just over football.

We are in that awkward part of the year. We are clearly past Halloween. Your mind is on the upcoming Thanksgiving break, but your heart is already focused on Christmas.

Christmas decoration are up in my house. It was below freezing when I walked out of the basketball game last night. Forget a bowl game. Bring on Santa.

Coach Calipari did give us a gift with another win last night as the Hogs basketball team beat UALR 79-67. It was a sloppy contest in which the Hogs had little depth (only playing 7 players again and the rest of the bench filled with players not dressed out for the game) and could never really put the Trojans away.

Besides the Adou Thiero windmill dunk, the other main highlight of the night was the women’s soccer team taking the court to lead the fans in a Hog call right after beating Cal 1-0 to advance to the Sweet 16 against Stanford tomorrow.

So there are lots of positive things going on in Fayetteville, I just don’t feel that football is one of them right now. Until we make a change in how we raise money, how we recruit, and how we coach, I’m afraid we will be stuck as the barely .500 team we have been on average since joining the SEC.

Without a plan, we will always fall short. Just like this Coach Cal half court shot attempt from practice yesterday…