We’re only three weeks into the season, and this may already qualify as the most embarrassing special teams play of 2018.
Arkansas was going to be a tough job this year, given the transition/personnel issues Chad Morris faces. But damn, Hogs, you don’t need to go out of your way to make it worse.
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UPDATE: “Why aren’t they blowing the whistle?” LOL.
Get The Picture 
Right now, the Hog Nation is still wishing that Malzhan had come to Arkansas…
And a lot of the Auburn faithful are wishing the same thing…
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talent level is the issue there…they would be no better w/ Malzahn there this year imo.
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And the Oscar goes to . . .
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I thought the returner fakes a fair catch signal with a little sideways arm waive. If so, I think that gets outlawed. A defender is in a real bind: any tackle gets a 15-yard flag but not tackling gets you on sports center. If a returner can simulate a fair catch, then a defender should be allowed to hit them without penalty. That’s the rule for QBs on run fakes.
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Agree. Low class play. He half-faked it. What’s a defender to do?..I also have noticed QB’s acting as if their pulling up to go out of bounds and then, when the defender pulls up, he runs by him. And last week we saw Auburn go into the “Safe” formation and then try to run out of it . ..kind of like waving a white flag and then shooting your foe after he’s dropped his guard.
I did like TCU’s attempt at a trick KO runback..but that was a fair and square play..that got called back, but it was cool.
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No whistle, live play…
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exactly
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Yeah, I’ve seen live returns blown dead by the little half wave he gave. Obviously the refs had been alerted about the trick play.
Funniest comment I read on this:
“Tricking people from Arkansas isn’t that hard. I used to sell them Cheerios as ‘doughnut seeds'”.
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LOL!!!
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The ref wasn’t even close, they definitely knew…
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Transitively speaking, ARK is so bad that this shouldn’t even be used against them. UF is not good>Colorado ST is not good>WooPig!
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Note how the returner held the con until he was past the first two guys, then took off. Henry Gondorf approves.
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North Texas is just lucky that James Cook doesn’t play for Arkansas.
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HA!….saw that. Reminds me of a time in HS when I had a buddy did the same on a punt return. The ball was punted and there were about 4 or 5 defenders that circled the ball after it hit the ground. Problem was, nobody downed it….my buddy picked it up & ran it in.
Shoulda seen the look on all those DA faces, priceless.
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Dont look now, but the boys from Denton, TX are 3-0 and covering machines!
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On one hand I love it for the schedenfreude. On the other, I wonder what the chances are that a North Texas return man gets blown up and potentially injured in the future when he actually IS trying to fair catch a kick.
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I didn’t watch the game but like most saw it on a highlight clip. My first reaction was that play will get someone killed later this year, but then I thought there is an easy way to coach around this: just have your players circle the guy (no contact needed) but the second he moves, bring him down. When the whistle blows, it’s over. What made it work was the Arkansas players started walking away. If they hold position it’s covered.
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I won’t criticize this for yesterday, it was very cool, and the execution from all involved was just excellent. That said, I will be disappointed it there isn’t a rule added next year to prevent this. Any returner being deceptive with the fair catch signal should be removed from the game. That signal is for the well-being of all returners, not just the mavericks who like living on the edge. Like stop signs, red lights, and double yellow passing lines, they are there for all of our safety, don’t care if daredevils get away with it most of the time. Was fun watching that, but I don’t want to see it happen again, The video highlights are enough forevah.
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Did anyone see the kickoff play that TCU ran yesterday? They did it in 2014 against Oklahoma and it didn’t work but it’s pretty cool. Illinois ran it against Purdue in 1975 and it was good for a TD!
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