FAYETTEVILLE -- In the rush for the Arkansas Razorbacks to resurrect their running game, it gets forgotten the major blow their passing game just suffered.
Late in Arkansas' 16-12 loss to 21-point underdog Toledo last Saturday in Little Rock, the Razorbacks lost Keon Hatcher even though he was the intended receiver on the game's last play.
Turns out Hatcher ran that last end zone pattern despite a broken bone in his foot. It required surgery. Now comes the mending projected for a minimum six weeks.
Hatcher -- Arkansas' leading receiver through 2 games this season with 13 catches for 198 yards and 2 touchdowns and last season's top receiver with 43 catches for 558 yards -- and junior tight end Hunter Henry -- who has 10 catches for 159 yards this season after piling up 37 receptions for 513 yards and 2 touchdowns last season -- have always been quarterback Brandon Allen's favorite targets.
The receiving corps took another hit this weekend when senior reserve Cody Hollister broke a bone in his foot during Tuesday's practice. His rehab situation presumably mirrors Hatcher's.
Hollister was coming off his career-high four catches for 65 yards against Toledo, but losing Hatcher is the major blow in so many ways going into tonight's game with the Texas Tech at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
If a back's run pops into double digits, chances are a receiver's block sprung him into the open field. Among Arkansas' wideouts, Hatcher is the most experienced and accomplished blocker.
Hatcher has proven quite the runner in his own right on reverses. For 2013 and 2014, Hatcher netted 252 yards -- including an 82-yarder -- on 16 carries. Plus Hatcher grew into a team leader.
Tangibly and intangibly, the Razorbacks will miss Hatcher like they miss senior running back Jonathan Williams.
BUSINESSMEN BOONDOGGLES
Add fired Texas Athletic Director Steve Patterson to the heralded new wave of businessmen/athletic directors like Michigan's Dave Brandon ingloriously waived by schools that discovered they were bad for business.
Athletic directors who imperiously impose business buzzwords and bottom-line logic that usually translates into higher prices for a fan base emotionally tied to a state school's team inevitably experience a disconnect that even more money can't overcome.
Especially if they arrive with a "history begins with me" self-importance while disregarding the traditions and relationships forged by those who came before them.
Athletic directors especially need those relationships with fans after pitfalls like Arkansas' tumble against Toledo or Texas' rash of embarrassments lingering for posterity on its Longhorn Network.
Among his final speeches as the then retiring athletic director, Frank Broyles, Arkansas' AD from 1973-2007 and the Razorbacks' winningest football coach (144-58-5 from 1958-76), passionately stressed that the Razorbacks athletic programs was built not on money or even victories and championships but on relationships.
Obviously that goes for Michigan and Texas, too.
Wonder if Dave Brandon and Steve Patterson remain too arrogant to relate to the causes of their demise, or if others of their ilk relate now.
Sports on 09/19/2015